What Is Shalom? The Biblical Key to Healing and Wholeness

Welcome back to season four of The Joy Prescription Podcast. Hello, friend. I’m so glad that you’re here. Welcome, welcome, welcome.

The Joy Prescription Podcast is where we talk about healing, not just in our physical bodies, but in our hearts, our minds, and our spirits. Today I want to sit with you and chat about a word that’s really close to my heart: shalom.

You’ve probably heard it before. Most of the time it gets translated as peace. And while that’s not wrong, it’s honestly just the tip of the iceberg. In our modern world, peace often means the absence of conflict or noise, like when the kids are finally asleep and the house is quiet.

But shalom in the Bible means so much more than that. Shalom is the presence of wholeness. It’s not just about feeling calm. It’s about being whole—body, mind, and spirit. It’s when things are as they should be, complete, restored, settled in God’s goodness.

It touches every part of our lives: our physical health, how our bodies feel and function; our emotions, how we handle the ups and downs of life; our relationships, how we love and are loved; our sense of purpose, why we get up in the morning; and our connection to God. He is the source of all peace.

In Hebrew, the word shalom comes from a root that means to make whole, to restore, to make things right. Isn’t that beautiful? There are even related words in the Bible—shalam, complete; shalom, restoration; and mashulum, someone who’s been made whole again. It’s like this thread of healing and wholeness is woven through the very language of Scripture.

And here’s something important: shalom is not something we find by ourselves or achieve by hustling harder. It’s relational. It flows from being in right relationship with God, with others, and with ourselves, and even with the world around us.

When Jesus is called the Prince of Peace, the sar shalom, it’s not just a nice title. It’s a declaration. He is our peace. The prophet Isaiah said, “For unto us a child is born, and he will be called Prince of Peace.” The apostle Paul wrote, “He himself is our peace” in Ephesians 2:14. And Jesus said, “My peace I give to you” in John 14:27.

He didn’t just come to calm our nerves. He came to restore what was broken, to bring us back into wholeness, to heal us from the inside out.

I love what Proverbs 4 verses 20 through 22 says: pay attention to what I say. Turn your ears to my words. They are life to those who find them, and health to one’s whole body. Isn’t that what we’re all craving—life, wholeness, health, peace that runs deeper than our circumstances?

So let me gently ask you: where are you feeling a little frayed at the edges right now? Where do you feel like things are out of sync, out of balance, broken, or just weary? Where is Jesus, your Prince of Shalom, inviting you to come closer, to rest, to be made whole again?

This isn’t an invitation to strive or fix yourself. It’s an invitation to come back home to the one who made you, who loves you, who sees the places in you that need healing and says, let me take care of that.

This is what The Joy Prescription is all about—not just about avoiding disease, but recovering your joy, becoming more of who God created you to be, living whole and free and grounded in his love.

If this message spoke to you today, I’d love for you to share it with someone else who might need a reminder of shalom. And make sure you subscribe so we can keep walking this journey together.

Until next time, you were made for shalom. You were made for joy. You were made to be whole. May his peace, his shalom, dwell richly in your heart today.

🎧 Watch or listen to this episode of ReThink Aging: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSIrQxagX5k&pp=0gcJCSMKAYcqIYzv 

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