Psalm 112:7 - Bad News
Food for Thought
An all-creatures.org Guide to Kingdom Living

Psalm 112:7
New Living Translation

7 They do not fear bad news;
they confidently trust the Lord to care for them.

There are two ways in which I would categorize bad news. One is personal news such as health, finances, family; Things that involve our personal life. Then, there is the news from external sources Whether it comes from one source or the other, we need to respond consistently by trusting the Lord. In either circumstance we can trust God with the news or we crumble under it and look away. There is denial that comes with looking away. Some Christians are so consumed with their personal bad news that it interferes with any possible involvement with the bad news in the world. As believers in Christ, doing what He did and walking the way He walked, We need to view everyone in the world as our neighbor, particularly in this day and age of media abundance. Whether the bad news is personal or not, does not make a difference to God. We separate the two as if they were different issues or there was a different way of handling each one, but there is only One God and it is all the same to Him.

Many Christians have hidden behind a wall of cowardice as they turn away from things that are hard and challenging to their sensitive natures. Christians have no reason to hide their heads under a bush because we have a hope that none other on earth have. It is the hope that regardless of how bad the news is in our personal life or what is going on in the world we have a God who is more powerful than any other. We can lean into Him with our woes and depend on His guidance to do something productive against the evils we face whether personal or outside of our little sphere. Christians need to be so strong in faith and endurance that when (Not if) we hear bad news, we do not allow the bad news to dictate to us. We can feel the feelings behind bad news, but know that God is going to work things out.

One cannot shut their eyes long enough to miss or dismiss the painful and horrific things going on in this world One of the major flaws I have noted in Christians today is the unspoken belief that we need to turn away from difficult things. So often, Christians are afraid to look at difficult things because it is perceived as being too painful. Of course It is painful, we are designed to care. What is happening in the world and all the abuses should haunt us until we rise and take our place on the front line in prayer and action. Because the Lord is our strength.

This verse is not telling Christians to avoid negative or bad reports. It is instructing the opposite. It is saying that those who are not afraid to see the truth regardless of how ugly, can do so confident that God has everything under His control and that He is fully aware of what goes on in the world. The world and all its ways are evil and there is no question that at some point we will come upon something very difficult to hear and see. We must not avert our eyes to the truth of what is going on around us. We must look directly at the pain and suffering as we keep our eyes upon the Lord. Only in this way can we stand strong even in the midst of the horrors that fill our world.

Challenge: Ask God to help you look at the things that are hard to look at. Learn to see the evil and lean on God’s strength to do something about it.

God bless

Marni and Vanessa

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The purpose of this series is to encourage people to live as loving, compassionate, and peacemaking children of God: Jesus tells us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) God tells us through Micah (6:8), "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God." And we know from Revelation 21:4 that there will be no more mourning, or crying, or pain, or death. Thus, Christian living requires us to set the standards of these conditions here on earth for our fellow human beings, and for the other animals, as a witness to the rest of the world. To do otherwise is not Christian.