PEACE

By RhemaI love the feeling of being in nature. I go camping quite often, and it is so refreshing to be away from the loud, stressed city. When I’m in the mountains with luscious forests and the crystal clear lake, the only thing that I can hear is the quiet trickle of creeks and the scurrying of an occasional squirrel. Some people dislike being in nature. For them it is dirty and high maintenance. But for me, it helps me unwind WAY better than being in the loud, fast paced, distracted city. If I could describe to you what it feels like to be in nature in one word, I would define it as, peace.

It’s not nature that gives me this peace, because only God can do that. But, it’s the stillness of it that does. I unwind and meet God because I’m not distracted by social media, TV, or the loudness of it all. I am calm and quiet, and for me that’s when I meet God best. But, we can’t just live in nature our whole lives. We have sports, clubs, school, and other things that we have dedicated our time to. It can be so easy to get caught up in how busy we are, and lose our sense of peace because we are distracted by the chaos of all the activities we are juggling around. It can sometimes be hard to balance all we do and yet still have peace in our lives.

Jesus is the Prince of Peace, or our Jehovah Shalom. In the Old Testament, Shalom was the Hebrew word used for peace. Peace is a very common word that almost everybody uses. A basic definition of Shalom is complete, or whole. It refers to something that is complex with many parts or pieces. It can also refer to a person and their life. “The core idea is that life is complex, full of many moving parts, relationships, and situations. And when any of these are out of alignment or missing, your Shalom breaks down and it needs to be restored.” (The Bible Project)

This is the chorus from the song PEACE, by Hillsong Young and Free.

“There’s a peace far beyond all understanding

May it ever set my heart at ease

Dare anxiety come I’ll remember

That peace is a promise you keep

Peace is a promise you keep.”

This song is basically saying that the peace God can give us is so vast and big and unimaginable. And, we have access to it. The enemy doesn’t stand a CHANCE against us because we know who we are, and the Prince of Peace is on our side. He can, and will make our lives Shalom. I’m not saying that you just say the magic word and then your life is perfect, but he can do it. Only God is capable of making our lives Shalom. But, we play a part in it, too. We have to talk to God and connect with him, and we have to know if our lives aren’t Shalom. We have to know if WE are out of alignment, so that we can ask our Jehovah Shalom to help us. He is our complete peace.

What Bible verses make you think of peace?How do you find peace?