Last Sunday we studied the name Yahweh Shalom (the Lord is peace) from the story of Gideon in Judges 6. When Gideon realized that he had been speaking to God face to face, he was terrified and assumed he would die (6:22-23). Responding to Gideon, God simply said the word “Shalom” (6:23).
We learned that the word ‘Shalom’ translated ‘peace’ in English, means total well-being and complete wholeness. But this definition is ironic in the story of Gideon. The circumstances of Gideon’s life were difficult and even desperate. Like the rest of Israel, he was facing poverty and even the potential of starvation due to the oppression of the Midianites. When we think of the meaning of Shalom we can think of the Garden of Eden at the beginning of the Bible, when God’s Creation was perfect and “very good” (Genesis 1:31). Or we might think of the end of the Bible in the new earth where there will be “no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away” (Revelation 21:4). Shalom is a perfect description for both of these scenes. The wonderful lesson of the story of Gideon is this: We can experience Shalom, even when our circumstances are difficult and painful, if God is with us.
Have you found that to be true? Personally, it has been one of the most painful and precious lessons of my life. Perhaps you can relate. As someone who is prone to worry and melancholy, I have had my share of anxiety and depression. Earlier in my life I would read that “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). The problem was that I wasn’t experiencing peace. It seemed out of reach. My assumption was that if I read the verse and prayed for relief from my anxiety that God would take it away, but He didn’t. My anxiety and depression lingered for years. Eventually through the Holy Spirit and some wise counsel, the Lord opened my eyes to what I was missing from the previous verse which says “Do not be anxious about anything…” (Philippians 4:6). The life changing lesson for me was this: When God says “don’t” He is alerting me to a choice that I need to make. When God says “do not be afraid” (or “do not be anxious”) it means there is a choice involved in my anxiety. I can’t see myself as a victim of my fear and wait passively for God to take away those feelings. I need to get to work.
So what do we need to do to experience the Shalom of God even when life is filled with pain and anxiety?
Repent and believe! Where God is, Shalom is, and those who have turned to and trusted in Christ for salvation are ‘in Christ’ and Christ is in them. This is the basis for experiencing Shalom with God!
Refuse fear! God says “do not be anxious” and so we begin by refusing to give ourselves permission to be afraid. (Note: fear and anxiety are basically the same thing!) We begin to make war on our anxiety by refusing to give space in our mind to fearful and anxious thoughts.
Replace fear with truth! In the Bible, when God says, “do not be afraid” He often adds, “for I am with you!” It is not enough for us to fight against anxious thoughts in our minds if we don’t replace those thoughts with the truth of Scripture. This is where our minds begin to work together with our faith and our will. I must choose to think in my mind and believe in my heart that what God has said is true.
Once I understood the choices involved in my mental health I began to battle. At the outset it seemed like the devil kept a fire hose of negative thoughts flowing constantly into my mind. Over time, as I learned to refuse wrong thinking and replace it with right thinking and believing, I realized there was a kink in the devil’s firehose! What used to be a flood became a trickle. I began to experience the Bible’s promise of Shalom. I began to experience the peace of God. Let me summarize what had changed in my life:
When I passively waited for God to make me feel Shalom, I had only anxiety.
When, in obedience to God, I began to battle my anxiety by thinking and believing God’s promises, I began to experience Shalom.
In my life, this was a journey, and it’s a journey that continues as new anxieties come into my mind and heart. It is a battle that ebbs and flows in my life as I experience new circumstances and life’s many emotions. God came to Gideon to invite him to lead the battle against the enemy. God was with Gideon to bring Shalom even in the face of impossible odds. The same is true for us. God invites us into a spiritual battle saying, “do not be afraid for I am with you!”