Perfect Peace

Perfect peace is defined biblically is shalom shalom, or complete fulfillment as a result of God’s presence. We see this in Isaiah 26:3, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, (‘shalom shalom’) whose mind is stayed on Thee because he trusteth Thee.” 

The power of God is in the presence of God. God inhabits the praises of His people. We praise God in prayer when we thank Him specifically for His many blessings, acknowledge His love for us, and express our confidence in Him.

So how do we live a life blessed of perfect peace, or shalom shalom? 
We praise God for who He is, and as a result, He inhabits our space in a unique way. 
When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord of our life, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That gift alone is incredibly powerful separating us from the world and giving us the ability to live in agreement with Christ when we pursue to do so. 
Yet the offering of praise is so powerful that it brings God even closer to us, strengthening us even more to know and do His will.

What does it mean to praise God?
We praise God for who He is and acknowledge Him as the source of of life, breath, and all blessings. We boast of His goodness toward us. 


Psalm 117 is just two verses instructing the reader to praise God. “O praise the LORD, All ye nations: Praise him, all ye people.”
“For his merciful kindness is great toward us: And the truth of the LORD endureth for ever. Praise ye the LORD” (‭‭Psalm‬ ‭117:1‬-2).

The Hebrew word used in verse 1 for “praise” means “to shine or to be boastful.” The second Hebrew word in verse 1 interpreted as “praise” means “to soothe, to still, to quiet,” as the roar of the waves in the sea. The Hebrew word meaning “to shine or to be boastful” is used again in verse 2.
We are to boast of God to Him and to others. It’s important that we earnestly praise God in prayer and in deed and word to others. We are to shine His light to ourselves and those around us by boasting of His good works. In praising God, we are pleasing Him and also making the chaos around us to be still and bow to our supreme Lord. When we praise God even in the midst of a storm, we show that our confidence in God is not shaken. 

The power of God enables us to live triumphantly no matter our life situation. 
Think of the passage in John 17 where Jesus prays to God for His current disciples and those to come:
“And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (verses 13-17).
A few truths we can glean from this passage about a disciple of Christ:

• Jesus delivers the truth in the world for His disciples.
  
• Jesus desires for us to have joy, and He makes that possible.
  
• The world hates Christ and disciples of Christ.
  
• Jesus didn’t pray for God to take us out of the opposition.
  
• Jesus did ask God to keep us in the world but safe from evil.
  
• Jesus asks God to sanctify us through His truth.
  

A couple more thoughts on this passage:

• Joy is the Siamese twin for peace; they are a joint package and cannot be had separate from one another.
  
• We need to understand what it means to sanctify. The Greek word used for “sanctify” in John 17:17 means “to make holy, consecrate, sanctify” and is used to express meaning as “I make holy, treat as holy, set apart as holy, sanctify, hallow, purify.”  In other words, Jesus is asking God to set us apart and purify us to remove the impurities that stand in the way of our living in agreement with Christ.
  

Psalm 73:26 says, “My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.” Alone we are never enough and can never be enough to praise God or live God’s design for us. By His design, our close relationship with Him in obedience to Him is what sanctifies us, gives us joy, courage, strength, hope, and perfect peace to press on and praise God at all times.

 Even when times seem bleak, fix your eyes on where your help comes from. Certainly it is easier to focus on what concerns us, but our God is more concerned than we are and has the perfect solution, no detail overlooked. Are you going to relax in God’s gift of perfect peace by keeping your mind fixed on Him and trusting Him who sees tomorrow before it begins? 

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