It is well with my soul

"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat.” Luke 22:31

Simon was all “macho” telling Jesus that he could even die for him. But he was wrong because Satan is stronger than all of us. Jesus told him that he was to be sifted by Satan. To be sifted like wheat is to be shaken in a sieve or fan so that the chaff falls out and the grain remains. Jesus had prayed for Simon so as Satan sifted, what went out was his bravado, his self centeredness and other sins but his faith remained and was strengthened by the experience. In his new found humility and reliance on God, he was able to strengthen others.

In earlier times Job had suffered similarly from such sifting and came out strong: and there are many people like Job and Simon. The hymn “It is well with my Soul” was written by Horatio Spafford, a lawyer, after he had suffered a lot of trauma in his life. He lost his only son at the age of four of scarlet fever. Shortly after, he lost most of his possessions in a fire and what was left further devastated by an economic downturn.  When his wife and four daughters traveled ahead of him to Europe after he got delayed, their ship sank after colliding with another, and his four daughters perished. He composed the song as he went to meet his wife. He wrote, “Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.” They later had three more children; a boy and two girls but the boy died at age four of pneumonia. He survived the sifting but the congregation where he worshiped church thought the Spaffords were suffering divine punishment. Their subsequently formed another sect and engaged in philanthropic work.

What happens when you are sifted? Does any grain of faith remain so that you can say it is still well with your soul, or are you overcome with bitterness? Let us trust in the Lord so that when we are sifted we grow in humility and we are able to work with his power and not our own.

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All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure it patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God.  Orson F. Whitney

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