Shalom: “The ancient Hebrew concept of peace, rooted in the word ‘shalom,’ meant wholeness, completeness, soundness, health, safety and prosperity, carrying with it the implication of permanence.” **
So, how’s your Christmas preparation season going? Is your “to do” list getting longer or shorter? Are you more of a “Martha” or a “Mary”* during these weeks? Are you peaceful or frazzled? In life – and especially during the holidays – there are always things to do. I expect you may have a list of things you are doing this month that are in addition to all your regular tasks. You may have to make some choices about what to put on the list: cleaning the whole house before company comes may make the list, but repainting the whole house by yourself probably should not. Too much is too much in any and all seasons. But no matter what is on your list, the activities of this month can be approached from a heart-place of frazzle or of peace.
When I watched a teaching on the Hebrew month of Kislev (which is 11/14/23-12/13/23), I was caught by her admonition that this month our action is to sleep and rest. What?? In the midst of a busy holiday season? We’re to sleep and rest!?! Yes. One of the benefits of the long, dark nights, is that they can help us sleep. Psalm 127:2 (NIV) says, “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves.” God gives us sleep and rest, but our enemy wants to wear us down. Daniel 7:25 (AMP) says in part, “He will speak words against the Most High [God] and wear down the saints of the Most High.” When we are worn down and not sleeping well, we may find ourselves frazzled instead of truly in God’s peace.
How do we keep from getting worn down by the enemy of our souls when God wants us rested and at peace? Give God all your burdens. All of them. We are invited to “[Cast] all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully]” (1 Peter 5:7 AMP). Or, to quote hymn writer Cleland Boyd McAfee, “There is a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God/a place where sin cannot molest,
near to the heart of God.”
Quiet rest involves intentionally guarding what we read, hear and speak. After all, when we listen for God’s Voice and respond to life from that Voice, we believe God’s good Word. When the 12 spies went into the Promised Land to scout it out, the frightened ten came back telling the Israelites that the land was full of giants who were too powerful to be defeated. But two men – full of faith and God’s Voice – knew that, with God’s help, the giants could be conquered and the land would then be the Israelites.
When Isaiah asks, “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?” (Isaiah 53:1 NASB) he’s not just throwing words in the wind. The report – the news – our spirits ingest makes a difference in how we interpret life. A steady diet of the world’s dark, fearful, bitter, depressing news will not bring you rest and peace. A steady diet of God’s good news, praying in your own language and in your spiritual language, fellowshipping with other believers, listening to, reading, and memorizing the Word of God – these are things that will bring rest and peace. If, “What you say flows from what is in your heart” (Luke 6:45 NLT), a heart full of God’s peace will speak words of faith, hope, peace, joy, and Light to a world trapped in darkness. Our words can give frazzle or peace to the world around us.
Do the things you need to do this season. But I invite you to intentionally nurture your spirit so your tasks, your words, and your interactions with others come not from a place of frazzle, but from a place of God’s deep shalom peace. “Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you” (2 Thessalonians 3:16 NIV).
God of Peace,
Thank you for your invitation to sit at your feet like Mary, and to nurture our spirits, even in the midst of the busyness of this month. Help us to focus on your Voice instead of the voices of our enemy or of the world. Even when we must accomplish tasks, Emmanuel, help us work from a place of peace instead of frazzle and may we radiate peace to the world around us. Enfold us with your deep and abiding shalom, we ask in Jesus’s name, Amen.
*(Luke 10) (By the way, I think Martha often receives a bad rap when people examine that story. There IS a place for work and working for the Kingdom and Martha knew that. But healthy work comes from a place of being rooted in Jesus and that comes from spending time with him as Mary chose to do.)
**https://jewsforjesus.org/publications/inherit/what-is-shalom-the-true-meaning
h/t Christine Vales: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twsTyxkoeIc