It Is Well with My Soul

​2 Corinthians 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you.”

“If none of God’s saints were poor and tried, we should not know half so well the consolations of divine grace.  When we find the wanderer who has not where to lay his head, who yet can say, “Still will I trust in the Lord;” when we see the pauper starving on bread and water, who still glories in Jesus; when we see the bereaved widow overwhelmed in affliction, and yet having faith in Christ, oh! What honor it reflects on the gospel. God’s grace is illustrated and magnified in the poverty and trials of believers.  Saints bear up under every discouragement, believing that all things work together for their good, and that out of apparent evils a real blessing shall ultimately spring – that their God will either work a deliverance for them speedily, or most assuredly support them in the trouble, as long as He is pleased to keep them in it.  This patience of the saints proves the power of divine grace.  There is a lighthouse out at sea: it is a calm night – I cannot tell whether the edifice is firm; the tempest must rage about it, and then I shall know whether it will stand.  So with the Spirit’s work: if it were not on many occasions surrounded with tempestuous waters, we should not know that it was true and strong; if the winds did not blow upon it, we should not know how firm and secure it was.  The master-works of God are those men who stand in the midst of difficulties, steadfast, unmovable, -

‘Calm mid the bewildering cry,
 Confident of victory.’

He who would glorify his God must set his account upon meeting with many trials.  No man can be illustrious before the Lord unless his conflicts be many.  If then, yours be a much-tried path, rejoice in it, because you will the better show forth the all-sufficient grace of God.  As for His failing you, never dream of it – hate the thought.  The God who has been sufficient until now, should be trusted to the end.”

                This was written by the great preacher, D.L. Moody in the 1800s.  His wise counsel resounds today no less than it did then.  I have to fight the urge to become discouraged when the winds of trials blow in my life; thinking that God has abandoned me or forgetting His sweet love for me. 
                When I was early in the process of recovering from my open-heart surgery there were times when I felt very alone, even with Denise sleeping on the couch right next to my bed.  There were times when I didn’t sense the nearness of the Lord or His comforting hand.  What buoyed me on in those lonely hours wasn’t the sensing of His presence but the sheer knowledge of it.  When I read “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee” I choose to take God at His word.  Though I may not always feel His presence I can rely on it nonetheless.  He said He would be ever near, and I believe Him. 

“Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this blest assurance control.  That Christ has regarded my helpless estate and has shed His own blood for my soul.  It is well; it is well with my soul!”