Hide with Jesus!

18 My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.
19 Though hail flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely,
20 how blessed you will be, sowing your seed by every stream, and letting your cattle and donkeys range free.

Isaiah 32:18-20

When the tornado comes a simple root cellar can save your life and the lives of your family. Everything can blow away in less than a minute but the people and things that are hidden under the ground will survive untouched by the terror. Usually there is enough warning that most people in the path of a tornado reach shelter and survive. It is wise however to retreat to the shelter when the storm begins to rage even if there is no tornado warning.

In the storms of life there is only one safe place to find shelter. It is not in your 401k, as everyone is beginning to discover. It is not in the security of your job. It is not in your own cunning and wisdom. The only place to find shelter in the storms of life is in Jesus!

If you are not now a believer in Jesus this may sound too simple। You see many people who say they believe in Jesus and yet are just as racked by the storms of life as everyone else। Finding shelter in Jesus is not the same as “becoming religious” with a Christian perspective. When you find shelter in Jesus you literally begin to depend on Him for everything. It is as if everyone else in the world has gone away and there is no one left except you and Jesus. When you speak you are speaking to Jesus. When you listen to someone else speak it is always Jesus. You become like a small child with an imaginary friend। The child tells his or her friend about everything that is going on। The child will stop and pretend to listen to the friend who is not there. Frankly, it is quite cute to see a child having a conversation with an imaginary friend.

That is precisely what you will look like to unbelievers. They will think that Jesus is just a figment of your imagination. They will eventually come to think that you are insane. That is perhaps the greatest pressure the world puts on followers of Jesus.

Are you willing to be seen by the world as a person who has lost his mind? Ridicule and persecution are really the normal response of those in the world. How would you come to treat a forty year old man who goes around all day talking to his imaginary friend?

But when you take shelter in Jesus “though hail flattens the forest and the city is leveled completely, how blessed you will be.”

Remember, when you run to the root cellar to hide from the storms of life it can be a really special time because in that tiny hide-out Jesus will be right there with you!