How Personal Peace Changes Everything and the Steps to Getting it-
In every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus- Philippians 4:6b-7 NIV
Wholeness. Peace. Harmony.
All the above words have three things in common:
The words all kind of mean the same thing.
They are concepts our culture is obsessed with.
They all represent a biblical ideal even people who have zero interest in the Bible long for.
There are at least three really great reasons Christians should aim to live a life of wholeness, peace and harmony. First, feeling a sense of wholeness and peace is a sign we are living our lives in alignment with Jesus. Second, it just feels good to live at peace with God, oneself and other people and feeling good is good. And finally, (and most significantly) when a Christian possesses personal peace, it is a powerful demonstration of the power of God in our personal lives. This makes having peace, wholeness and harmony a real gamechanger from an evangelistic standpoint.
The equivalent biblical word for peace, wholeness and/or harmony is the Hebrew word shalom. Shalom is defined as:
Completeness, wholeness, well-being, and harmony. Shalom is not simply an absence of war or conflict. It is a holistic state of flourishing that impacts all of life: relational, physical, familial, and spiritual. In the original Hebrew, “shalom” is derived from a root that conveys the idea of being whole, finished, or made complete.
Shalom is more than an Old Testament ideal. Shalom (peace) is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). Shalom is a result of knowing God every Christian can experience. It kind of goes without saying in this blog (but I’m saying it anyway) that genuine peace always begins with a relationship with Jesus, the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6-7, Acts 10:36). That said, it is possible to know Jesus without ever really experiencing the peace (shalom) He came to bring us (Romans 5:1). We acquire peace when we:
Come to terms with our past-
Everyone has a past. Few humans make it through this life without undergoing some sort of loss, trauma, disillusionment and/or hurt. It’s just how the cookie crumbles in a broken, sin-sick world (Genesis 3, Romans 8:20-23, Psalm 107:37). One way we find true peace is by taking a hard look at our past experiences and grieving the things that need to be grieved. We have all done things or had things done do us that are worthy of grief. We find closure from our pain when we ask God for the help we need to heal from those experiences. Refusing to examine our pain and heal from it ensures we will continue to hurt ourselves and others (Romans 7:21-25). This steals our personal peace and keeps us from experiencing the wholeness that leads to harmony with others.
Let go of the notion of perfect external peace-
Nowhere in the Bible is anyone promised a life without trouble from external sources (Matthew 6:34, John 16:33, 2nd Corinthians 1:3-5). It is possible in Christ to live a life free of INTERNAL conflict. However, the notion of a life without trouble or pain is a myth (John 14:27). This world is broken and bursting with sinners. Regrettably, the secular world does not acknowledge this immutable reality. The secular world tells us the secret to perfect peace is to shrink our world down by eliminating anyone or anything that jeopardizes our external peace. This lie is at the root of the estrangement movement. People think they can achieve perfect peace simply by eliminating the people and things they don’t like or feel are problematic (John 15:12, 1st John 4:20, James 2:13). That’s not how it works. God calls us to “live at peace with all people as much as it depends on us” (Romans 12:10, Romans 14:19, Hebrews 12:14). We are not told to ditch the people who threaten our peace but to LIVE with them in the healthiest way that can be managed. This means we work out our junk with people (Proverbs 10:12). It means we forgive and choose not to sweat the small stuff (Colossians 3:13). It means we ask God for the ability to love the unlovable (Luke 6:32-33). Encountering the tough stuff of life or difficult people is not an indication we’ve done anything wrong. Learning to love difficult people is how we become like Jesus (Matthew 11:19, Ephesians 4:32, 1st John 4:19).
Understand that Shalom does not come from violating biblical principles-
Shalom is a beautiful byproduct of living our life in alignment with Jesus. This means a Christian cannot willfully violate God’s instruction in any area and experience the peace and wholeness that comes from living life God’s way (Proverbs 3:5-6, Matthew 16:24, Romans 12:1). God knows perfection is beyond our grasp and therefore He is gracious and merciful (Psalm 103:8, 2nd Chronicles 30:9b, Isaiah 30:18, Hebrews 4:16). He does not demand we get it right all the time. Nonetheless, when we do our best to live like Jesus lived and obey like Jesus obeyed, we do get to experience a sense of peace and wholeness that surpasses all human understanding (Philippians 4:6-8). This reality makes obedience worth the cost.
And finally,
Forgive as you have been forgiven-
We have been forgiven by God so that we can be transformed into the image of Jesus (Romans 12:2, 2nd Corinthians 3:18). It’s what the whole Christian thing is all about. Jesus forgave everyone, all the time (Luke 23:34). When we take our cues from Jesus and choose to forgive those who have done us wrong, we lose all the resentment, hostility, indignation and depression that comes from holding onto unforgiveness. In return we get wholeness, peace and harmony. t’s a beautiful trade.
t’s the sweetest of deals.
