Good News

Even when the news is discouraging, we can have hope in Christ and therefore, we can possess a
reason for rejoicing, because of His might and majesty. Psalm 113 states:
1 Praise the Lord! Praise, O servants of the Lord, Praise the name of the Lord!
2 Blessed be the name of the Lord From this time forth and forevermore!
3 From the rising of the sun to its going down The Lord's name is to be praised.
4 The Lord is high above all nations, His glory above the heavens.
5 Who is like the Lord our God, Who dwells on high...

All day long, throughout the course of our day, we can be mindful of the presence of Almighty God, and rejoice that we are held in His hands.  Sometimes the information we receive is not encouraging, but knowing that He is with us and availing ourselves of the resources that He has provided can help adjust our focus.  Our faith can be built up by exposure to the Word and our joy and strength can be increased because we know He is there.

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In Romans 15, the apostle Paul writes a characterization of the Church, and the hope that can reside in the hearts of God's people. We can read:
13 Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
14 Now I myself am confident concerning you, my brethren, that you also are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another.
Here at Faith Radio, we are continuing to emphasize walking in faith, not fear, and we walk by faith while still engaging in practical steps, doing our part to curb the virus, and if we have been infected, to not spread it.

The primary source of our faith being reinforced is the Word of God - the Bible says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by God's Word.  So, in this time of trial, we can build up our spiritual immunity to fear by the inoculation of God's Word.

And, in the midst of dire statistics, we can rejoice in positive signs that we are seeing.  A ChristianHeadlines.com article by Scott Slayton, published last Friday, brought some good news.  For one thing, as he points out, the area where the disease struck early has seen a reduction in new cases.  The article says:

According to Time, Wuhan province had no new cases to report Thursday, which was the first time that had happened since the outbreak began. In an area where thousands of new cases were once being reported each day, this offers a bit of hope during this worldwide pandemic.

There is also news of how certain drugs have the potential to treat the virus, including the approval by the FDA of a new vaccine and the use of a drug in India used to treat HIV.

And, generosity is flowing. I have documented instances in which churches and individuals are allowing God to move through them to reach people who have needs.  That article pointed out instances of professional athletes who are helping out those who have taken an economic hit.  It states:

While many athletes enjoy a guaranteed salary during the shutdowns of their respective leagues, the hourly workers who rely on games for income have been hit hard. CBS News has a long list of teams and players who have pledged to help workers who are out of a job.

One that caught the eye of many was 19-year-old Zion Williamson, a rookie for the New Orleans Pelicans, who pledged to cover the salaries of all workers at the Smoothie King Center for the next month.

Then, there's Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors, who is a professing Christian.  The article reports:

...Steph and Ayesha Curry said they wanted to help students in the Oakland Unified School District. They are providing more than one million meals so that “no child” in the county “worries where their next meal comes from while schools are closed. Curry, who plays for the Golden State Warriors, said that more than 18,000 students rely on the schools for 2 meals each day."

And, while it is very easy to become discouraged when you look at the increasing number of cases in the United States, as well as the deaths that have come from the Coronavirus, we can also rejoice in the recoveries.  The Christian Headlines piece said that in Maryland, "Montgomery County’s Chief Health Officer told news outlets that the first three people in Maryland to test positive for COVID-19 have recovered. In especially encouraging news, the three were a married couple in their 70s and a woman in her 50s."  They apparently contracted the virus in their travels in Egypt. While the American death rate is hovering around 1-1/2 percent and is expected to decrease as testing increases and more people survive the disease, we will no doubt hear more stories of people who have survived.  That is certainly not to minimize the death of anyone and the acute medical need that some areas are facing, but we can draw strength from survival stories.

You may consider yourself realistic or pragmatic, but we can seek to walk in the joy of the Lord.  Jesus, just before He was put to death told His disciples to "be of good cheer."  That was remarkable, in light of what was about to happen to Him.  We are called to be people of hope because we know the hope of the world.

The news can be overwhelming at times, and can even have the tangible effect of weighing us down.  We have to diversify - it's not healthy, mentally or emotionally speaking, to expose ourselves to a steady diet of discouraging news and information.  We can be challenged to surround ourselves with a balanced diet of information. And, that diet should ideally include a healthy portion of God's Word.

In all things, we can rejoice in how God is working - we can identify what He is doing and think about that.  He is moving through His people in unprecedented ways, and lives are being changed. And, we can allow Him to do a profound work in our own hearts.