It Is Well With My Soul

“So Gideon built an altar there to the Lord, and called it The-Lord-Is-Peace [Jehovah Shalom]. To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.” (Judges 6:24)

The entrance of peace is God Himself. The Bible doesn't present peace as a feeling we manufacture, but as the very character of God. In Judges 6:24, He is revealed as Jehovah Shalom, meaning "The Lord, our peace." Even the name "Jerusalem" carries this truth: city of peace. Where God is, there is peace.

What is this peace? It is not the absence of trouble, nor the absence of disagreement. The peace God gives is power in the midst of trouble, not an escape from it. It is a tranquility of soul while the storm still rages.  

Horatio Spafford wrote “It Is Well with My Soul” in troubled times. Horatio Spafford knew deep sorrow. In 1873, his four daughters were sailing on the French steamer Ville du Havre when it collided with the British ship Loch Earn in the North Atlantic and went down. His wife, Anna, survived and sent that heartbreaking telegram: “Saved alone.” A few years earlier, their young son, Horatio Jr., had died of scarlet fever. Add to that the financial losses from the Great Chicago Fire, and you can see the storm he was walking through. And yet, crossing near the place where his girls went down, he penned a few words that would later inspire the hymn "It Is Well with My Soul". The first verse says,

“When peace like a river attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.”

He did not deny sorrow; he declared God’s sustaining peace within it. That is the kind of peace Jehovah Shalom gives.

This peace flows to us from the triune God. God the Father is Jehovah Shalom. God the Son, Jesus Christ, is called the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), and Ephesians 2:14 also says, “He Himself is our peace,” breaking down dividing walls between us. God the Holy Spirit produces peace as His fruit within us (Galatians 5:22). Peace is not a mood we chase; it is the life of God reigning in us.

So we need not wait for the storm to pass before we walk in peace. We can welcome Jehovah Shalom right when the pressure is greatest, in the conversation that makes our chest tighten, in the decision that keeps us awake, and in the memories that still sting.

Peace is not pretending the pain isn’t real; it is receiving God’s power to endure and overcome in the middle of it. And when His peace rules our hearts, we are strengthened to be peacemakers—steady enough to take the first step, secure enough to build a bridge.

Reflection Question: Where do you need to welcome Jehovah Shalom today, not after the circumstance changes, but right in the midst of it?

Father, You are Jehovah Shalom. Bring peace into my thoughts, emotions, home, and relationships. Let the peace the Holy Spirit produces inside of me steady my heart. I pray you equip me to be a peacemaker with others, too. In Jesus’ Name, amen.

Adapted from "Becoming a Bridge-Builder": https://www.joshfranklin.org/media/5dw2p8w/7-become-a-bridge-builder