"No character is ultimately tested until it has suffered."
Dear Friends and Family!
Today I want to share with you two incredible stories about two individuals who suffered in every way possible and yet proved in the end that their faith in God was more precious than gold, more precious than anything in this world!!
May God speak to your heart as you read these stories of extremely difficult trials in physical suffering and amazing endings of triumph and victory!!!
The first story is about a man named Horatio Spafford. He was a very well-known lawyer in Chicago and a very wealthy man. He had a beautiful Scandinavian wife named Anna and they had a son and four daughters. Even though Horatio was a lawyer, he made most of his money as a real estate investor. By the late 1800s, he owned much of Chicago’s most valuable real estate. But then tragedy struck. Their son contracted scarlet fever and died.
Horatio, Anna and the girls were devastated. Then, just a couple of years later, on October 8, 1871, the Great Chicago Fire swept through the city. Horatio and Anna and the girls watched nearly everything they had go up in smoke. Still devastated by the loss of their son, the fire sent them into an emotional tailspin. Horatio was frantically working to rebuild his family’s income and Anna and the girls were working to keep things together at home. They were all depressed and overworked on top of it. After two years of that kind of emotional deterioration, Horatio’s good friend D.L. Moody noticed and suggested that they take a vacation. Of course, Moody was a great evangelist and was preaching a series of meetings in England. He suggested that the Spafford family come and join him while he was over there. Horatio had a few loose ends to tie up before he could go, so he sent his wife and daughters on ahead―he would catch up with them in a few days. While crossing the Atlantic, the steamship Ville du Havre was struck by an iron sailing vessel. 226 people drowned, including Little Annie, Maggie, Bessie and Tannetta Spafford. Anna was one of the few survivors. When she arrived in England, she sent Horatio a telegram with only two words―“saved alone”. He immediately booked passage on the next available ship to England. That ship followed the exact same route as the Ville du Havre. The ship’s captain told Horatio as it passed over the scene where his four daughters had died. At that moment, he went back to his cabin and wrote these words;
“When peace like a river, attendedth my way, when sorrows like seas billows roll, whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, “It is Well, It is Well, with my soul!!!”
We would hope that things would have gotten better for the Spaffords, but they didn’t. In the years following the tragedy of the shipwreck, they had three more children―two girls and a boy. In 1880, little Horatio died of pneumonia at the age of four. But through all of that, the Spaffords never lost their faith. They struggled. They questioned. But they held fast to the belief that, “Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul.” Just a year and a half after little Horatio died, the family moved from Chicago to Jerusalem and started a Christian community there. It grew into a tremendous mercy ministry that helped the local people through difficult times of famine and even up through WWI. Hundreds of thousands of lives were saved and I’m sure that countless souls were saved through their ministry. Let alone the countless lives that are touched by that wonderful hymn. All of which were born out of the terrible suffering!!!
"Our God has a plan that is un-folding even though we cannot understand it right now."
What can I say after that heart-wrenching story? What tremendous tragedies that struck this man and his family and yet, in the end, they were able to say "It is well with my soul!!!" What Amazing/Crazy Faith in the God they served and loved! Hallelujah!!
This next story is about a lady by the name of Lyle Howard. Many of my friends have heard me talk about this amazing Christian lady! She was a wonderful mom of three beautiful children and a wonderful wife to her husband. Lyle lived a very simple life. She wasn't one to stand out in a crowd. I remember when we first moved next door to them, they were a "mystery" to us. They lived a very private life, so we thought!!
After we finally met them we realized that they were far from "mysterious" and private! They shared their faith daily and not only in word but in action! You could see the Love of God radiate from their lives like crazy!!
Lyle was the kind of person who just didn't talk about Jesus, she lived and breathed Jesus! Everyday, all the time! You just knew she was a Christian by watching her life. One day, at the age of 37, she got the news that all of us pray we never get. She had cancer. The doctors gave her only six months to live.
I remember finding out the news and being so distraught and wanting to question God with the "all too famous question," "Why?"
During this time in our life, Mike and I had gotten out of church. We were living for ourselves, but God had other plans!! He has a way of bringing us back and sometimes they are ways we would never expect.
One day, I wanted to do something special for the family, so I decided to send some homemade cookies and sat down and wrote her a note of encouragement to her. A few days later I received a letter back in the mail that touched my heart in ways I will never forget. Her letter was a letter of encouragement to me, and of the tremendous "faith" that she had in her Lord and Savior!
I just couldn't wrap my mind around it! Here is a lady, who has three children, a husband who adores her, and who has served and loved her Savior faithfully, and yet she has just been diagnosed with cancer, and she is encouraging me????
Wait. . . "God, You must be wrong," " You've made a mistake", or so I thought!!
Folks, God never makes mistakes!! NEVER! God is so amazing and wonderful and so infinite!! Don't ever doubt it! He is working, even in the worst of circumstances! His ways are so much higher than our ways! Nothing happens that hasn't first passed through His hands!! Praise the Lord!
My life was forever changed the day our lives crossed paths! God was using Lyle's life and this trial of sickness to touch so many lives, including my entire family, and the amazing thing is she never realized the impact she was making on those around her until she reached the portals of Heaven!!! I know for sure that she is one of the witnesses that Paul talks about in Hebrews, who is looking over the banister of Heaven today, cheering us on!
Hebrews 12:1-2 says, "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The doctors gave Lyle six months and I seen her live another five years! I believe that God honored her faithfulness to Him and He allowed her to continue to minister to so many people through her pain and suffering! I know this to be true because at her memorial service there were over a thousand people that attended!!! They had all been touched by the "selfless" life that Lyle had lived. They were touched by her incredible strength and faith in God! Doctors, nurses, family and so many friends she never realized she had!!! Her life was a celebration of what true faith in God is all about!
One of the most incredible moments at the memorial service was Lyle's oldest daughter, Ansley, who up stood and sang her mom's anthem, "It is Well with My Soul!" Unbelievable - Crazy Faith!! Lyle had not only touched many lives around her, but she had touched the lives of her precious children! They had seen their mom live out the life that God truly wants for us all to live - A "Christ-centered" life!
She had "fought the fight" and "ran the race" and finished a winner!! She had kept her faith in God!!
In conclusion, look in your Bible at Job 2. Job has lost everything. His children, his wealth, servants, and his livestock and now his health but through it all he says, " Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
After Satan realized that material things didn't mean anything to Job and even after loosing his family, Satan decides to go after his health. What is astounding is that he never gave in!! He never gave up!! What crazy faith!
Let me say to you today that we are going to go through trials and some of us may even have to suffer physical ailments. We are not guaranteed a "rosy" life. As a matter of fact, the Christian life is never easy! There will be hard times, heartaches and unbelievable storms that are going to rock our life, and for some of us, even sickness. My question to you is, "What are you going to do when tough times come?? Will you be faithful to God who has given us the very best, His Son, Jesus Christ??
Psalms 121: 1-2 says, " I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence comes my help? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
Praise God! Do not give in to discouragement because of suffering. This is one of the greatest battles we will ever face - the battle to stay encouraged and joyful. PRAISE is huge in making it through trials. It will help you get through your troubles faster than anything, and you will get stronger and feel less pain in the whole process because God dwells in the praises of His people. Just consider how quickly God delivered Paul and Silas from the jail in Philippi when they praised Him in the middle of the night (Acts 16) ! Here is where major spiritual battles are won or lost. Praise God instead of grumbling. It will make the world of difference!!
Rom. 8:18 "I consider that the sufferings of this present while are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed in us."
Have faith in God for ALL things!! HE WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU! You may not get the answer you want but rest assured that God is in Control of your circumstance. Stay Faithful!
Job 23:10-12 says, " But He knows the way that I take;When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.
My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned aside. I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.
"Encouraged in heart. . . United in Love"
Jenny
II Timothy 1:12
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