Feeling hurt? Find peace in Jehova-Shalom: There's power in the name! (part 5)
Feeling alone? Are you in a trial, difficult situation or feeling stuck in a “desert”? You are not alone.
God knows where you are, and he will answer you when you cry out for him. Trials will come but they are never to hurt you; rather they are to build you up and develop spiritual endurance.
Understanding His names is a means to understand who God is—and, in turn, how important you are to Him.
The names we’ve studied so far are: Elohim: the strong creator, Jehovah: and the self-existent one, Adonai: owner, master, and supreme authority, Jehovah-Jireh: your provider, and Jehovah-Rapha: the Lord who heals you.
Today we learn about Jehova-Shalom: the Lord is peace.
The names of God convey the truth of His power, love, sovereignty and authority. He created you, loves you and His desire is to be intimately involved in your life. He sees you; he’s with you. Receive the peace and love of God, and feel His healing touch today.
Struggling today? Here’s how to find peace in God.
The Names of God
We have been looking at different names of God that are found in scripture. The five we’ve studied so far are:
Elohim - the strong creator.
Jehovah - the self-existent One, the I Am.
Adonai - owner, master, Lord and sovereign God over all creation.
Jehovah-Jireh - the Lord will provide.
Jehovah-Rapha - the Lord who heals.
This week, we’ll learn about Jehovah-Shalom: the Lord is peace, meaning wholeness and complete peace like that of harmony and well-being.
Faith and Obedience Bring Peace
Do you have the peace of God in your heart? Do you know the Lord is peace?
Today we look at the story of Gideon to see how he found peace in God, and how you can too.
In Judges 6 we find that the Israelites were being oppressed by the Midianites. Time and again the Israelites strayed from faith in God. The people followed after other nations and worshiped other gods. The people of God drifted away from only worshiping God and they started to spiritually compromise.
God allowed the Israelites to spiral down spiritually, as they served the other gods. It is when the Israelites cried out to God in repentance, He delivered them with a strong hand.
“The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. 2 Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. 3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. 4 They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. 5 They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count them or their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. 6 Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help. 7 When the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian, 8 he sent them a prophet, who said, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought you up out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 9 I rescued you from the hand of the Egyptians. And I delivered you from the hand of all your oppressors; I drove them out before you and gave you their land. 10 I said to you, “I am the Lord your God; do not worship the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you live.” But you have not listened to me.’” (Judges 6:1-10, NIV).
The Israelites had forgotten all the Lord had done for them and they chose to worship other gods. Yet God was about to raise up a man named Gideon, to deliver them from the Midianites and their suffering.
God calls on Gideon.
11 The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.’ 13 ‘Pardon me, my lord,’ Gideon replied, ‘but if the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, “Did not the Lord bring us up out of Egypt?” But now the Lord has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.’ 14 The Lord turned to him and said, ‘Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?’” (Judges 6:11-14).
Gideon did not see himself as a strong man of God; and yet God calls Gideon a mighty warrior. God sees in Gideon what Gideon could not see in himself: a mighty man of God. God reassures Gideon that he is with him in the battle.
Friends, God is with you in all the battles of life:
Sickness.
Job loss.
Bankruptcy.
Family issues.
In times of mental or physical depression.
In loss of family.
In accidents.
And yes, in a virus pandemic.
God is listening for your cry for help and your willingness to walk in faith and obedience.
Gideon, like us, gave God excuses why he wasn’t the guy for the job. But in Gideon’s weakness we see God’s strength.
“The Lord turned to him and said, ‘Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?’ 15 ‘Pardon me, my lord,’ Gideon replied, ‘but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.’ 16 The Lord answered, ‘I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites, leaving none alive.’ 17 Gideon replied, ‘If now I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me. 18 Please do not go away until I come back and bring my offering and set it before you.’ And the Lord said, ‘I will wait until you return.’ 19 Gideon went inside, prepared a young goat, and from an ephah of flour he made bread without yeast. Putting the meat in a basket and its broth in a pot, he brought them out and offered them to him under the oak. 20 The angel of God said to him, ‘Take the meat and the unleavened bread, place them on this rock, and pour out the broth.’ And Gideon did so. 21 Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened bread with the tip of the staff that was in his hand. Fire flared from the rock, consuming the meat and the bread. And the angel of the Lord disappeared. 22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he exclaimed, ‘Alas, Sovereign Lord! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!’ 23 But the Lord said to him, ‘Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.’ 24 So Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and called it The Lord Is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites” (Judges 6:14-24).
With God, Gideon and his people have victory.
Notice that God tells Gideon to “go in the strength you have” (Judges 6:14). What was God talking about? God was sending Gideon to go out and defeat the enemy with not only Gideon’s feeble strength, but the strength of God behind him.
What about you?
How many times have you forgotten the blessing and direction of God? How many times have you not remembered what God has done for you?
How many times have you forgotten to pray or the times you blamed God for something that was a result of you not listening to what God was telling you?
How many times have you ignored the warning of God? Such as the warning to:
Not compromise.
Honor your parents.
Meditate on the word of God.
Remember to seek God with all your heart and remain faithful.
Not take the Lord’s name in vain.
Not lie or cheat.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
All God is asking for is your obedience, He will do the rest.
Gideon trusted that he and God—together—defeated the enemy. That is true for you today. You are not alone.
God with us is Peace with us
Three Truths to Remember
There is peace in God in the midst of the battle.
When we believe God is in control, we have nothing to fear.
God’s presence is a blessing.
There is a feeling of complete wholeness and well-being that comes with knowing God is with you. In the face of danger, worldly fear should never over-run faith in Jesus.
But sometimes we let it happen.
It is at that point we must remember that Jesus said that he will never leave us or forsake us. In the middle of the storm we must allow faith to arise in our hearts and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God is with us no matter how things may look.
Friend, when you believe and have faith in Jesus, you can have peace. True peace with God; complete peace—body, soul, and spirit. You can experience wholeness and peace that you may have never known in whatever circumstance you find yourselves in.
The peace of God is not tied to circumstance or dependent on how things appear or how you feel.
The peace of God is not:
A feeling of being happy.
The absence of trouble or war.
A treaty with the enemy.
A truce that is waiting to be broken.
What is the peace of God?
The peace of God is much more than simply not being in conflict at the moment.
The peace of God:
Speaks peace in the conflict.
Gives peace in and through the pain; in the suffering.
Gives peace both ahead of and in the battle.
Gives strength to face the battle and storms of life.
Comes when you know that you are not alone; that God is with you, and is together with you in the storm and life’s battles.
We try to achieve peace outside of God to forget our troubles: take a pill, have a drink or smoke, buy more stuff, get a new job/spouse/car, have an affair.
But the pain and fear is still there. It hasn’t gone away. The inward battle and the suffering is only masked for a short time, and in the morning nothing has changed.
It’s often not until we hit bottom that we cry out to God and real, lasting, Godly peace becomes possible.
Faith in God Leads to Peace
Gideon learned that spiritual victory comes before physical victory. Let me suggest every physical battle and storm has a spiritual aspect connected to it, and until we have the spiritual victory there is no real peace. Faith in God leads to salvation; faith in God leads to peace; faith in God is the victory.
Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Without faith in God, your mind will focus on the problem and the fear of battle. Without faith in God, your mind will keep you up at night and you will never have true peace.
Set your mind on the things above. Set your mind on the things of the Spirit and all the other things will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.
No matter what you are experiencing you can have peace:
during a virus pandemic;
during an accident;
with people rioting in the streets;
amid sickness or the loss of a loved one;
in the hospital;
when sheltering in place;
or when you are headed into battle.
Know that God is with you; you are not alone.
This same Jesus who loves you and died for you and rose from the grave victorious is the same Jesus who says your sins are forgiven, go and sin no more. The same Jesus who spoke to the wind and the waves; and the same Lord whose name is Jehovah-Shalom, peace.
Suggested Praise and Worship:
