Day 25: Peace Admist the Chaos

As I stood in my kitchen last Friday morning and surveyed my house, I wrestled with my emotions.  All week I had had a sense of peace and calm.  I wasn’t stressed by the state of my space or all of the things that needed to get cleaned up around the house. 

I didn’t feel pressured by looming deadlines or my ever growing to-do list.  Even though I had been up the past two nights with a sick child, my soul was still quiet and content.

And that bothered me.

I am the type of person who feels like they are being lazy and unproductive if I do not have a million irons in the fire.  So, if I am not stressed out, something must be wrong, right?  I must not be doing what I am supposed to be doing.

My house did not miraculously clean itself (oh, that it would!).  My to-do list did not shrink, actually, it grew.  My children were not all of the sudden nice and congenial to each other all the time.

So what was the difference?

As I stood there praying, I felt God remind me of a conversation I had had with Him over the previous weekend -- a time when my soul was feeling particularly restless.

“Lord, please send me your peace.”

And Yahweh Shalom, the Lord of Peace, answered my prayer.

The Hebrew word shalom has such a richer and more complex meaning than our English word peace.  Our “peace” usually refers to an absence of outward conflict or a state of inner calm.

Shalom encompasses the above, but it is also “wholeness,” “completeness,” “perfection,” “safety,” and wellness.”

When you pray to Yahweh Shalom, you are praying to the source of all peace.  No wonder his Son is called the Prince of Peace.

Yahweh Shalom did not change my circumstances, He filled me with His shalom, a peace that passes all understanding.

Throughout my day, I find myself still trying to trade God’s shalom with the stress and anxiety that I have thrived on for most of my life.

But when I start to feel it creeping back in, I realize that nothing can compare with Yahweh Shalom’s perfect peace.  When I am crowding out His peace, I am actually crowding Him out of my life because He is peace itself. 

He is not “God of Peace” or “God Who Gives Peace," but rather “God is Peace”.

I pray today that Yahweh Shalom will make His presence known to each one of us and that we will be filled with His perfect peace.

With perfect peace you will protect those whose minds cannot be changed, because they trust you.  Isaiah 26:3