FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT: PEACE LIKE A RIVER
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. (John 14:27a, NIV)
What wonderful, good news the Lord gives us—especially because a few chapters later, He warns that in this world we’ll have trouble.
But let’s be honest – we’ve had trouble lately! COVID, empty grocery shelves, financial instability, rumors of wars… These problems might lead us to question why the Lord doesn’t answer our prayers. Why we’re waiting for the next foot to drop. In the midst of our troubles, where’s the peace Jesus promised?
Could it be that peace is not the absence of conflict but, as some have suggested, how we handle chaos?
While Horatio G. Spafford isn’t a household name, the lyrics he wrote amid heart-wrenching pain speak of peace that passes all understanding.
After losing a fortune in the Chicago fire of 1871, Spafford and his wife planned a family vacation to England.
He finished urgent business while his wife and their four daughters set out across the Atlantic. A short time later, he received a telegram from his wife. A tragic shipwreck claimed the lives of his four girls.
One account asserts that as the ship carrying Spafford to England neared the place where his daughters perished, the lyrics to this song welled inside him. He didn’t give in to a season of trouble and despair. Instead, he gave us a song in the night. A song of victory. Of “peace like a river.”
Borne from grief I pray few of us will ever know, Spafford’s lyrics ring as a testament to peace only the Lord can give.
After suffering such loss, we’d prefer to think this man’s life went on in an idyllic manner. Heaped with blessings he couldn’t contain. . .
Several years later, his three-year-old son died of scarlet fever. Financial loss compounded unbearable grief. Then the community of believers Spafford worshipped with turned their backs on him.
What did he do in the absence of peace?
He pressed closer to the Lord, initiating prayer meetings in his home. In fact, he and his wife were dubbed “the Overcomers.” He then established an American colony in Jerusalem, adopted a boy there, and by the time Spafford died of malaria, he was loved and respected by the Muslim, Christian, and Jewish community.
From seasons of devastating trouble and suffering, Spafford proved that with faith in the Lord, we too can have peace. We can say as he did, It is Well with My Soul.
By author eMarie
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