If MercyMe’s chart-topping hit, “Even If,” had a sister it would be the band’s new single, “Make It Well.” Both songs are inspired by Horatio Spafford’s timeless hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul,” which the husband and father penned in the wake of losing his four daughters in a shipwreck. While “Even If” boldly declares our allegiance to Christ in spite of our circumstances, “Make It Well” vulnerably invites God into our grief.
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“The idea for ‘Make It Well’ actually came from wrestling with the hymn, ‘It Is Well’ — which I have sung all my life,” shares MercyMe frontman Bart Millard. “It’s always during tragic times — funerals and moments like that — and I realized during those difficult moments that I’m kind of lying when I say, ‘It is well with my soul,’ because normally it isn’t well with my soul. When you’re in the middle of the struggle, it can be tough to sing that song and really mean it. So I kept thinking if I were to write a song like that, I would change the lyric to ‘make it well.’ So ‘Make It Well’ is for those, like me, who are still in the middle of the struggle — just trying to get by — and who know they are not going to get through it without the help of the Holy Spirit.”
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Millard penned the earnest plea with Tim Timmons and Ethan Hulse, and MercyMe released the single in anticipation of their upcoming film, “I Can Only Imagine 2,” in theaters Feb. 20, 2026. The buzzworthy sequel to the group’s 2018 box office hit introduces Timmons’ personal narrative and the events that led to the birth of “Even If.” Spafford’s hymn plays an integral role in shaping Timmons’ theology and the movie’s plot. Therefore, “Make It Well” plays during the end credits, weaving the film’s themes together seamlessly. In December, MercyMe and Timmons even ventured across the pond to Abbey Road Studios to record a special version of “Make It Well” with the London Symphony Orchestra.
The veteran outfit has already been performing the emotive ballad out on the road, and it’s sure to be a setlist staple when the spring leg of their “Wonder & Awe Tour” kicks off Mar. 12 in Greensboro, North Carolina, with Big Daddy Weave, Timmons and Millard’s son, Sam Wesley, in tow.
