Life isn’t always going to get easier, but God can always offer you peace. Solutions may not come today, but peace can. Oh what a place to find yourself in life when you realize peace can be yours precisely where you are with things exactly as they are. You don’t have to live so upset, so stressed, so unsettled and so unsure. The name you need to call on is Yahweh Shalom.

Yahweh, as we know from the beginning of our study of the names of God, is the covenant, relationship, promise up-holding name God reveals of himself. It is the name we speak with our breath. The name we have called on every moment of our lives by simply inhaling and exhaling. YHWH.

Shalom, a word we often translate as peace – but in reality, it’s so much deeper than just peace. Shalom is a state of wholeness, completion and restoration. It’s a state where things are exactly as they are meant to be.

Yahweh Shalom, a mighty and holy God who assures us with him things are exactly as they are meant to be. Now that is peace.

I may not understand it. I am not in control of it. I don’t see how it’s all going to work out. But Yahweh Shalom understands completely. Yahweh Shalom is in total control. And Yahweh Shalom sees precisely how it’s all going to work out, and he’s predetermined that it will work out for good according to his eternally good plan. Yahweh Shalom, the God of Peace, invites his beloved girls to trust him knowing he’s got you and he’s got this.

Your stress is unnecessary. Your worry is unwarranted. Your ‘freak-out’ is unfounded. Plain and simple, when you have a God like Yahweh Shalom, you would be foolish to not accept his peace in every situation. He will create the path for your feet. He will carry the burden for you. He will ensure the battle is won. You can trust the God of Peace.

This name is introduced in scripture in the book of Judges, chapter 6. The previous chapters are a series of God’s people, the Israelites, being rescued by God, then forgetting God and going astray. They would fall into slavery to evil Kings and live miserable lives. Each time their lives would get worse and worse until finally they cried out to God again for help. Then God would rescue them, restore them, and bring them peace again. But over time, they would fall back into old ways and wander away from God in a life of self and sin. Chapter after chapter, generation after generation, it continues. They’re in trouble and they suffer – until they just can’t suffer any longer and they call out to God – God rescues and restores – life gets better – then they wander again, forgetting God – Life gets worse, and then they’re right back to trouble and suffering again.

Through these chapters in Judges, sometimes we see God’s people waiting a few years before calling out to God – other times we see them waiting for 20 years. Each time, as long as they waited to call on God for help, the suffering continued and life got worse. But each time they turned to God and called on him for help, he restored their peace. Without fail, as long as they delayed calling on God, their rescue and peace would wait. But also without fail when they cried out to God, he would help. The question is, why would they wait so long?

Why wait 8 years? Why wait 20 years? Oh my goodness, WHY ARE YOU WAITING? This will NOT get better without God. He’s waiting on you to call out to him!

But, there’s danger in our pre-conceived notion of what it might mean for things to “get better”. Getting better doesn’t always mean fixed – getting better can mean peace in the mess and joy on the journey you didn’t expect to be traveling.

My family has been in a less than favorable situation for 7 years. Life with our family is far short of anything I imagined it would be. It’s not what I would wish for, but let me tell you what it is … IT’S FULL OF PEACE. I’m no longer upset, angry, hurt or empty in the waiting. I have nothing but peace because we’ve called on God and that’s what he brings.

You may think calling on God immediately fixes the situation – sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn’t. But calling on God always brings his presence, and with his presence comes an unspeakable peace. The truth is, I don’t have to have this situation fixed to feel peace and joy … Yahweh Shalom has given me everything I need. I can trust he’s making it right. I can trust he sees what I do not see and he is actively involved to make things exactly as they should be.

Here’s the truth – our God holds eternity. He’s not on your timeline. He’s not in a rush. He has all the time in the world to make things exactly as they should be … and he is! What he offers you and I in that process in PEACE every time we call on him.

So, back to our story in the book of Judges. God’s people were stubborn, always straying away from God in between getting saved, continually going back to old ways of self and sin, until they finally cry out to God again for help. By chapter 6 we find the Israelites 7 years into their current unbearable struggle of life. They were hunted and haunted by their enemies and now resorting to hiding in caves for survival. Life was the hardest it had ever been for God’s people – all while God was just waiting for them to turn back to him.

Judges 6:6, “So Israel was reduced to starvation by the Midianites (their enemies). Then the Israelites cried out to the LORD for help.”

FINALLY – why would they wait so long? For the same reason you would wait so long. You’re just sure you can make things work, until nothing works for you. You’re sure this is just the way life is going to be, so you settle in to the normal of life just sucking. You discount God’s power to change it for you, so you forget you can call on him. Until finally, you just can’t take it anymore and God is your only way.

Here’s what happens when they call out on God after 7 years of waiting … God responds. He sends help.

This is where an angel is sent by the LORD to a young man named Gideon who is just trying his best to gather a little bit of food and hide it so his family can survive. These conditions were absolutely as bad as they could possibly be. That’s where God meets Gideon. And it’s here the LORD says to Gideon, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

Then the LORD said to him (verse 16), “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites.”

Wow, what a promise from God to a young man who from the smallest clan and the least in his family , in a suppressed land struggling to simply survive, hiding in caves and starving to death. It was an impossible promise after 7 years of life getting worse and worse. But they had finally cried out to the Lord, and this was their answer. A promise of freedom, restoration, wholeness.

And this is where Gideon, a small young man who was nothing but absolutely normal and easily overlooked, calls God ‘Yahweh Shalom – the God of Peace’.

Had the battle been fought yet? No.
Had the enemy been destroyed yet? No.
Had the people even been given food to eat yet? No.

But God had brought peace. Peace BEFORE the situation changed. Peace BEFORE the promise was fulfilled. Peace BEFORE peaceful conditions.

While their families were still hiding in caves – while their crops were all stolen – while they were in survival mode – God brought PEACE. Peace that assured them God was making everything as it should be. Peace that God heard their cry, God was moving on their behalf, God was for them and not against them.

Their enemies were still there. The oppression had not ended. But when Gideon personally encountered God, he walked away with PEACE. Peace that comes before the victory – before the change – before it’s fixed – before you have an answer.

What I’ve found in my own 7 year journey of waiting is that peace can exist before circumstances change. The world will tell you peace comes when the diagnosis changes, when the relationship heals, when the bills are paid and when the uncertainty ends. That’s nothing but counterfeit and circumstantial peace. The moment you encounter the next problem, that peace will fade. But the peace offered by Yahweh Shalom is strong and steady before the change, before the fix, before the shift, and regardless of next.

Jesus says in John 14:27, “I am leaving you with a gift – peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” If you’ve ever experienced the gift of his peace, then you know it simply doesn’t make sense, but it’s real. Philippians 4:7 tells us that God’s peace “exceeds anything we can understand.” And by golly, that’s exactly right!

Yahweh Shalom says, “My peace can hold you perfectly BEFORE anything changes.”

God’s peace is strong enough to exist in unfinished, unhealed, and uncertain situations! I know, because I’m in the middle of it and yet I have immeasurable PEACE. It’s here for you too, my sister.

Don’t wait for things to get worse. Don’t wait until you just can’t go on. Don’t wait until you’re a shriveled up piece of who you once were. Don’t wait until fear has taken your identity and anxiety has crushed your spirit. CALL ON YAHWEH SHALOM NOW! His peace is truly available to you right now!

Peace isn’t pretending everything is okay. Peace is knowing God is still with you even when it’s not. There’s divine stability for you here in God’s peace.

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