Have no fear of bad news!

 I don't know about you, but I'm pretty tired of bad news!  I've even decided to stop watching so much news because it's nothing but doom and gloom. People murdered, the economy in the toilet, job loss, rogue nations getting the nuclear bomb, rising health care costs, terror strikes, loss of freedom. I could go on. 

Anyway, I meet many people who are completely stressed out. They fear for their jobs, their kids, their health, their freedom, their lives! It's crazy. In all my 54 years, I've never seen so much stress. It's so easy to get caught up in it all and let it affect you. Especially for a worry wort like me!

Why do I worry about the most? What kind of world my kids will have to live in. I worry about their safety and health. Will they have jobs? Find good spouses, Have enough to eat, be happy, and most of all follow God and don't get lured into the evil in the world. 

Yet as followers of Jesus, we aren't supposed to worry about anything. Can you imagine a day without worry? A day where you aren't concerned with jobs or money or health or kids... where you just know everything is going to work out. I think I've reached the point in my walk with God where I truly believe that EVERYTHING will work out in the end. At the end of the age, I believe with all my heart that I will be in Heaven with my children and my family, and the reasons for everything that happened to us will be made plain. I believe I will spend eternity in the presence of God with my loved ones at my side! 

Yet, I still fear bad news!!. I fear getting a call that one of my kids is hurt. I fear my husband finding out he's lost his job. I fear the doctor telling me I have cancer. I fear, I fear, I fear. Even though I know it will all work out! Isn't that silly? What I long for is to get to the place where I have NO FEAR of bad news.

 Surely the righteous will never be shaken;
    they will be remembered forever.
⁷ They will have no fear of bad news;
    their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
⁸ Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear;    in the end they will look in triumph on their foes. Psalm 112:6-8

^{Okay great! So I must be the biggest looser Christian around cause I still fear bad news!  But do you know what it says in verse one of that Psalm.}

Blessed are those who fear the Lord,
    who find great delight in his commands.

And then I read this in Jeremiah 5

⁷ “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
⁸ They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought    and never fails to bear fruit.”  Jeremiah 5:7-8

So I pictured this big beautiful oak tree by a flowing stream. It has a thick trunk and many strong branches layered in green leaves. Strong roots plunge deep into the ground where they cling to the rock that is Jesus. Nothing can move this tree! Not heat, not storm, not wind, lightning, thunder, snow. Nothing! It endures all and just stands strong without fear

So how do you become like this mighty oak of Righteousness? How do you stand strong and let bad news roll off your shoulders as if it were nothing to concern yourself with? How, when you get a call that something horrible has happened, do you smile and pray instead of crumble and fall?  

The key is in Psalm 1, which agrees with verse 1 in Psalm 112 above

Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
² but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
³ That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
    whatever they do prospers.

Delight in God's Word. Meditate on it day and night.  Yet so many Christians rely completely on a Sunday sermon or a simple devotional to get the Word in them. Those are great, but not enough. Make it a habit to not only read the Bible every day but to mediate on it and DELIGHT in it. Enjoy it! . Think about what you read. Talk to God about it. Ask Him to make it clear.  Don't approach it like a chore you must do or something to cross off your list. (I've done this so often!)  Approach it with delight.. knowing that you will be communing with the Living God who loves you more than anything! 

I will make you a bet that if you do that every day for a month, you will find your worries diminishing and your faith growing deep.  What am I basing that bet on? It's a promise from the Word. I'm going to take God up on His promise.. how about you?