Pain, Providence, and the Present Tense

We sing these words but too often without thinking about them:

Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

(Horatio Spafford, 1873)

Notice the present tense - it is well with my soul. Not it will be well. Not it used to be well. But it is well. That is the faith we ought to have in a providential God, even in the midst of pain.

And if you don't know the painful context that birthed the words to that now-famous hymn, then click here.