Recently, I was asked how I have so much peace. My life isn’t perfect. No I have daily stress, frustrations, and discouragements. Just like everyone else in the world. But, a couple years ago (not exactly sure when), I found a deeper peace that I had not known existed. I call it the Shalom of Yeshua. Which is just Hebrew for the peace of Salvation. Yeshua is the Hebrew way of saying the name “Jesus.” This name actually means the salvation of YHVH.
YHVH (or Yehovah) is the Hebrew name of the LORD from the Bible. So, Yeshua is the salvation of the LORD. If you are one of my regular readers you may be wondering why I only found this deep peace a couple years ago, since I have been a believer since I was a child.
It is true I started my journey with the Messiah when I was a small child. I was blessed to be raised in a believing home by parents who had a radical faith, and walked in obedience to the calling to love others and to serve others. So at a very young age I understood that God (Elohim) was my creator and that He loved me. I also understood that He was perfect and could not be around sin. Sin was explained to me as the bad things we do. I understood that because I sinned, I could not be with God or have a relationship with Him. But, that because God loved me so much and wanted to be with me, He sent His Son, Yeshua to die for me. I understood at a very young age that Yeshua died and rose again proving He was God’s Son, and that He was also God too. (as a child I was taught to believe in Jesus, I now know the Messiah is named Yeshua.)
In my experience with children, my own and others, most children if taught these basic Bible truths believe them and grasp them very quickly. Especially, if a child is taught the traditional Bible stories over and over again.
So, at a young age, I believed in Yeshua and asked Him to be my Lord and Savior. A few years later, I understood that making Him my Lord meant giving my whole self to Him. I wanted to live everyday and every moment for Him.
If you read some of my older posts, you will see that just because I desired to be good and do right, I often did not do good or what was right. I often felt depressed and discouraged at my lack of Godly character. Over the years, I continued to study God’s Word , to seek Him with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to do right by others. I went to church, I served in church, I went to Bible studies, I lead Bible studies, I tried to do and be everything I thought God wanted me to be, I tried to do what the church told me to do.
But I never felt good enough. I never felt like a good enough daughter. I never felt like a good enough sister. I never felt like a good enough friend. I never felt like a good enough wife. I never felt like a good enough mother. I never felt like a good enough Christian.
The funny thing is all this time I heard and read sermons and books that said I was saved by grace and I was good enough. Yet, something wasn’t adding up. The church said grace, grace, grace. Yet, everyone inside the church, including me, felt like failures. We were coming to church each week to be encouraged and motivated to keep on going each week. We were coming for hope and peace. We were coming for comfort. Yet, by mid week, many, like me, are feeling restless and without peace.
I would be worried about bills, worried about my kids future, worried about my kids health, worried about my husbands health, worried about my parents and siblings, worried about this and that. Yet, worry is a sin, so I would tell myself to give my worries over to the Lord and He would give me peace. Sometimes that worked, but then worry and fret would creep in again. Depression and hopelessness would join them. I tried so hard to put my trust in the Lord, but it seemed I would always have to start over again and again.
Then something changed. I am not sure exactly when or how it happened, but I started reading and studying scripture in a new way. I think it was my kids. We would read a passage of scripture and it would have a commandment or statute, and they would say mom why don’t we do that. So, we just slowly started doing them, even the ones that we didn’t think necessarily applied to us. We sort of figured if it is in the Bible, then it probably can’t hurt to obey it.
Then I started realizing through Bible reading, and a friend that maybe these commands are for me. I am not sure how to explain how this realization is what brought me this new found peace (shalom). But I think a lot of it has to do with the realization of Sabbath.
So, I want to answer my friends question by sharing the things I learned that lead me to this deep peace, shalom of Yeshua. So in the next several posts I hope to share some of the things I discovered in God’s Word, and I hope you will read the passages I post and find peace and joy from them, as I have.
Here is a passage to get you started: (IF you have your own Bible I suggest reading from it, otherwise, click the link to read it at Bible gateway.
Leave a Reply