May I suggest that many of us do not live in an atmosphere of peace? I am not talking about external surroundings, I am talking about an internal place of peace. This morning I was reading Psalm 34 (New Living Translation) and came across verse 14 which states “…search for peace and work to maintain it”. This really struck me for a number of reasons. 1) Peace isn’t easy to come by – we have to intentionally look for it and it can be evasive! 2) Peace doesn’t just hang around easily, sometimes it takes work!
With some further searching I found Proverbs 12:20 which talks about the fact that when we are planning peace our hearts are filled with joy. Ephesians 6 notes peace as being part of the armor of Christ. And there are numerous other passages that speak into living in/from a place of internal peace.
Some time ago God began to speak to me about this internal battle. All of us get pulled in many different directions and peace can easily get shoved aside! Honestly, there are numerous days that we want a deserted island someplace! As God began to speak to me about this very issue he began to send an old hymn through my head – over and over and over… Horatio Spafford, the author of this hymn, was a wealthy lawyer from Chicago. Had a beautiful home, wife and five children. Their young son died, the Great Chicago Fire destroyed his real estate investments, finally his four daughters were killed in a collision at sea. Horatio’s wife Anna survived the accident and Horatio penned the words to the now famous hymn as he was on a ship heading to England to join his grieving wife. That hymn is “It Is Well With My Soul”.
I would suggest that this song was birthed from a place of relationship with God and years of working to live in an inner place of peace. Although his world was massively falling apart, his heart was steadfast. My guess that this song was written as a testament and declaration of his inner peace, it was well with his soul!
There are seasons of life where God will give us a song. Pay attention. Sometimes this song is just what we need to get through a season of life. It is possible that it is meant to be both a testimony and a declaration that you walk in.
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