"Peace—to every heart"

Today, a deep yearning for peace touches human hearts everywhere. Thousands of years ago, the writers of the Bible also felt this need in their own time and included many inspiring references to God bringing peace to people’s lives. In the book of Psalms, for example, we read, “The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace” (29:11). And later, in the New Testament, we find this salutation near the end of the Epistle to the Ephesians, “Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (6:23).

Throughout the Old Testament, the Hebrew word used for peace is predominantly šālôm, commonly rendered shalom in English. This peace not only refers to the absence of conflict between individuals or nations but also points to an inner quietness for each of us, a spiritual tranquility that includes a genuine sense of completeness or wholeness.

The healing works of Jesus could be considered ultimate acts of shalom—of bringing a new recognition of an individual’s completeness and a spiritual tranquility to those he healed. Think, for instance, of a man with leprosy who had been an outcast in his own community because of the widespread fear of his illness. Or of the woman who had been experiencing severe bleeding for 12 years and found no relief no matter how hard she had tried or how much money she had spent searching for a cure. When they were healed by the spiritual power of the Christ—the divine idea of God bringing light and grace to human consciousness—these individuals certainly must have felt not only gratitude and joy and a stronger faith in God but a deep quietness of the heart.