God wants a lot to provide you peace. This peace that He wants to provide you is way more than the absence of conflict or a sense of tranquility. It includes those things, but is way more than those things. The peace that’s promised to us throughout Scripture is predicated on the Hebrew word and concept of “shalom.” Shalom is a big idea. It is the vision of life as God designed it at first, before human selections brought the curse that forced fallen people to live in a fallen world. Shalom and its variations are used some 550 times within the Bible and are translated into English not only by the word peace, but additionally by words like wholeness, well-being, harmony, flourishing, success, delight, and prosperity. And even these words – glorious as they’re – only begin to capture the form of life God wants for His people. The Good News is that Jesus made this life possible when He showed up on this planet because the Prince of Peace – or literally the Prince of Shalom – and did what He did to redeem fallen people and this fallen world. Jesus made the life God wants for us accessible to every of us. Through Jesus, God wants to provide you His peace in all of its shalom glory.
In my recent book, The Lord Give You Peace; A 28-Day Journey To Thrive In God’s Shalom, I define the peace the Lord gives as “the harmonious working together of each a part of our lives in alignment with God’s good intentions, bringing holistic well-being, productive flourishing, and pleased success.”[1] In the remaining of this text, I need to assist us explore the 4 big ideas on this definition of shalomic peace. I suggest that we discuss this when it comes to “expectations.”
1. Living in Alignment with God’s Good Intentions
We should expect that the presence of Jesus in our lives will help us to align our lives with God’s design. The Apostle Paul taught us that Jesus “is our peace.” [2] When we receive Jesus, we receive peace. This peace can and can grow in every dimension of our lives as Jesus empowers us to live in sync with the best way God designed life to work. We are told in Isaiah’s prophecy that when Jesus got here because the Prince of Peace, His peace increases as His Kingdom increases.[3] We might say that the more of our lives He rules, the more of our lives we experience peace.
When Jesus announced that He had brought God’s Kingdom to earth, He said … ”the rule of God is now accessible to everyone. Review your plans for living and base your life on this remarkable recent opportunity.”[4] In order for peace to extend, we must ask God for His grace to rearrange our lives in response to His plan. We must live under His rule. Tim Keller wrote that “human life works properly only when it’s conducted in step with the ‘owner’s manual,’ the commandments of God. If you disobey the commands…you might be actually acting against your personal nature as God designed you.” God gave us rules for all times in order that we are able to live in alignment together with his good intentions. God says, “I’m the Lord your God, who teaches you what’s best for you, who directs you in the best way you must go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being just like the waves of the ocean.”[5]
We should know that Jesus is our peace, and expect that His peace will proceed to grow in and thru us as we live in alignment with His rule in our lives.
2. Holistic Well-Being
Two famous passages of Scripture come to my mind here. First is the God taught prayer that the priests were to hope to bless the people. It begins with “The Lord bless you” and ends with The Lord offer you peace.” Scholar Roy Gane translates starting and ending like this: “May the Lord bless you…and offer you well-being.” [6]This captures a vital aspect of shalom; shalom includes well-being.
Second, I really like the Message translation of Isaiah 9:6-7 regarding Jesus being the Prince of Peace, or literally the Prince of Shalom. It says Jesus is the “Prince of Wholeness. His ruling authority will grow, and there can be no limits to the wholeness he brings.[7] This captures one other necessary aspect of shalom; shalom includes wholeness.
As God’s peace grows in your life, you must expect well-being in the entire of your life. Holistic well-being. You should expect to have spiritual health, but even greater than that. You must also expect mental health, physical health, relational health, and health in your work-life and funds. God’s peace will bring holistic well-being, and you must expect nothing less.
3. Productive Flourishing
Productive flourishing ups the ante on holistic well-being. Productive flourishing is greater than just wellness. It is a thriving well-being that produces positive results. Or to say it in a more biblical way, after we flourish, we produce good fruit.
You should expect to see the evidence of shalom in and thru your life. Your marriage will thrive. Your friendships will thrive. Your business will thrive. Your ministry will thrive. Every area of your life will produce good fruit.
Flourishing will not be a passive state. You should not just saying “I’m well.” You are also saying, “good things are happening through my life. I see positive results. I’m flourishing.”
4. Happy Fulfillment
Theologian Graham Cole offered an exquisite definition of shalom. He wrote, “to dwell in shalom is to enjoy living before God, to enjoy living in a single’s physical surroundings, to enjoy living with one’s fellows, to enjoy life with oneself.”[8] Enjoy. Enjoy. Enjoy. Enjoy. I actually like that.
To have pleased success is to benefit from the life God has given us and to live to meet His purposes. It is to seek out pleasure within the promise of Jesus, who said, “My purpose is to provide them a wealthy and satisfying life” or “real and everlasting life, more and higher life than they ever dreamed of.”[9] This life is found after we live the life God dreamed for us.
Happiness is a component of the shalomic package. This is happiness based on fulfilling our purpose. It is a pleased success. I sometimes feel like Christians are afraid to simply wish to be, or to expect to be, pleased. But when peace comes, happiness follows.
The Apostle Paul wrote this to the Christians living in Rome in the primary century: “Since we now have been made right with God by our faith, we now have peace with God. This happened through our Lord Jesus Christ, who, through our faith, has brought us into that blessing of God’s grace that we now enjoy. And we’re pleased due to the hope we now have of sharing God’s glory.”[10] Through our faith, we now have peace with God. We benefit from the blessings of God’s grace now. And we’re pleased as we share in God’s glory, who He is and what He is doing and can do.
When you may have peace with God, you may have the premise of each good possibility of life, including happiness, now and without end. Expect that whenever you confess your faith in Him and receive His peace, your life can be aligned with His purposes. Expect that you’ll experience holistic well-being and productively flourish. Expect that you simply can be pleased and fulfilled. God wants to provide you His peace and all that it means. Expect it today.
[1] The Lord Give You Peace: A 28-Day Journey to Thrive in God’s Shalom, Terry A. Smith, pg. 15
[2] Ephesians 2:13 NIV
[3] Isaiah 9:7 NIV
[4] Mark 1:15 – As translated by Dallas Willard; Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard, pg. 15
[5] Isaiah 48:17-18 NIV
[6] The NIV Application Commentary: Leviticus & Numbers, Roy Gane, pg. 539
[7] Isaiah 9:6-7 MSG
[8] God the Peacemaker: How Atonement Brings Shalom, Graham A. Cole, pg. 22
[9] John 10:10 NLT/MSG
[10] Romans 5:1-2 NCV
Photo Credit: ©Unsplash/Hean Prinsloo
A gifted communicator and cofounder of The New York City Leadership Center (now Movement.org), Terry speaks in quite a lot of national and international venues, inspiring others to find and pursue the life God dreams for them.
He is the best-selling creator 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—together with two daughters-in-law, Lindsay and Amanda, and grandson, Wolfgang.
