LBW 346, “When Peace Like a River”
Devotion
The author of this wonderful Easter hymn needed and received the fullness of God’s grace. After a ship carrying Horatio Spafford’s four daughters sank during a trans-Atlantic voyage in the 1870s, he was notified that his daughters were among the hundreds drowned.
Spafford and his wife boarded the next ship scheduled to traverse the same route, sailing over the very place where his daughters had died. Filled with passion, he and his wife were consoled there by the promise of the resurrected Jesus. As they believed and trusted in Jesus, Spafford confessed, “It is well, it is well with my soul.”
What is threatening your life at this moment? Are sorrows threatening? Is Satan tempting? Does busyness buffet? Jesus shed His blood for our sins and for these burdens. Jesus rose so that we can proclaim not only “He is risen indeed,” but also sing, “It is well, it is well with my soul.”
Prayer
Almighty and gloriously resurrected Jesus, thank you for regarding my helpless estate and for dying and rising so that I can, in the face of the full force and fury of all that the world can threaten, be still and know that You indeed are God and that because of that “It is well, it is well with my soul.” Amen.