Shalom is a little word with enormous significance. It’s Hebrew for hello, goodbye, and peace. It’s a word that is full of hope when greeting someone, wishing them well as they leave, and expressing to then your positive desire for their well-being. Shalom implies wholeness, wellness, and contentedness.
It is one word which says to a person as you greet them or say goodbye, “as we meet each other or as we depart, may your life be filled with hope, happiness, health, peace, prosperity, and all things good that can possibly be communicated.
Shalom Can Be Elusive
Shalom is not easy to come by. Though people’s strive for peace, very few people find it. Most spend their lives in pursuit of it. Whether that pursuit takes one in the direction of business, the arts, or family, everyone’s desire is to find that which satisfies and brings them Shalom. It’s finding satisfaction in life that we are all striving for.
The reason we are all searching for Shalom is because we live in a world that is not peaceful. Our lives are filled with turmoil of some sort. Void of peace. We are comforted daily with a disarray, broken, and lost barrage at home, at work, from the internet and television. Bombarded by events both audible and visual that remind us how elusive Shalom can be.
A quick look at the internet, social media, or the evening news is enough to shatter a person’s hope. At home we struggle to raise and protect our families. Distractions abound. We are compelled by a broken world to endeavor to bring Shalom back into our lives.
Shalom Can Be Fleeting
Once found Shalom can quickly disappear. The world around us is constantly changing, throwing new challenges in our direction. That which brings Shalom one moment may be gone the next or replaced by something else that robs us of the newly found Shalom.
Real Shalom Is Devine
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and your through to in Messiah Yeshua” -Philippians 4:6-7 (Messianic).
Real Shalom can only come from God -from a relationship with Him through Jesus. It’s “other worldly” internal personal conflicts, those at home and those created by external circumstances, can only be resolved by intervention from a Holy God external to ourselves. Jesus said He came to bring us Shalom, but not like the world defines it.
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let it be fearful” -John 14:27 (Messianic).
True Shalom comes from understanding God’s shalom. It is a heart motivated, spiritual contentment that comes from recognizing our inability to control our own circumstances. Trusting God, and accepting His will, and understanding His ultimate sovereignty brings true peace.
Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of God.
From Pity to Praise 