Good Morning Receivers and Bringers of Shalom! Shalom means peace and shalom shalom (a Jewish farewell blessing) means perfect peace. Jesus promised us His peace and that we could choose His perfect peace=shalom shalom. I end these blogs often with that blessing pronounced over you. But do you know perfect peace? Have you ever received or shared the peace of Jesus? In this world of chaos, confusion, hurriedness, strife and sicknesses isn't it amazing that we can know and choose the perfect peace of God as we continue to trust and surrender things to His capable and willing hands? Be still and know! Don't lean on your own understanding. Turn off the noise! These are things I share often but the only way to do that well is to spend time getting to know our loving and capable God and to release our junk to Him because He knows, cares and is able to work all things together for good. Amen! Check out the Connection blog below about these things and be still, receive and know His perfect peace.
We are commanded to cast all our anxiety to God. Why? Because He cares for you! Amen! As we do, we can dwell in His loving presence and know and receive His perfect peace--a peace beyond understanding. This world needs His perfect peace but that will only happen after His return. Until then we are sent to go in peace and love and to bring His peace and love alive in this chaotic, strife-driven world. I often pray for me and us to know and bring His peace alive. We can only incarnate His peace if we dwell in it ourselves. So, what's troubling you that has pulled you away from His peace? What problems do you keep grabbing back from God and focusing on instead of casting them to Him and trusting He will work all things together for good? Be still. Release all. And receive and dwell in His love and peace --perfect peace.
Check out Our Daily bread too about joining God and doing what we can with what we've been given that includes sharing the peace we know and have received. God promises to be with us always, to help us always, to work all together for good and the only way to know His shalom shalom is to be still, give Him all our struggles and receive and dwell in His peace. And sometimes we are able to redirect to Him and grow in trust as we share His love, peace and help with others. Try it! There is no greater need then to know His peace. We can and He wants to share it as we incarnate Him to others. Be still and know. Receive and go live and love like Jesus, peace-bringer! Amen! Shalom shalom!
Connection Blogs:
- Stay in Perfect Peace
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you. (Isaiah 26:3)
I don’t know about you, but perfect peace seems like an impossibility. With everything going on in the world around us, not to mention the confusion of thoughts within us, we wonder how such a promise could be made. It helps, of course, when it’s God himself who made the statement. That puts this promise in a whole new light. It also helps for us to understand what is meant by perfect. Biblically speaking, perfection refers more to maturity or a level of completion. Here’s the truth of the matter . . .God wants you to live in mature peace in your life and he is willing to commit to keep you in that place of peace
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The Prophet Isaiah gives us insight into how this works in a very practical way. The first and most important part is God’s part. God commits to keep us in perfect peace. Without this commitment, it will not work. Peace is a gift of God, not simply something we work on. Jesus offered peace as something that came from him.
God’s commitment to keep us in perfect peace is not without our part. We are to have our minds stayed on God. Perhaps an easier way of saying this is the New Testament command to fix our thoughts on Christ. What are you thinking about? What is your mind stayed on? It is impossible to have a mind filled with peace if our thoughts stray from the Lord. He keeps us in perfect peace when we fix our thoughts on him who is the source of peace. Over and over again, we are commanded to guard our hearts, to be careful what we are thinking about. Peace comes from a mind that is focused on God.
According to Isaiah, the third part of walking in perfect peace comes from trust. This is the combination of the nature of God and the work of man. We keep our minds fixed on God because we trust him. But we trust him because he has shown that he is worthy of all our trust. He is the Eternal One, always faithful, always worthy of our trust. Because of who he is, we trust him. This brings peace.
, choose to fix your mind and thoughts on Jesus, the Shalom Giver. Remind yourself of how he has been trustworthy in the past by thinking of those times he worked in amazing ways in your life.
Lord Jesus, I am so grateful that You are not only a God of peace, but that You want to pass that peace to me. You literally commit Yourself to keep me in peace. Help me to do my part. Help me through Your Spirit to keep my mind fixed upon You and to trust You in every way.
Praise God for his powerful actions on your behalf.
Thank God for saving you and bringing you into the richness of life with him.
Confess attitudes of self-reliance and independence from God.
Commit yourself to remembering that all he has placed in your hands is still his.
Ask God to give you a giving spirit.
Pray that God will show himself holy through his people in the sight of the nations (Ezek. 39:27).
Prayer Points taken from Patterns for Prayer by Alvin VanderGriend. This book is available at prayerleader.com. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
As the Taliban swiftly overran the Afghanistan government in 2021, and tens of thousands were trapped with no way to escape, many were isolated and desperate. Ordinary citizens jumped to action, including one young man who launched an Instagram campaign, raising $7 million to pay for chartered evacuation flights. “We’ve shed the political divisions in this situation,” he told a news outlet, “and really come together from all walks of life to rally together and save these people.” They chose to jump into the fray.
It’s not just Afghanistan. From skyscrapers to villages around the world, so many people are alone—enduring crushing sorrows. It’s stunning, however, to see God’s attention turned toward these places of suffering and hopelessness. Somehow, ultimately, in His own way and time, He will “deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help” (72:12). And remarkably, one way God’s help arrives is through us. Psalm 72 refers to both King Solomon’s work and God’s work—and it’s not always easy to disentangle which is which. God is the rescuer, but He calls us to move with Him.
When we encounter injustice or suffering, we can join Him, moving right into the middle of the ruin. We can follow God and go into the places where no one else is there to help.
By Winn Collier
REFLECT & PRAY
What situation have you encountered where it seems like there’s no one else to help? How can you join God in that place?
Dear God, thank You for promising to help us—and for calling us to join You in helping others.
Psalm 72 is one of only two psalms attributed to King Solomon (see also Psalm 127). The Expositor’s Bible Commentary says of Psalm 72, “This psalm is a royal psalm wherein petition is made for the prosperity of the Lord’s anointed. The psalm is messianic in the sense that Jesus is the ‘Christ’ (‘anointed one’) who shares in all the promises made to David and to his descendants (see 2 Samuel 7).” Seen as a messianic psalm, it anticipates the time when Jesus will return as “King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Timothy 6:15; see Revelation 19:16) and bring an end to all injustice and suffering. In fact, this psalm was the inspiration for the classic hymn “Jesus Shall Reign” by Isaac Watts, which celebrates the future worldwide reign of Christ. , as we wait for His return, we can join Him and help those who are suffering.
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