Blake Long

In April this year a tornado ripped through a town about 25 minutes away from where I live. It came in at such an angle that it would’ve gone directly over us if it stayed in tact.

Thankfully, many tornadoes dissipate, or they go just north or south of where we reside. But when that tornado came on that long—and I mean long—April night (and into early morning) we got our girls out of bed and huddled up in our bathroom, which is the innermost room in our home.

That brings some peace of mind, but not a whole lot, since we’re still above ground and not covered by any type of safe room or shelter. That changed after that night. It was officially time to invest in a storm shelter. We put it off until the next storm season—and then had to deal with more severe weather in November—so we decided to pull the trigger this month.

We now have an underground storm shelter in our garage. It’s not perfect, but it’s going to do the job just fine. Now once tornado season comes, we can have real peace of mind by taking shelter underground.

As Christians, we have peace of mind as we take shelter in Christ. According to Romans 8:1, we are no longer condemned. If we are in Christ, we don’t have to worry about God’s wrath, for Christ bore it all on our behalf. The fear, the anxiety, the trepidation—it all vanished as we are hidden in Christ.

Do you feel the security? Do you have that peace of mind? It can be quite easy to succumb to thoughts of despair or allow spiritual warfare to overtake you if you’re not focusing on Jesus. You stumble, you fall, you collapse on yourself time and time again. That, in turn, rips away your peace of mind. But we must remember our peace with God is not based on how well we perform as believers, but on the finished work of Jesus Christ.

We trust in Christ’s work on our behalf, and are given peace of mind. There’s no need to fret, no need to worry about God’s hovering anger and wrath toward us—it doesn’t exist anymore. It was vanquished when Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 3:30).

As people who were once enemies of God, we’ve now been adopted, redeemed, saved. We now not only have peace of mind, but everlasting peace with God. Amen.