For my post today, I want to share this entry from Amazing Grace: 366 inspiring hymn stories for daily devotions. I love this hymn. The words really touch my heart because I know them to be true. I pray this post blesses you as it has blessed me.
… Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night? (Job 35:10)
It is not difficult to sing when all is going well. But often God gives a special song to one of his hurting children during the night times of their life. Believers find new joys in their nights of sorrow and despair, and they discover a greater closeness with their Lord during times of deep need. The apostle John wrote the book of Revelation while on the barren island of Patmos; John Bunyan completed the classic Pilgrim’s Progress while in the Bedford jail; Beethoven composed his immortal 9th Symphony while totally deaf; and Fanny Crosby once remarked, “If I had not lost my sight, I could never have written all the hymns God gave me.”
Charles Weigle’s song, “No One Ever Cared For Me Like Jesus,” was the product of one of the darkest periods of his life. Weigle spent most of his life as an itinerant evangelist and gospel songwriter. One day after returning home from an evangelistic crusade, he found a note left by his wife of many years. The note said she had had enough of an evangelist’s life. She was leaving him. Weigle later said that he became so despondent during the next several years that there were even times when he contemplated suicide. There was the terrible despair that no one really cared for him anymore. Gradually his spiritual faith was restored, and he once again became active in the Christian ministry. Soon he felt compelled to write a song that would be a summary of his past tragic experience. From a heart that had been broken came these choice words that God gave to Charles Weigle:
I would love to tell you what I think of Jesus since I found in Him a friend so strong and true; I would tell you how He chang’d my life completely—He did something that no other friend could do.
All my life was full of sin when Jesus found me; all my heart was full of misery and woe; Jesus placed His strong and loving arms around me, and He led me in the way I ought to go.
Ev’ry day He comes to me with new assurance, more and more I understand His words of love; but I’ll never know just why He came to save me, till some day I see His blessed face above.
Chorus: No one ever cared for me like Jesus; there’s no other friend so kind as He; no one else could take the sin and darkness from me—O how much He cared for me!
For Today: Psalm 144:3, 4; Jeremiah 31:2, 3; Ephesians 3:18, 19; 1 John 3:1
With God’s help, determine to rise above the problems and hurts that you may be experiencing and turn them into a blessing. Reaffirm your confidence in God’s love and care for you by singing this musical truth as you go.
Osbeck, K. W. (1990). Amazing grace : 366 inspiring hymn stories for daily devotions (193). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel Publications.
Robin Lee Hatcher
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So many great hymns have amazing stories. Perhaps the story of “It Is Well With My Soul” is in this book. Horatio Stafford, a successful attorney and real estate developer, lost a fortune in the Chicago fire of 1871. His son died of scarlet fever around the same time. Wanting a change for his family, he sent his wife and four daughters on a ship to England, planning to join them later. The ship was in a collision, sunk, losing 200 lives, including Spafford’s daughters. His wife sent him a telegram, “Saved alone. What shall I do?” While sailing to join his wife, he wrote this song.
Definitely, that story is included. It was a story I learned years and years ago and never forgot, probably because the hymn is a favorite of mine.
My husband’s last career was as a Methodist pastor. He sang with his church’s choir and “It is Well With My Soul” was a favorite of theirs. We sang it at his funeral in January, 2023.
Beautiful and encouraging. Thanks for sharing, Robin!
👍🏻