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- "It Is Well" (Part 2)
My all-time favorite hymn is “It Is Well With My Soul”. Composed by Horatio Spafford and published in 1876, it holds some profound truth that I delight in. Its origin comes from a heartbreaking tragedy in Spafford’s life - the loss of his four daughters in a shipwreck. Spafford found refuge in his faith through this song which covers themes resonating with loss, temptation, hope, faith, and acceptance. Over the next few days, I’m going to be breaking down each of the verses and their implications in our lives as Christians. Last time I broke down the first verse.
Let’s break down the second verse today:
"Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.”
This is my favorite verse in the entire hymn. Life is filled with trials and hardships. Sometimes, these trials can seem like they are never ending. No one is a stranger to this.
This verse begins “Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come”. This is a direct acknowledgement of this experience as humans. Adversity in life is inevitable. It says “should” but it might as well say Satan WILL buffet and trials WILL come. We are born into trouble in this life.
However, the lyrics then urge us to “let this blest assurance control.” It doesn’t leave us helpless in the midst of Satan buffeting and trials coming. The assurance that we have is the belief of Christ’s love and the promise of His presence during our most difficult moments. We have a daily encouragement that can guard our sorrowful hearts in life’s toughest moments.
The final two lines show this blest assurance that we have: “That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate…And hath shed His own blood for my soul.” Chirst, our friend and our Redeemer, regards us in our helpless estate in this life by shedding His blood. We see this in John 15:13 when Christ proclaims, “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down on’es life for one’s friends.”
Christ plays an active and sacrificial role in our helpless estate. His awareness and response to this give us the assurance that we need! It doens’t make the trials go away, and it doesn’t stop Satan from attempting to buffet in our life. What it does do is it gives us assurance of the glory to come, and it directs our eyes onto what our eyes should be focused on.
The sacrifice Christ made wakes us up each morning with a new-found transformation in our life. We can spring out of bed ready to attack life’s trials head on. We have assurance. Paul writes in Romans 8:18, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
Those who don’t know Christ have no hope when they suffer. Those who live only for this life don’t have a resolution to look forward to for all that they suffer. Their pain and adversity serve no divine purpose in the end. They waste away in this life with the only hope that they have being themselves and their abilities, which we know always fail at the end of the day.
Our suffering has a purpose. We have a great hope, not only that our trials will end, but that they will actually add to God’s glory. Our suffering comes at the hands of this world, but our assurance comes from God. And we have confidence that we will share in this glory one day in heaven. And that’s the blest assurance that we have. It is well indeed!
To God be the glory.
💭 QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The greater your knowledge of the goodness and grace of God on your life, the more likely you are to praise Him in the storm.”
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I pray that your day is full of reminders of God’s love and faithfulness. May you faithfully build your life on Christ.
“But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in my weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” - 2 Corinthians 12:9-10
To God be the glory,
Coach T