It is well

God guided the Apostle Paul to write these comforting words 2000 years ago to a group of people in the city of Philippi as they were facing anxious times like ours today:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus—Philippians 4:6-7(emphasis mine, ESV).

The year was 1873. A successful businessman in deep anguish boarded a ship leaving the United States to join his wife in England. On the way across the Atlantic, the captain announced that they were now passing the place where the steamliner Ville du Havre had wrecked and sunk. For Horatio Spafford, this was passing through the valley of the shadow of death. He sat down in his cabin on the high seas, near the place where his all children perished when that ship sank, and wrote these powerful words:

When peace, like a river, attendeth 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.

You don’t pen words like this on some hotel stationary as he did that day apart from the sustaining peace of God that He graciously gives to His children as they surrender their circumstances to Him. I pray that God never asks me to experience the tragedy that Horatio Spafford went through, but this man’s life is but one of thousands of testimonials of the peace of God that defies human reason--that will keep our hearts and minds at rest in Christ Jesus if we will humbly trust Him and cast our care on Him.

Though Satan should buffet

Though trials should come

Let this blessed assurance control,

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,

And has shed His on blood for my soul.

And Lord haste the day when my faith shall be sight,

The clouds be rolled back as the scroll,

The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,

Even so it is well with my soul.

It is well (it is well) with my soul (with my soul)

It is well, it is well with my soul.

I hope and pray you have this peace guarding your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. He is the only true anchor for our souls in this time of vitriolic hatred and conflict in our nation and world.

Dr. David P. Ley is the President of Alaska Bible College.