29. With Christ All's Well
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"Is it well with you?" 2 Kings 4:26
All is well with us when Christ dwells in our hearts. The Shunamite mother could say "All is well," because she was a believer in God. Her faith was seen in her works. She loved God, and therefore loved the "man of God." Observing that he often passed her abode on his Divine errands, she prepared a chamber for his special use. So let us provide in our hearts an abode for Christ. He is always passing. He is willing to stay with us. He knocks and asks us to receive Him. The rich woman provided for the poor traveler. The Divine Master condescends to dwell with the lowest of His servants. The Shunamite carefully provided for the prophet's comfort—"Let's make a little room for him on the roof and furnish it with a bed, a table, a chair, and a lamp. Then he will have a place to stay whenever he comes by," and this was gratefully noticed by the prophet. Elisha said to Gehazi, "Tell her that we appreciate the kind concern she has shown us." So let us thoughtfully, generously, lovingly, be careful to entertain the Lord Jesus. Let it not be enough that we open the door for Him to enter. Let us prepare and provide as we do for an honored guest in our earthly home. Let us diligently consider what will please Him. Let us give Him our attention, our admiring, adoring, inquiring thoughts. Let us hold reverent and confiding converse with Him, and avoid whatever would dishonor or grieve Him. Nothing, not even the cup of cold water, will be unnoticed by Him. Such reception of Christ, the Great Prophet, daily ministry to Him in response to His unmerited love, will be our best security and consolation. With Him abiding with us, we can appeal to Him in all trial, sure that He will lend a ready ear, and stretch forth a ready arm for our help.
Our Divine Prophet asks us, "Is it well with you?" as He asked Peter, Do you love me? not because He is ignorant, but because He wishes us to examine ourselves to exercise our faith. All will be well. In a little while we shall be beyond the reach of sickness, bereavement, sin, and death. All is well—becausethese trials which seem ill are on the path to that heaven. No, more—these trials help us; they speed our pace, they strengthen our feet for the march, our hands for the fight; they "work out for us" the glory to come, and as the end will be well, the road must be well also. All must be well. Afflictions are not accidents, nor the working of mere physical laws. God is infinitely kind and wise to direct the best methods to fulfill His love. We see perfection in His smaller works which are completed before our eyes, in the life of a flower or a plant. The microscope reveals that in the smallest organism invisible to the naked eye, there is perfect design and workmanship. His procedure in Providence and Grace is a work in process. We see only a small portion of it; but we may infer, from what we know of His completed works, that "He does all things well."
We are assured of this by His written Word, and by the testimony of His Son who came to reveal the Father. And so when vision fails, faith is confident, and says, "It is well." Well, when He gives; well, when He takes; in storm as in calm, in sickness as in health, in sorrow as in joy, in death as in life—all is well. With Asaph we will "wash our hands in innocency;" but, as in his case, this will not give us assurance that all is well. It is only when we can say, "I am continually with You; You have held me by my right hand; You shall guide me with Your counsel, and afterwards receive me into glory;"—it is only when we cast ourselves in all our unworthiness and weakness on Himself, and say, "God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever," that we fully know all will be well, all is well, all must be well.
Can it be well without Him? Well with revellers in a sinking ship? well with sleepers in a burning house? Well with Belshazzar at his banquet, when the fatal finger wrote, "Weighed in the balances and found wanting?" Well with the rich man with goods laid up for many years, when the warning was given, "This night your soul shall be required of you"?
But with Christ all is well. It was well with the Jewish youths in the fiery furnace; with Daniel in the den of lions; with Paul and Silas in the inner prison.
Though a river has many windings, it is still flowing to the sea. Now it turns to the right, now to the left, now backward; yet the current rolls on without stay, and bears our boat towards home. Each bend, each seemingly opposing turn flows forward. If disappointed, it is well. If our dearest hopes are baffled, it is well. If the voyage seems tediously protracted, it is well. If speedily to end, it is well. However wild the waves of the narrow sea we have to cross, it will be well; for our Savior, who crossed it to secure our safe passage will be with us. He will welcome us on the distant shore. And then, could a voice from those we leave behind reach us amid the glories of heaven, asking "Is it well?" with what exultant joy we would shout the answer back—"It is well!"
ALL IS WELL
Say, Mourner! is it well with thee—
Your store, your self, your family?
With garb of grief and tracks of tears,
With face where faith contends with fears,
Bending beneath your burden-tell,
Toiling and tried one—Is it well?
The night is dark, and not a star
Sparkles faint comfort from afar;
I cannot trace the path I tread
I see not where I am led—
How it may be, I cannot tell,
But this I know—that All is well!
Of gladness, griefs are but the seeds;
Trials are sent to root out weeds;
As showers that fertilize are tears;
Prompters to prayer are painful fears;
Even 'mid love's ruin blessings dwell—
A bleeding heart says—All is well!
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