Episode #223 Part 2: Receiving Peace in Chaos and Overcoming Your Inner Critic – Names of God

Hey friends, it's Jen, and welcome to Good God Talks. The whole point of this podcast is to help you grow in your habit of having uncommon conversations with God in everyday life moments. And I love getting to hear about how this podcast is doing that!

If you look down in the show notes on your podcast player, there is a link that says “Send us a text.” And by clicking that link, you'll be able to send us a direct text message to share. feedback or a testimonial and also to share questions with us. We can't text you back, but we do receive and read all of those text messages. And I would love to hear from you what other topics you would like to have covered in future episodes.

I want to share with you a recent text that we received. I'm redacting personal information so everyone knows you can send these in and be kept completely anonymous.

Here's the message that we received. It says, “I just found your podcast and it's amazing. I am just like you. I beat myself up and don't like to ask for help. I think I should have it all together. I love God and I know he loves me. I was taught to talk to Jesus at a drug and alcohol program and I'm eight years clean.”

Congratulations. That sobriety is huge.

Keep going.

They go on to say that they “would love to hear more about how you got over the inner criticism and how to maintain that. Thank you for the podcast. It's a lifesaver.”

So first, thank you for sharing this text with us. Thank you for being a listener. To all of you, thanks for tuning in to Good God Talks.

And I'm sharing this testimonial today in part because that's a little bit of what we're going to be talking about in the life of Gideon. As we look at the impact it holds for us, that one of the names of God is Jehovah Shalom.

If you missed the very last episode, pause here, go back and catch that episode because that's where we're looking at when this name of God is first introduced in scripture.
There's a lot of really bad things that are going on in the world and in Gideon's space and he is afraid. And God meets him where he's at and gives him instruction to go and overthrow the enemy that's oppressing the people. But Gideon is not confident that it's actually God who's talking with him. And basically is testing God to have him prove who he is.

And so in verse 22 of Judges 6, it says,

“When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he cried out, ‘Oh, sovereign Lord, I'm doomed. I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.’ And God replies to him, ‘It is all right. Do not be afraid, you will not die.’ And Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and named it Yahweh Shalom or Jehovah Shalom, which means the Lord is peace.” (Judges 6:22-24a NLT)

The historical context that Gideon knew of God was that you did not look upon the face of the Lord and he was there questioning God. He didn't recognize that it was God who was with him.

He was so aware of all of these reasons not to have peace that he didn't recognize the Lord of Peace who was there with him.

I relate to that so much in so many different aspects of life. One of them has to do with that question that I read at the beginning, and we'll continue to talk about overcoming that inner self critic. But one of the ways I have learned to tame that inner self critic is by yielding that over to the Lord of peace.

When Jesus is talking with his disciples before dies and ascends into heaven. This conversation is recorded for us in John chapter 14, and I'll read for you, verse 27 in the NLT, it says,

“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." (John 14:27 NLT)

When my inner critic rises up, usually that has something to do with my lack of peace.

It has some connection to the troubling circumstances that I am in and how I feel like I'm navigating those things.
And the piece that I try and give to myself is in controlling every possible outcome and mitigating risk and doing everything as perfectly as I can and I get in my head about all of the ways that I'm not measuring up to that standard.

The peace that God gives is nothing like what the world offers. It's nothing like what I can offer myself because it is far more and far better. I relate so much to Gideon. in the distractions that he had with all of the reasons not to be at peace. And I can look at times in my life and in hindsight, see how God was there with me. But in that moment, it was difficult or delayed in how I recognized him.

There's a quote from Tim Keller that says, “The peace that comes from Jehovah Shalom doesn’t eliminate the chaos of life but empowers you to stand firm, knowing the Prince of Peace reigns."

That's one of the things that has helped me as I overcome my once loud inner self critic, knowing that I don't have to be the one who's in control of everything because my Prince of Peace reigns.

The chaos of life can be going on out there. It can also be going on in here in my own heart and mind. And that is what I have the most say in. The response we get to have as God's kids is to draw near and receive more of him, as our Lord, who is peace.

And so that's the question that I'm going to leave you with today. Take this conversation, take the thoughts and the wrestling and anything going on in your world and turn this into a two-way dialogue where you get to talk with God about it and listen for what he would share with you. And here's a question that you can ask him.

God, I know you are Jehovah Shalom, the Lord is peace. What does it look like for me to receive your peace in a new way?

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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