It Is Well With My Soul

If you like titles to messages, this one is titled, It is Well with My Soul, The Christian Response to Tragedy. If you remember, we had Nine of Spheres Memorial, and then after the memorial, the Kui ladies performed, beautifully performed, the song, It is Well with My Soul, one of the best renditions I've ever heard of that song. They played that in honor of Nine of Spheres because she had requested that to be played at her memorial. I'm glad it got to be played here in services.

I want to read something about that hymn, It is Well with My Soul. The famous hymn, It is Well with My Soul, was written by a Chicago lawyer, Horatio Spafford. This is taken from a website, biblestudycharts.com. The famous hymn, It is Well with My Soul, was written by a Chicago lawyer, Horatio G. Spafford. You might think to write a worship song titled, It is Well with My Soul, you, indeed, would have had to have been rich, successful lawyer.

But the words, When sorrows like billows sees role, It is Well with My Soul, were written. Not during the happiest times of Spafford's life. On the contrary, they came from a man who had suffered almost unimaginable personal tragedy. Horatio G. Spafford and wife Anna were pretty well known in the 1860s Chicago. And it's not just because of Horatio's legal career and business endeavors. The Spaffords were also prominent supporters and close friends of D. L. Moody, the famous preacher. In 1870, however, things started to go wrong and the Spafford's only son was killed by scarlet fever at the age of four.

A year later, it was the fire rather than fever that struck. Horatio had invested heavily in real estate on the shores of Lake Michigan. In 1871, every one of those holdings was wiped out by the Great Chicago Fire. Aware of the toll these disasters had taken on the family, Horatio decided to take his wife and four daughters on a holiday to England.

And not only did they need the rest, D. L. Moody needed help. He was traveling around Britain on one of his great evangelistic campaigns. Horatio and Anna planned to join Moody in late 1873. And so, the Spaffords traveled to New York in November from where they would catch the French steamer Ville de Harve across the Atlantic.

Just before they set sail, a last-minute business development forced Horatio to delay. Not wanting to ruin his family's holiday, Spafford persuaded his family to go on as planned. He would follow later. With this decided, Anna and her four daughters sailed east to Europe while Spafford returned west to Chicago. Just nine days later, Spafford received a telegram from his wife, and it read, Saved Alone.

On November 2, 1873, the Ville de Harve collided with the Loughern, an English vessel. It sank in only 12 minutes, claiming the lives of 226 people. Anna Spafford stood bravely on the deck with her daughters Annie, Maggie, Bessie, and Tannetta, clinging desperately to her. Her last memory was of her baby torn violently from her arms by the force of the waters. Anna was only saved from that fate of her daughters by a plank that floated beneath her unconscious body and propped her up. When the survivors of the wreck had been rescued, Mrs.

Spafford's first reaction was one of complete despair. Then she heard a voice speak to her, You were spared for a purpose. And she immediately recalled the words of a friend, It is easy to be grateful and good when you have so much, but take care that you are not a fair-weathered friend to God. Upon hearing the terrible news, Horatio Spafford boarded the next ship out of New York to join his bereaved wife. Now Bertha Spafford, the fifth daughter of Horatio and Anna, who was born later, explained that during her father's voyage, the captain of the ship called him to the bridge. A careful reckoning has been made.

He said, I believe we are now passing the place where the de Havre was wrecked. The waters are three miles deep. Horatio then returned to his cabin and penned the lyrics to the great hymn. The words which Spafford wrote on that day came from 2 Kings 4 and verse 26.

They echo the response of the Shunammite woman to the sudden death of her only child. Though we are told her soul is vexed within her, she still maintains it is well.

And Spafford's song reveals a man whose trust in the Lord is unwavering as hers was. Well, and I'll end the quote there. I'm not sure what the state of his faith was. That's not my point. I just thought it was a fascinating story. And it brings out the point that, brethren, no matter who we are, we all face trials and sorrows. Every one of us, we do. Every single one of us. There is no escaping that. How do we get through it? All of mankind faces trials ever since we left the Garden of Eden. Just think of Rwanda, Darfur, the Nazi Holocaust, any war in particular, famine, world-ruling empires, racism, slander, gossip. It goes on and on and on.

But, but, but, but, but, but, we have God's calling. We have help, right? Yet trials that we face are still so difficult to get through sometimes. Where do we find the faith to get through them?

Today, I'm going to follow up on the series of sermons we've heard on faith, and I'm going to answer the question, where does it come from? Where does faith come from? I'm not going to define faith. I'm not going to tell us what it is. We've already heard that. Where do you get it? What aisle is it on? What shelf is it on? Where do you pick it up and put it in your store?

Where does it come from? Why do we find it difficult to say, it is well with my soul? I want to discuss why and how we can say that when we go through life's trials. It is well with my soul. When we suffer great personal tragedy, like after the loss of a loved one, a major health trial, a catastrophic accident or injury that changes our life, maybe a large financial downturn, or any other trial that causes grief or anguish. So, I want to start by saying it is well with my soul is not. It is not a cliché. Saying it is well with my soul is not a cliché to avoid discussing our feelings.

And it is not a betrayal of the life that was affected by the tragedy. It's not those two things.

It's not just blowing off the tragedy and saying some cliché thing, which actually means we're denying the tragedy that we're in. And it is also not a betrayal of the one we lost, especially when it comes to the death of a loved one. I pulled off a study on the reaction to tragedy done by the University of Buffalo in the Student Affairs Department. There have been so many campus violence incidents that they're actually trying to help students cope with personal tragedy so they don't take it out on other students and teachers, etc. So, I pulled this off of their Student Affairs website. Typical responses to tragedies. These are our natural responses to what happens to us when we go through personal tragedy. First, there is shock and disbelief. Immediately after learning about the tragedy, many people feel numb. I know I do, but that is my reaction. Or they feel like such an event can't be real. There's no way. And then the next thing we do is we want to check with loved ones. That's the second thing we do. It's natural reaction to want to be assured that loved ones are okay. That even though, you know, that make sure everybody's out of danger, and it's actually normal to want to go and touch them. Then, then, we seek more information.

We talk with other people. We try to find out what happened.

And this can be very helpful to create connections, defeat isolation. We just go out and we start talking about it. And then it hits us. Sadness and anger. After the initial shock is over, the tragedy settles in, and it's typical to become upset. And this is why the University at Buffalo dealt with, you know, wanted to deal with this.

So, here are some of the reactions that you might feel. They went through an entire list. I'm only going to give the emotional reactions. You can check their website out at their student affairs department to find your physical reactions you might go to, the cognitive reactions you might go through. I'm going to go through the emotional reactions that we go through that's relevant to this message. We oftentimes feel one or more of the following. I know I feel a few of these when I go through something. We feel guilt. It should have been me. Or we feel feelings of helplessness. There's nothing I can do in life to make it better. Or we feel emotional numbing. That's me. Emotions just turn off. Now, I know they're there, but they bury deep.

I remember one time I was in a near-auto accident. I was cruising along. There were passengers in my car, and another car jumped out in front of me. There was barely time to hit the brakes or anything like that. The ladies in the car screamed. They knew we were dead, and my emotions just shut off. They're just like I was a machine, a robot. My emotions just shut off, and I just hit the brake and turned the car a little bit, and it stopped. No problem. It can be good in one situation, but when dealing with tragedy, that can actually be a bad thing. So emotional numbing.

Or we become overly sensitive. Or there's fear and anxiety, a sense of hopelessness. Not helplessness, like before, but nothing we can do, but hopelessness. Like there's no use even trying. We just give up.

Or some people do the opposite and get hyper-vigilant. Just do everything. Oh, we need to start a committee to prevent us from ever happening again. Or we just get angry and irritable and overreact to everything. Brethren, my message is not about any of those reactions at all.

Those reactions are normal. It's called grieving. And don't think that you're not a Christian if you initially feel helpless, numb, have anger and irritability when you first suffer a tragic loss.

Okay? David tore his clothes and expressed grief on more than one occasion.

I would say that's anger and anxiety and grief. That's not a problem, and that is not a lack of faith. What I am talking about is what we do afterwards. The expression of grief is not wrong. It is actually necessary and unavoidable. The problem that we often face is we're not willing to say it is well with my soul. In a crisis, we often blow that off as though that saying is polyanish or fake. But I don't believe that's the real reason why we won't say it is well with my soul. Saying that it's fake is just a… saying that it's fake or just a cliché to me is an excuse that we use. I believe the real reason is either because we are angry with God, number one, which we never have cause to be, or two, we feel like we're minimizing the importance of the life that was impacted by the tragedy. And we can't do that, so we won't move past it and say, but it is well with my soul. We never have reason to be angry with God. Let's tackle that one first.

God always has our best interest at heart. God is love. But we'll do more about that later, actually.

So, the first point in how we tackle this problem and say it is well with my soul is we start with a perspective that you and I have, but sometimes we forget. And I know we forget it, because we have conversations amongst ourselves and we come just this short of saying, I'm angry with God. Sometimes we actually say, I'm angry with God, and we lose our perspective. So, the first thing we need to do is gain our perspective back. And that perspective is this. Count that God is good, we are not. Count that God is good, and we are not. Count our blessings. In other words, count it all joy. Weigh the good versus the bad. Brethren, if God were fair, we would all be dead. God is wonderful and merciful. James, Chapter 1. James, Chapter 1, verses 2 through 6. My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all liberally but without approach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith with no doubting, which we just heard about that. For he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. How can we do that? How can we ask in faith? How can we do it with no doubting?

Where does that kind of faith come from? Well, it starts with the correct frame of mind.

Don't say God is unfair. How do we think he's unfair? This is the way we are, okay? We think it's unfair if we get fired from a job. We had nothing to do with it. But if we get a promotion, that's all me, baby. That's all me. It's totally fair. We are that way. We're very partial to ourselves. However, Job gives us some perspective on that. Remember Job? Job went through extreme trials. Job was a man who can literally say it as well with my soul. Job, chapter 31, verses 2-4. Job, chapter 31, verses 2-4. For what is the allotment of God from above, and the inheritance of the Almighty on high? Verse 3. Is it not the destruction for the wicked and disaster for the workers of iniquity? Guess who that is? That's us. Or does he not see my ways and count all my steps? You don't have a right to say that you are good. Matthew, chapter 19, Matthew, chapter 19, verse 17. Jesus himself is talking here.

So he said to them, Why do you call me good? No one is good, but one that is God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. Brethren, God allows bad things to happen to His faithful people, to mold and shape His children into what He wants us to become.

So count up joy that when you go through the trial, you're becoming a better person. God's not bad. We are. That's why we go through these trials. We need them. We hate them. I don't want any of them, but we need them. God is good. We are not. That is the perspective that we need to start with. So don't begrudge God, loving you and shaping you towards His Kingdom.

But then, now that we have the perspective, where do we get the faith? I'm not talking about where does faith get perfected or where does it get refined. I'm talking about where does it come from?

Where does it start? Well, faith comes by hearing. The second point. Faith comes by hearing. There's actually some participation involved in our part. Does faith come by trials? No. If it did, more people on the earth and in history would have abundant faith. Consider the people of Rwanda who starve year after year, who fight and yet have only a handful of faithful people in all of Africa. What about Bosnia, where so-called Christians try to wipe out Muslims entirely?

And with all that death and suffering, we see no evidence of mass repentance and faith.

Trials do not create faith. I remember the terrorist attacks of 9-11. There was a brief pseudo call for repentance from the preachers in America that quickly went away. And there was an overwhelming and resounding cry of where is God? How can God allow this to happen to us? Trials do not originate faith. Trials perfect faith. They don't originate the faith. How about worse? How about we work up our faith? Can you get faith by doing good? No.

Faith is perfected or matured by good works, but it's not created by good works. Notice what James says about Abraham in chapter 2. Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works? For by works, faith was made perfect. Works perfect our faith, exercise our faith, make it stronger. But that's not where it comes from. Abraham's faith was matured or perfected by it, but his faith didn't come from his actions. He had faith already, and then he acted on his faith. So, the Apostle Paul actually defines very clearly where faith originates. Romans chapter 10 and verse 15. Romans chapter 10 and verse 15. And how shall they preach unless they are sent, Paul says, as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things. So, now he's talking about the word of God.

Verse 16. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report? So then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Brethren, let me give you just some examples of what Paul is talking about. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the word of God. Here are some scriptures that if we read them and believe them will originate our faith.

Sort of. There's more to come. Stay with me. Psalm chapter 46 verses 1 through 5. Psalm 46, 1 through 5. The chief musician is Psalm of the Songs of Korah, a song of Alamo. God is our refuge and our strength. We sing this song. A very present help and trouble. Therefore, we will not fear. Even though the earth be removed, and the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with its swelling, say, law. There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. God, in the midst of her, she shall not be moved. God shall help her, just at the break of dawn. These are the things that originate our faith. This is where faith comes from. A Psalm of David, Psalm 103 verses 1 through 6. Psalm 103 verses 1 through 6.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all our iniquities, who heals our diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your mouth is renewed like the eagles, the Lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. These are the things that originate faith. Philippians 4 verses 4 through 7. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice. This is Philippians 4. Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. Let your requests be known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. Reading these verses and hearing these words of God give us faith, but not by themselves, not by themselves by a longshot. Many people on this planet have a Bible. Billions of people hear these words. And yet, when disaster strikes, we hear the clamor, where is God? Where is God? So it's not just the hearing of the Word, but the hearing of the Word is required. It's like we have to stock our shelves full of the Word of God in order to have the fuel that powers faith. Hearing of the Word is required for faith to be originated. So, brethren, that means we have to study our Bibles. We cannot be lazy and then face a trial and think we're going to have faith. But hearing the Word of God alone does not originate faith. That is not what Paul meant. Paul said a lot more about faith than that.

Faith is a gift. And this is the third point. Faith is a gift.

We human beings are very skeptical by nature. We doubt almost everything to be false that we encounter. If someone says it's true, we doubt it. How do we know that God created the earth? You weren't there. I wasn't there. How do you know God sent a flood to save Noah and his family and the animals only on the Ark? You didn't see any footage of it. I didn't see it on CNN or Fox News. Even the most competent among us have a skeptical nature. Just look at Peter. When he was on the Sea of Galilee and saw Jesus walking on the water. And then Jesus told him to come and Peter started to walk on the water. And then he looked down and he asked himself, what am I doing? And he doubted. He doubted God. He sank right into the water. We're all that way by nature. Reading the Bible and listening to sermons is not enough. The British Empire spread the printed Bible around the globe and billions of people have read it. But this world is still a mess. If this world had faith, if reading the Word of God alone was enough, obviously it's not. So hearing the Word of God is only part of the equation. Paul adds to that equation in his letter to the Ephesians. So let's go there. Ephesians 2 and verse 8. Ephesians 2 and verse 8. It's good that we review this. I look out at this audience and I know this is a mature audience. I know that we know these things and it's just review. Brethren, it is so important that we don't think that Christianity is so elementary that we don't need this anymore. We still need this. Every time we face a trial, we face this challenge. We need this information and it needs to be in the forefront of our minds. Ephesians 2 and verse 8. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and not of yourselves. It's a gift of God.

Obviously, God has to put it in us in order for us to have it. Hebrews 12 and verse 2. Paul again. Hebrews 12 and verse 2. Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

He starts it in us. Yes, there's something we have to do. We have to be in the Word of God. But He also has to give it to us. So let's ask for it, brethren. John. Let's see how we're doing on time here. Badly. John 14 and verse 26 and 27.

John 14 and verse 26. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, who is from the Father, will send in my name. He will teach you all things and bring you to remember all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives to you do I give. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Jesus Christ, God the Father, send that help to us. Faith is a gift. He gives us the ability to believe in Him, to have the proof of the things that we cannot see. Without God putting faith in us, we have no faith to grow and mature. So we have to ask for it. Asking for faith is not asking for trials. It is not. You're going to get the trials anyway. You better ask for the faith.

Asking God to perfect your faith and mature your faith may be asking for a trial. I'm not sure. Asking God to give you faith is not asking for a trial. Faith starts with a perspective that God is good and we are not. He is molding us to become good. Then we have to store up information that He gives us. Hear the word of God to have that faith. We have to ask Him for it because without the Holy Spirit we will not have it. It is a gift. There is another thing we have to do. There is another thing we have to do, not to have faith, but to be able to say, it is well with my soul. How do we have that saying? At the beginning of the sermon I talked about two reasons why we resist saying, it is well with my soul during a trial. One is because we're angry with God, which we never have cause to be. But two is because we feel like we're minimizing the importance of the life that was impacted by the tragedy. Now, I've already covered being angry with God. That was the first point of the sermon. Let's talk about the second reason that we refuse to feel a sense of cheer or hope when we grieve, especially when facing death.

We feel like we're minimizing the person who died. And if we feel any positive feeling, their life wasn't important to us. We have to grieve because they were important to us. That's just not true. This feeling of guilt is reported to be often felt by returning veterans of war. Their buddies died and they came home. And they feel guilt and remorse, like they don't deserve to feel good anymore. Or a spouse. When a lifelong husband or wife dies, they feel guilty about having a positive outlook on life. But I suggest the opposite is true. I remember I was an insurance salesman a long time ago, and I was sitting with a widow and another insurance agent. We were talking to her, and her room was black. There were a few pretty objects, but it was dark. The shades were pulled down. All the colors were dark, even black. There was a lot of black in the room. And I thought, well, maybe she's mourning. And in fact, she was mourning. She was in mourning. But her husband had died decades ago. Decades! And she was literally, she told us this just freely. We didn't ask her. She just explained to us that she was grieving for her husband and would not marry again and would not be happy ever again because she lost her husband.

And I'm thinking to myself, is that what your husband would have wanted?

You to be miserable? He loves you for all those years, tries his hardest to make you happy, and then he dies, and you'd be miserable? That's not how you honor the dead. That is not how you honor their memory. And remember, you're going to see them again. You're going to answer for what you did. I suggest to you that the opposite is true. It is because of our real sense of hope, our hope that we will see that person again. And it really will be them.

1 Thessalonians 4. Look to the future. 1 Thessalonians 4.

But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep. Notice our doctrine about death. It is not non-existence. It is sleep.

Lest you sorrow like others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, God will bring him those who sleep in Jesus. Bring with him.

For this we say to you, by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means proceed those who are asleep. All of those who died in war will come up again on both sides of the conflict. You will see your loved ones again, and I will. Likewise, when we suffer personal tragedy like bad health or injury or financial downfall, we can be encouraged that we are not going to go through this, that anything we are going through is not comparable to the reward that we are going to receive. There is a future. It is well with our soul. Romans 8 and verse 16. Romans 8 and verse 16. I take a lot of encouragement by Romans chapter 8. We often read one verse in Romans chapter 8, and we think it's cliché. We hear it a lot in sermonettes and whatnot. It happens to me that my absolute favorite verse in the Bible. There is one in Revelation 21 that is just like it, but Romans 8 and verse 28 is my favorite. We are not going to read it right now. Romans 8 is sort of cliché, because we don't read the whole chapter. We read that one verse. Let's read a little bit in Romans chapter 8.

Let's get some teeth to this chapter by reading it in context. Romans chapter 8 and verse 16. The Spirit itself, for Himself, bears witness of our Spirit, that we are the children of God, and as children and heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with Him, and we will, it's guaranteed that we may also be glorified together. There's a future. 18. For I consider the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us, for the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly awaits the revealing of the sons of God. The key to react to life's challenges?

Do we give up, or do we look at what's being produced in our lives? Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter 12. Verses 10 and 11. Remember, Hebrews chapter 12 is right after Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, where all of those people were either saved or died in faith.

And then we read this, just a few words later, verse 10 of Hebrews chapter 12. For they, indeed, for a few days chastened us as it seemed best to them. Now, I was talking about our fathers, our physical fathers. Yeah, you know, they give us spankings, and they do the best they can do. That's what Paul's saying. But he for our prophet, that we may be partakers of his holiness. God has something far grander in store for us. So we look to that future. Verse 11. Now, no chastening seems to be joyful at the present time, but painful. Oh, does it?

In fact, it takes our breath away when we go through the trials we go through. Nevertheless, Paul says, afterwards it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. How in the world can you count it all joy when you fall into trials? Well, you have to have faith, which comes by hearing and comes by the Holy Spirit. Then you have to look to the future. You have to look at the result, seeing what God is doing in us and for us, loving that God is moving us towards the kingdom. But that's not all, brethren. That is not all. If that's all we did with our faith, we would be just selfish. There's more that we have to do. There's more to this story. And that is, we have to make a difference. Our faith, we are not being called right now, and our faith is not just for ourselves. Yes, it does help us tremendously. But then we have to do something with it. That is our calling, and that we have to make a difference. Brethren, trials in our faith should lead us to make a difference.

I want to tell you the story of Anne Sullivan. How many of you know who Anne Sullivan is? I knew a lot of you would raise your hands. Anne Sullivan is a pretty well-known person, and I took some information from a good news article called, Life Isn't Fair About Anne Sullivan. So I'll read a little bit about it, and then I'll tell you a little backstory about Anne Sullivan. That's, to me, very interesting. Okay, a difficult start to life. Consider the story of Anne Mansfield Sullivan, born April 14, 1866. Feeding Hills, Massachusetts, Anne's youth was filled with hardship and adversity, deep poverty, physical hurt, abuse, and alcoholic father. Untreated disease caused her to go almost blind. At eight, her mother died of tuberculosis. At ten, her father abandoned her and her little brother, James, to an orphanage.

Three months later, James died of tuberculosis. Now that's a trial. Two operations failed to restore her vision. In October of 1880, Anne turned 14.

Now, I'm just summarizing. Obviously, I'm not reading the article, but...

In October of 1880, she turned 14 years old. She was accepted into the Perkins School of the Blind for Boston, which was founded in 1832 and is still in operation to this day.

I'll read a little bit from it. Overcoming obstacles. At the Perkins School, her situation began to approve. Additional treatment for her eyes enhanced her sight. Now, she could learn to read.

She diligently concentrated on education and learned sign language so to communicate with her friends who were both deaf and blind, either or. She graduated in her class Valedictorian in June of 1886. In her Valedictorian address, she challenged her classmates and herself by stating, quote, fellow graduates, duty bids us go forth into active life. Let us go cheerfully, hopefully, and earnestly, and set ourselves to find our special part. When we have found it, willingly and faithfully perform it, for every obstacle we overcome, every success we achieve, tends to bring man closer to God and make life more as he would have it. Does that sound like someone who was abandoned and lost everyone? She was pretty cheerful at that point. She was recommended to be accepted by the Keller family in Alabama as a tutor and mentor to their blind, deaf, and mute daughter, Helen Keller. Anne Sullivan became the instructor to whom Helen Keller, one of the most admired women of the twentieth century, acclaimed as making an extraordinary impact on her life. In chapter four of Helen Keller's autobiography, the story of my life, she wrote, quote, the most important day I remember in all my life is the one on which my teacher, Anne Mansfield Sullivan, came to me. Anne overcame personal tragedy, and she went on to help others. She made a difference, and the twentieth century actually changed because of her. Our outlook on people who have handicaps was completely changed by Helen Keller. And it wouldn't have been changed had someone who had gone through extreme trial didn't come out of that trial. But the back story to that is that when Anne went into that orphanage and had those operations and it didn't fix her, she actually went crazy, mad, like they had to chain her up. She would attack people that would come to her. She was grieving. She was a child. She did not know how to deal with it. And one nurse made a difference in her life, came to her, became a mother to her, and that's how she got over her grief and went on to change the twentieth century. What kind of a difference will you make? Well, that's what God called us for.

That's exactly why you are called to make a difference. So, brethren, we have to come to the point where we can say, it is well with my soul. Hebrews 12, we will pick it up where we left off in verse 10. Did I already read verse 10? I did. Let's pick it up in verse 12. Therefore, brethren, here are our instructions. Hebrews 12, verse 12. Strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight the paths your feet, so that what is lain may not be dislocated, but rather healed. That is our future. That is our calling. Once we get through a trial, we are to help others heal also. Helen Keller is an inspiring story, but she doesn't inspire me as much as Anne Sullivan. Anne overcame complete rejection and helped by being a compassionate person. She became a healer, and that is why we need to be able to say, It is well with my soul.

The faithful Church of Old inspires me. Let's be that faithful Church. Let's be the ones who, when we meet Jesus Christ in the millennium, he says to us, Well done. I am so pleased with you. You are my brother and my sister.

So, let's not say that life is unfair, but rather know that God is working out something very good in our lives, even when things go terribly wrong.

This verse that we are about to read, we are going to continue in Romans 8. Again, it is very cliché, and it is too bad that it is. It is my favorite passage in the Bible.

It is read out of context, and that is why it becomes cliché to us. So, let's read the whole rest of the chapter.

Okay, let's read Romans 8. We will pick it up in verse 28 and read through verse 39. Romans 8, starting in verse 28.

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose, for whom He foreknew He predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. You know what that just said?

God planned for you and me. He planned for us.

Moreover, verse 30, whom He predestined, or foreordained, He also called, and whom He called He also justified, and whom He justified He also glorified, that then what then shall we say of these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. How shall we not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is it who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, and who is at the right hand of God, and who also makes intercession for us?

God is saying, hey, I am on your side. I am on your side. Who else can be against you? Verse 35, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, as it is written, For your sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. The reason why I like Romans 8 is that it is not Pollyannish. It is not saying that everything in life is going to be great. In fact, it says that life is going to be really rough, but God is going to get us through it. So it is a very, not only realistic, chapter, it is a very encouraging chapter. It is a chapter with peace. Verse 37, Yet in all things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor anything created, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Let us count that God is good and we are not. Let's absorb the word of God that faith might be instilled and stored in us. Then let's ask God to give us the gift of that faith.

Keep looking to the future and keep it in mind of what God is working out in us personally. And then let's use that future outlook to help others through trials, because that is our calling. Yes, life will give us challenges, but we are the fortunate few who can truly say, it is well with my soul.