Pondering God’s Goodness in our Distress

First, read this hymn by Horatio Spafford,

When peace, like a river, attends my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,

It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet,
though trials should come,
Let this blessed assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And has shed His own blood for my soul.

Read it? Good. Now ponder that Spafford wrote this well-known hymn while sailing from Chicago to England to be with his wife. His family had set sail ahead of him and Spafford had just received word that their ship had been struck by another vessel and all four of his daughters had drowned at sea.

While his boat sailed over the same troubled waters that had taken his daughters Spafford turned to the God of the Gospel as the only full and final source of strength given to men seeking comfort for a troubled soul.

There’s a time to ask questions and there’s a time to wrestle with God in our grief.

And then there’s a time to reassure our own hearts by simply leaning on the promises of God in the Gospel, and leaving it at that.