Imagine everything in your life working as it should: You feel a deep and settled peace with God. Your relationships are healthy. Your purpose is clear. Your work is meaningful and productive. Your health is optimal. You are financially free. You are happy and fulfilled. I want to encourage you today with a vision of life as it is meant to be. It may seem like a too-good-to-be-true dream, but it’s true nevertheless. It may seem like a water mirage shimmering in the desert, but it is as real as the shining sun. This vision of life as it is meant to be is expressed in the God dreamed idea of shalom.
What Is Biblical Peace?
You are most likely familiar with the Hebrew word “shalom” and may know that it is usually translated into English by the word “peace.” But shalom is more than peace as we normally think of it. Peace is a wonderful word, but peace only conveys part of what the term and concept of shalom bring. This word shalom captures the life that God wanted for humanity in the beginning. It captures the kind of world He wanted as well. And it captures the kind of life God wants for each of us now.
The Hebrew word shalom and its variations, including a corresponding Greek word (eirēnē) that is used in the New Testament, appear some 550 times in the Bible. It is not only translated with our word peace but also associated with words like wholeness, well-being, harmony, flourishing, fulfillment, delight, and prosperity, and is closely related to important concepts like justice and righteousness. [1]
Shalom is an all-encompassing vision of reality. It is everything in your life working together as God designed it. It is life as it is meant to be. It is complete and absolute well-being. Or, as the scholar Cornelius Plantinga Jr. defined it, “Shalom…is the way things ought to be.” [2] And shalom, my friend, is what God wants for you.
I know that shalom does not describe the way things are now. But it does describe the way things should be. Can be. Will be. There is a promise in Scripture that gives me great hope. It’s where the prophet Isaiah was speaking to God‘s people who were in a very difficult season. Things were not as God had intended because His people had gone their own way. Isaiah used words like “gloom,” “distress,” and “thick darkness” to describe the circumstances they were living in.[3] Today, we might use words like that to describe what we too often experience in the world around us. Or we might use other words to describe things as they ought not be in our own lives. Words like anxious. Or sad. Or angry. Or stressed. Or lonely. Or broken. Or unwell. Or unfulfilled.
But Isaiah said that those who were in that dark place would see a great light because Jesus was coming. He said that Jesus would be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Or we might say “Prince of Shalom.” Then Isaiah goes on to prophesy that “of the increase of his government and of peace (shalom) there will be no end…” and that “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” [4]
Let’s focus on this for a moment: This passage teaches us that the answer to things as they ought not be is that Jesus is coming, and that He is, among many other wonderful things, the Prince of Shalom. Further, we are told that as His rule increases, His shalom will increase as well. And that this is going to happen because God wants it to happen, because He is so zealous for it.
From this and many other Scriptures, we can know that Jesus came to make things the way they are supposed to be. That is when He enters our lives, He brings shalom as we grow in our relationship with Jesus, His peace increases. And that ultimately this is all made possible because this is what God zealously wants.
What Does God Want?
What God wants is the most important part of this discussion. In my book The Lord Give You Peace – A 28 Day Journey To Thrive In God’s Shalom, I wrote, “The depth of God’s desire to give you peace cannot be overstated. You should want and dream for shalom, not only because of the well-being, flourishing, and fulfillment it means for you, but because God wants it, and because you having it means that His dream has come true.”[5]
What God wants is not a mystery. We see the world He wanted in the wonders of Eden. Paradise before the Fall is the perfect picture of shalom. People had peace with God, peace with each other, and peace with the environment around them. They were whole spiritually, psychologically, and physically. They did purposeful and productive work. They had everything they needed and more. This is what God had in mind in the beginning. And this is what God will have in the end. The age to come will be a restoration of Eden in the new heaven and new earth. And even though things will not fully be the way they are supposed to be until the renewal of all things, what God wanted in the beginning and will have in the end should inform the way we think about our lives now. We should expect that the more we grow in our relationship with the Prince of Peace, the more peace we will have now. And we should be satisfied with nothing less.
I’m reminded of something Jesus said that is simple but profound. He was talking about marriage and how the Law of Moses permitted divorce under certain conditions. But then he said, “But it was not this way from the beginning.” I think this shows the heart of God about matters in our lives, great and small. He sees something that is not as it should be, and He says, “That’s not the way I wanted this in the beginning.“ And He sent Jesus to make things the way they were meant to be.
I promise you…it is not His plan for you to live in fear. It is not His plan for you to live in anxiety. It is not His plan for your marriage to be broken. It is not His plan for your family to be divided. It is not His plan for you to be unable to pay your bills. It is not His plan for you to appear to be successful, but to actually be unfulfilled. It was not this way in the beginning. This is not what God wants for you.
What God has planned for you is shalom. An all-encompassing reality in your life that continues to look more and more the way God intends for things to be. God wants to give you peace. Perhaps the most important thing you can do in this moment is just believe. Confess your faith in Jesus and believe that peace is what God wants for you.
[1] Unleashing Peace, Jeremiah J. Johnston, pg. 32-33 – Dwell: Life with God for the World, Barry D. Jones, pg. 34. – The Lord Give You Peace, Terry A. Smith, pg. 38
[2] (Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin, Cornelius Plantinga Jr., pg. 10, The Lord Give You Peace, Terry A. Smith, pg. 15)
[3] Isaiah 8:22 CSB
[4] Isaiah 9:6-7 ESV
[5] The Lord Give You Peace: A 28-Day Journey to Thrive in God’s Shalom, Terry A. Smith, pg. 21
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Luigi Colonna
A gifted communicator and cofounder of The New York City Leadership Center (now Movement.org), Terry speaks in a variety of national and international venues, inspiring others to discover and pursue the life God dreams for them.
He is the best-selling author of The Lord Give You Peace: A 28-Day Journey to Thrive in God’s Shalom; The Lord Bless You: A 28-Day Journey to Experience God’s Extravagant Blessings; The Hospitable Leader: Create Environments Where People and Dreams Flourish; and Live Ten: Jumpstart the Best Version of Your Life. Terry and his wife, Sharon, have been married for forty-two years. They have three adult children—Sumerr, Caleb, and Christian—along with two daughters-in-law, Lindsay and Amanda, and grandson, Wolfgang.
