Dear Sisters in Christ,
One of my favorite hymns is "It is Well With My Soul". The first verse says this:
When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say it is well, it is well with my soul."
In times of hardship or goodness, God gives those that follow Him this: Peace.
But, what is biblical peace, exactly? I'm going to be honest, when I first started writing this, I realized that maybe I didn't understand as well as I originally thought. One part of bible study for me that is particularly helpful is looking at the words in the original translations to really understand what they are all about. It really gives a more complete picture of what the biblical authors and Holy Spirit are trying to portray to us.
Peace is a prime example of this. In the hymn mentioned above, the writer expresses that, even in difficulties, he can still say that things are well with his soul. Just how does this happen?
In Hebrew the word used for peace is 'Shalom' (Shah-lohm), and in the New Testament Greek, 'Eirene' (ay-ray-nay). Both give the idea of binding things together that were once broken. About making things complete, or to restore something. For instance, let's say you're building a wall or tower from blocks or stone. If one block is missing or out of place, we all know that the structure will not be able to hold itself up.
God is the missing piece to the brokenness that comes from living in world that has been made imperfect from sin.
God completes us. When we look to things of this world to make us complete, whether it be things like relationships, money, sex, or whatever the case may be, they will ultimately never be the missing piece we are looking for. These things will always be tarnished in some way, shape or form because of the brokenness of our world. People are imperfect, and will make mistakes or hurt us.
Not to say that these things are not necessarily evil or bad in of themselves, but they will never fully satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts. It's important to understand that we need to be careful not put things that are not God on too high of a pedestal.
There will always be a part of us longing for more. Our hearts will always yearn for perfection.
This is where God comes in. God is complete goodness, love, and purity (2 Corinthians 12:9, Psalm 19:7, 2 Samuel 22:31, 1 John 4:7-21.) God is perfect in all His ways. Everything He created was and is good; but creation chose to separate itself from Him, leading to the pain, war, disrest, anger, hurt in the world.
So, we can see that the only way for true and lasting peace (completeness) is by choosing to reconcile to God and give into His immense love for us. We become complete by building a relationship with Him, and having His love fill our hearts. With Him, we will lack nothing. (Ephesians 6:10-18, James 1:4.)
To wrap up, peace is being complete. Peace is God's strength being made full in our hearts. It comes from building a relationship with Him, and allowing Him to love us as His children. The peace of God is what holds us steady regardless of the situations this life leads us to.
That is what it means for it to be well with our souls, as the writer of the hymn pointed out. Regardless of whether things or good or bad, God is the glue, the stone, the block, that holds our lives together. With His blood, His love, perfection, we are never alone, and we can face anything this life throws at us.
My hope and prayer for my life, and for yours, friend, is that this peace will take hold in your life, and continue to do so, all the days of your life. Don't forget of His immense love and care for you.
Love,
Chelsea
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Resources:
1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLYORLZOaZE (The Bible Project: Shalom-Peace
2. https://www.preceptaustin.org/peace_eirene (Peace-Eirene [Greek Word Study])
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