COMMENTARY | Rob Phillips
Horatio G. Spafford was a prominent attorney in Chicago in the 1800s and a friend of evangelist Dwight L. Moody. While Spafford was both respected and comfortable, he was not free from severe hardship.
First, he lost his 4-year-old son to scarlet fever. Then his real estate investments along Lake Michigan literally went up in flames in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Not long after that, his four daughters drowned in a shipwreck, and his wife Anna survived the ordeal only because the ship’s debris buoyed her as she floated unconscious in the Atlantic Ocean.
Crossing the sea to join his bereaved wife, Spafford was called to the captain’s deck as the ship sailed past the foamy deep where his daughters were lost. The captain informed him that the waters there were three miles deep. Returning to his cabin, Spafford penned these words to the now-famous hymn:
When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul
Why did such tragedy befall this godly man? Spafford may have wondered why, but ultimately he rested in the sovereignty of God.
We can better appreciate God’s sovereignty, even in the darkest nights, by observing 10 reasons we suffer, according to Scripture.
1. We suffer because we sin.
2. We suffer because others sin.
3. We suffer because we live in a sinful and fallen world.
4. We suffer because God allows us to make real choices.
5. We suffer to make us long for eternity.
6. We suffer to keep us from something worse.
7. We suffer to share in the suffering of Christ and be more like Him.
8. We suffer to honor God.
9. We suffer to grow spiritually.
10. We suffer to better anticipate the glories of heaven and the world to come.
Rob Phillips is director of communications for the Missouri Baptist Convention. This column is excerpted from Baptist Press; read the full version at BPNews.net.
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