Some years ago there was a massive earthquake in Soviet Armenia. Large apartment buildings crumbled like sand castles. In hindsight it was determined that the tragedy was magnified because of the poor construction of the buildings. They were constructed simply of concrete, without reinforcing steel rods. They looked fine from the outside, but when the tremors came, the unreinforced buildings began to crumble.

In the Christian’s life the peace of God is our steel reinforcement. If you were to compare a group of Christians and non-Christians, you probably couldn’t see any difference in their external appearance. The “concrete” on the outside would look the same. But it’s when the earthquakes of life come that you discover whether or not you have the peace of God acting like reinforcing steel rods, holding your life together.