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Unleashing Peace: Experiencing God's Shalom in Your Pursuit of Happiness
"Here's a powerful, biblical antidote to despair!"--LEE STROBEL, New York Times bestselling authorGod's peace, his shalom, can penetrate every aspect of your life--spiritually, mentally, physically, and emotionally. Although the word shalom appears 550 times in the Scriptures and was a constant theme in Jesus' teachings, it is a neglected topic today. As a result, God's peace has been elusive to so many followers of Jesus. This book charts a course of shalom for you!As Greg Laurie writes in the foreword, since we are made in God's image, you could say we have been prewired for happiness. We are prewired for hope. We are prewired for peace. If you are longing for healing and wholeness, noted Bible scholar Jeremiah J. Johnston will help you discover how to· Unleash shalom in your life· Live and apply shalom in God's world· Protect your shalom in difficult timesThis uplifting book is also helpful for ministry leaders and everyone else who recognizes the church's incredible opportunity today to help individuals and families dealing with anxiety, worry, and mental pain. Let this be your guide into the peace that passes all understanding. Shalom!"This is more than surviving; we are offered the gift of truly flourishing."--SHEILA WALSH, author of Holding On When You Want to Let Go"In this reassuring meditation on Christian happiness... Johnston's mix of scholarly and uplifting notes will speak to solace seekers and their ministry leaders alike."--PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
- GenresChristian
208 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 7, 2021
27 people are currently reading
97 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 31, 2025
I thought this was a motivating book as someone who struggles with anxiety and depression. I liked the more holistic approach of embracing shalom from a Christian worldview. I especially found the last chapters talking about difficult times within mental health struggles. It addressed questions on our thought life and feeling silence from God. I liked Johnston’s personal conversation style to this book.
January 26, 2022
This is perhaps my favorite book of the month, because it speaks about my favorite fruit of the spirit – peace. Until this point, I have not been familiar with this author, who is well-known and well-accomplished. He writes as a cross between a counselor and professor. He teaches based on a great deal of research and shares engaging testimonies from many of his highly accomplished Christian colleagues. The author also writes with compassion and humility, inviting the reader to seek the wholeness of shalom rather than a temporary, worldly form of peace. I’m learning much from this book and enjoying its unique perspective. A deep, rich look at God’s balm for an anxious world.
I received a preview copy from the publisher.
I received a preview copy from the publisher.
January 6, 2022
I just finished this book.
I have thoughts.
Quite a few of them.
I bought this book because the man came to my church and presented about it and encouraged people to buy it so that they can understand mental health issues better and the Christian response to them. It was mostly marketed towards those who are experiencing a lack of peace in the form of depression or anxiety. I had just moved and gotten a new job and was feeling rather anxious and depressed, as one does in that situation, so I decided to buy the book....then promptly regretted my decision when the man proceeded to plug his book only 47 more times in the next 20 minutes...that was a tad overdone I think. Be classy, plug your book once. After that it just gets irritating. I lost all hope when what was supposed to be a 20 minute presentation turned into a 20 minute attempt to shrink a 200 page book into highlights. He did not do a good job. Not at all. When someone loves their topic too much they try to shove everything into a tiny period of time and explain the whole thing in its awesomeness. You can't do that. You have to limit yourself, and this man hadn't the faintest idea how to do that. It was disjointed, it was impossible to follow, and it made me weep when afterwards everyone talked about how powerful it was. It wasn't! There wasn't a complete thought in the entire 20 minutes. It was a bunch of random syllogisms strung into a necklace of unmatched beads of all different sizes and shapes. That's being too nice, the string wasn't even the same, nothing held them together. More like a container of random buttons thrown together with the odd coin and doll house toy for good measure.
So. Needless to say, I wasn't exactly looking forward to reading this book, and was regretting my investment before I even started.
I'm happy to report that I now regard it as a good investment. The book was very readable. I'm going to go with he is a better writer than he is a speaker. Not only was the book very readable, I thought it was very good in the subject matter as well because he is clearly addressing current problems in the church. We do have an issue of hiding our sin, instead of telling it to people and getting help in overcoming it. That's the one thing I think the Catholics do better than the protestants. At least they are encouraged to tell another human soul about their sins. They go off the rocker thinking that just telling is enough to receive forgiveness, but that is neither here nor there. They are heading in a good direction at least. It's not even in sin alone, we protestants have a stiff upper lip and feel like we are weak in our faith if we even tell another Christian that we struggle with something, especially something as terrible as, gasp, mental illness. I speak sarcastically and tritely, but it really is a prevalent problem. Even I hesitated before putting in this review that I was feeling depressed when I bought this book. What if someone were to think that I struggle with depression regularly? That attitude itself is something this book is written to combat. Of course I'm going to struggle with depression regularly. Those that don't are extremely fortunate people, and they are rare. All of us struggle with depression, not just at some points in our lives when unusual and terrible things happen to us, but at times when the mundane piles up and smothers all hope in the ashes of the expected. I don't know about the rest of you, but I get discouraged when the same pathetic little problems surface day after day without end. I almost wish at those times that I was in Afghanistan, at least then I would have a valid reason for being upset and discouraged, instead of being someone living in a blessed nation whining about how the stupid files on her work computer are in chaos. It's difficult to find the balance. On the one hand, getting depressed about chaotic files with no organization is the epitome of entitled first world problems. On the other hand...it really is stressful! It becomes discouraging when day after day, week after week, the chaos only seems to grow, an inescapable morass of unorganized data that drowns out all joy and that permits no escape.
But this book is all about accepting those feelings for what they are, feelings, then recognizing that they will change, and that they are not the end all and be all. They are a valid source of information, but they are not the only source of information, and they must be brought into balance with other sources of information which are the mind and the soul. I am all there for the mind. I got this. Cognitive behavioral therapy. Boom. I am there. Ah, but there is also the soul. Not everything can be accomplished by the mind alone. We are weak creatures, and we have a God that we can depend on to help us as well. That was the lesson of this book and the one that I personally need a reminder about all too often.
I really like how this book does not overemphasize emotions. Faith is not an emotional thing. It's not reliant on how one feels. If it was, it would be a momentary thing, one moment flying high, the next completely gone in the depths of darkness. Faith is a practice, a discipline, a choice. Or rather, a series of choices. While this book never came out and said that in those words, it did make it clear in its examples and I quite liked its explanations. They were very easy and grounded and realistic.
On the other hand. There always is one isn't there? The guy be crazy sometimes. The clearest example I can cite is the section where he is talking about demon possession in the Bible and he is talking about the demon that Jesus confronts who says 'We know who you are'. He says that at that point the demon is threatening Christ with knowledge of His true name, because if someone knows someone else's true name they can use it to curse them. I think that's a bunch of hogwash. Because, um...where does it say that? Where is it even implied in the Bible? If this were the case, wouldn't you see demons threatening other people with their true names? Like...oh, I don't know, Daniel? I mean he had a demon try to prevent an angel from getting to him. Why didn't he just curse Daniel and avoid fighting the angel at all? Maybe this idea is in all of the exorcism literature that this guy read, I haven't read it, I'll take his word for it. I do know that it's in nearly every fantasy book written, so it's a common idea. The problem is that the first basis of biblical interpretation is to let the Bible interpret itself. You have to take the Bible in its entirety and build a belief system off of that, not pulling out the bits and pieces you like and ignoring all the rest. It's a terrible idea to take one demonic incident in the Bible and build a whole belief system off of it, because there is more than one incident and they all shed light on each other, and there is another passage where it is talking about 'even the demons believe and tremble.' In every time of demonic possession in the Bible where Jesus was present, the demon was desperate to get away from him, that's not threatening, that's fear. As if a puny little demon could threaten the Son of God. Why do you think they are waging this little proxy war using humans? Because they're too afraid to go up against the heavens directly.
I have thoughts.
Quite a few of them.
I bought this book because the man came to my church and presented about it and encouraged people to buy it so that they can understand mental health issues better and the Christian response to them. It was mostly marketed towards those who are experiencing a lack of peace in the form of depression or anxiety. I had just moved and gotten a new job and was feeling rather anxious and depressed, as one does in that situation, so I decided to buy the book....then promptly regretted my decision when the man proceeded to plug his book only 47 more times in the next 20 minutes...that was a tad overdone I think. Be classy, plug your book once. After that it just gets irritating. I lost all hope when what was supposed to be a 20 minute presentation turned into a 20 minute attempt to shrink a 200 page book into highlights. He did not do a good job. Not at all. When someone loves their topic too much they try to shove everything into a tiny period of time and explain the whole thing in its awesomeness. You can't do that. You have to limit yourself, and this man hadn't the faintest idea how to do that. It was disjointed, it was impossible to follow, and it made me weep when afterwards everyone talked about how powerful it was. It wasn't! There wasn't a complete thought in the entire 20 minutes. It was a bunch of random syllogisms strung into a necklace of unmatched beads of all different sizes and shapes. That's being too nice, the string wasn't even the same, nothing held them together. More like a container of random buttons thrown together with the odd coin and doll house toy for good measure.
So. Needless to say, I wasn't exactly looking forward to reading this book, and was regretting my investment before I even started.
I'm happy to report that I now regard it as a good investment. The book was very readable. I'm going to go with he is a better writer than he is a speaker. Not only was the book very readable, I thought it was very good in the subject matter as well because he is clearly addressing current problems in the church. We do have an issue of hiding our sin, instead of telling it to people and getting help in overcoming it. That's the one thing I think the Catholics do better than the protestants. At least they are encouraged to tell another human soul about their sins. They go off the rocker thinking that just telling is enough to receive forgiveness, but that is neither here nor there. They are heading in a good direction at least. It's not even in sin alone, we protestants have a stiff upper lip and feel like we are weak in our faith if we even tell another Christian that we struggle with something, especially something as terrible as, gasp, mental illness. I speak sarcastically and tritely, but it really is a prevalent problem. Even I hesitated before putting in this review that I was feeling depressed when I bought this book. What if someone were to think that I struggle with depression regularly? That attitude itself is something this book is written to combat. Of course I'm going to struggle with depression regularly. Those that don't are extremely fortunate people, and they are rare. All of us struggle with depression, not just at some points in our lives when unusual and terrible things happen to us, but at times when the mundane piles up and smothers all hope in the ashes of the expected. I don't know about the rest of you, but I get discouraged when the same pathetic little problems surface day after day without end. I almost wish at those times that I was in Afghanistan, at least then I would have a valid reason for being upset and discouraged, instead of being someone living in a blessed nation whining about how the stupid files on her work computer are in chaos. It's difficult to find the balance. On the one hand, getting depressed about chaotic files with no organization is the epitome of entitled first world problems. On the other hand...it really is stressful! It becomes discouraging when day after day, week after week, the chaos only seems to grow, an inescapable morass of unorganized data that drowns out all joy and that permits no escape.
But this book is all about accepting those feelings for what they are, feelings, then recognizing that they will change, and that they are not the end all and be all. They are a valid source of information, but they are not the only source of information, and they must be brought into balance with other sources of information which are the mind and the soul. I am all there for the mind. I got this. Cognitive behavioral therapy. Boom. I am there. Ah, but there is also the soul. Not everything can be accomplished by the mind alone. We are weak creatures, and we have a God that we can depend on to help us as well. That was the lesson of this book and the one that I personally need a reminder about all too often.
I really like how this book does not overemphasize emotions. Faith is not an emotional thing. It's not reliant on how one feels. If it was, it would be a momentary thing, one moment flying high, the next completely gone in the depths of darkness. Faith is a practice, a discipline, a choice. Or rather, a series of choices. While this book never came out and said that in those words, it did make it clear in its examples and I quite liked its explanations. They were very easy and grounded and realistic.
On the other hand. There always is one isn't there? The guy be crazy sometimes. The clearest example I can cite is the section where he is talking about demon possession in the Bible and he is talking about the demon that Jesus confronts who says 'We know who you are'. He says that at that point the demon is threatening Christ with knowledge of His true name, because if someone knows someone else's true name they can use it to curse them. I think that's a bunch of hogwash. Because, um...where does it say that? Where is it even implied in the Bible? If this were the case, wouldn't you see demons threatening other people with their true names? Like...oh, I don't know, Daniel? I mean he had a demon try to prevent an angel from getting to him. Why didn't he just curse Daniel and avoid fighting the angel at all? Maybe this idea is in all of the exorcism literature that this guy read, I haven't read it, I'll take his word for it. I do know that it's in nearly every fantasy book written, so it's a common idea. The problem is that the first basis of biblical interpretation is to let the Bible interpret itself. You have to take the Bible in its entirety and build a belief system off of that, not pulling out the bits and pieces you like and ignoring all the rest. It's a terrible idea to take one demonic incident in the Bible and build a whole belief system off of it, because there is more than one incident and they all shed light on each other, and there is another passage where it is talking about 'even the demons believe and tremble.' In every time of demonic possession in the Bible where Jesus was present, the demon was desperate to get away from him, that's not threatening, that's fear. As if a puny little demon could threaten the Son of God. Why do you think they are waging this little proxy war using humans? Because they're too afraid to go up against the heavens directly.
January 9, 2022
Unleashing Peace is a book about living in God’s peace, his shalom. This word appears 550 times in scripture. But as readers will witness this isn’t something that is discussed a lot in today’s times. This book hopes to change just that. He begins the book by sharing a heartbreaking story about a guy in London who was trying to jump off a bridge. In London, he shared how pedestrians don’t have the right of way and cars and where this bridge is located there is a lot of heavy traffic. A half dozen of people tried to stop him from jumping and they refused to let him go. He explained how God doesn’t give up on people but that we do. He looked at greatly in the book about how churches don’t speak on mental health, depressing, suicidal thoughts, and PTSD. There was survey even completed on how 70% of pastors don’t discuss it at all and how people wish they would. There is a wonderful amount of information included in this book about the suicide epidemic. The book is divided into three parts: how to unlock and unleash God’s shalom in your life, applying it to others and the world around us, and protecting our shalom in difficult times.
I would recommend this life changing book to anyone who is tired of not living in peace. This book will assist readers into discovering their true shalom and how we can apply the principles enclosed in this book to our everyday life. I immensely loved how he included interviews from doctors to explain their take on the topic. One of the doctors revealed a study conducted about depressed individuals and how the group who ran thirty minutes three times a week had improved overall moods compared to the one who took medication. Dr. Tague also explained how he had a better mood when he took the time each day to spend time with God and ask for joy. One of my favorite discussions was the one on magnesium and how critical this key component is to boosting their moods, providing nutrients, and how it helped to lift depression. I also greatly love how he discussed if someone kills themselves, do they go to hell and he included a fact section on the topic and he tries to encourage people to reach out for help when needed. I also liked how he looked at the unpardoned sin and what these consist of. There is a lot of scriptures verses and stories that explore peace and they will help us apply it daily in our lives.
"I received this book free from the publisher, Bethany House/ Chosen for my honest review.”
I would recommend this life changing book to anyone who is tired of not living in peace. This book will assist readers into discovering their true shalom and how we can apply the principles enclosed in this book to our everyday life. I immensely loved how he included interviews from doctors to explain their take on the topic. One of the doctors revealed a study conducted about depressed individuals and how the group who ran thirty minutes three times a week had improved overall moods compared to the one who took medication. Dr. Tague also explained how he had a better mood when he took the time each day to spend time with God and ask for joy. One of my favorite discussions was the one on magnesium and how critical this key component is to boosting their moods, providing nutrients, and how it helped to lift depression. I also greatly love how he discussed if someone kills themselves, do they go to hell and he included a fact section on the topic and he tries to encourage people to reach out for help when needed. I also liked how he looked at the unpardoned sin and what these consist of. There is a lot of scriptures verses and stories that explore peace and they will help us apply it daily in our lives.
"I received this book free from the publisher, Bethany House/ Chosen for my honest review.”
June 16, 2022
(3.5 stars) - I was pleasantly surprised with this book. I wasn’t expecting too much from it, most books like this seem to me to be shallow and facile, but other than the first chapter, where the author insisted that God wants us to be happy (Joy? Yes. Happy? Not necessarily), this was a pretty good book.
My two favorite chapters were his discussion of how our faith applies to all of us: body, soul, and spirit (which is unfortunately entitled “Holistic Happiness”) and his chapter on a discussion of what exactly is the unpardonable sin.
Mr. Jeremiah points out the proven importance of physical health to mental and spiritual health, a point often overlooked or downplayed by Christian authors. Endorphins, he would argue, are one of God’s good gifts to us, so let’s use them appropriately, let’s not neglect their value.
My two favorite chapters were his discussion of how our faith applies to all of us: body, soul, and spirit (which is unfortunately entitled “Holistic Happiness”) and his chapter on a discussion of what exactly is the unpardonable sin.
Mr. Jeremiah points out the proven importance of physical health to mental and spiritual health, a point often overlooked or downplayed by Christian authors. Endorphins, he would argue, are one of God’s good gifts to us, so let’s use them appropriately, let’s not neglect their value.
July 23, 2023
Forget to mark this one done too! Honestly…I finished this book more than a month ago and still haven’t processed even a fraction of it. I could easily reread this once a month and find new nuggets to lean into. Cheers to the pursuit of peace! I’m thankful the Prince of Peace brings it into view and grasp. This book helps conceptualise the act of taking hold. Spoiler: it’s not easy!!
May 16, 2023
Used this as a devotional, reading little chunks each morning. Glad I did. So many parts ministered to my soul. It also opened my eyes to the battles Christian’s face with mental health. Dr. Johnston lays out the struggle with peace and gives practical advice on how to achieve it in your life.
February 14, 2022
There were parts of this book I really enjoyed and then there were parts I wish were not included at all.
August 19, 2023
A must read in this fast paced, chaotic, troublesome world in which we live.
May 21, 2025
It’s really good book, makes you understand more of faith and continuing your day to day walking with God by your side.
March 2, 2023
A wonderful book about the power of God’s Shalom and how it is not something we have to search for, but we have full access to His peace that surpasses all understanding! If you are struggling with anxiety, fear, shame, sadness, or any emotion that is holding you down this book is for you.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews