Jehovah-shalom: The Lord My Peace

Jehovah-shalom: The Lord My Peace

The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!”

“Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about?”

And Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and named it “The LORD Is Peace.” –Judges 6:12-13, 24

This morning I got an e-mail from my church asking for prayer for a woman who is preparing for a stem cell transplant in her fight against cancer. She asked us to pray that she and her husband would know perfect peace. God’s peace is indeed what we need during difficult times. But is that realistic? Isn’t it more realistic that the desperation of her situation would make her question the benefits of a relationship with God? Doesn’t she have every right to ask God, “Where is my miracle?”

That’s how Gideon responded when he heard God proclaim his presence. Years of Midianite cruelty had left the Israelites starving and afraid. So Gideon responded incredulously, questioning why they were suffering so much if God was with them. Gideon also questioned why God would address him as a hero, since he knew he was a nobody from a tribe of nobodies, certainly not strong enough to rescue Israel. Gideon basically said to God, “I’m too offended to believe you and too ordinary to be used by you.”

But God transforms ordinary people who feel defeated and full of doubt into mighty heroes of faith as they welcome his presence and power. “Go with the strength you have,” the Lord said to Gideon. “I will be with you” (Judges 6:14, 16). We have nothing to offer God but need, but as we give that to him and move forward with our small amount of personal and spiritual strength, we see God begin to work. The revelation and recognition of who God is turns ordinary faith into overcoming faith and helpless people into heroes.

Could you become a hero of faith in your hopeless situation? Could your experience of God be defined by all-encompassing peace? Yes, but you will have to quit being offended with God and welcome him to reveal himself to you as Jehovah-shalom. Peace is not a feeling or possession but a person. Jesus will invade your hopelessness and distress and reveal himself as Peace.

My Jehovah-shalom, you know that my level of anxiety and distress is in a constant state of flux with my circumstances. So I welcome you as Peace personified into my place of despair, and I offer my weak faith to you.

DIGGING DEEPER