What news story gives you anxiety these days? Is it COVID infection rates? Supply chain interuptions? The southern border crisis? If you listen to the news it will not take you long before you think the world is falling apart. I have not gone through any journalism training, but it seems to me the news is actually written in such a way as to create exactly that response. And  this is where the problem is because worry is a denial of God’s ability to care for His people (Cf. Matt. 6:25-33). So how, by God’s grace, do we fight anxiety?

Pray for joy in all your circumstances. It is normal for people to fear death, discomfort, and hardship. Not right. Just normal. And our worries inevitably come true. God brings them in His perfect timing, and the inconsistency of our hearts is laid bare through our fretting. Repentance includes praying that God would change us to make us joyful as we rest in His promises.

Turn off the news, open your Bible. This statement is not promoting complete ignorance about the happenings in our world. But if the news creates anxiety, turn it off. The Bible is a book filled with comfort, so open it. The more we study God’s word the more clearly we know His ways, character and sovereignty. The more we are faced with the promised reality that, because we are in Christ, the time we spend on earth is a sojourning, in anticipation of a glorious homecoming when we are called home to glory or Christ returns. And these truths will comfort us when they are received with faith. In other words, spend more time reading the Good News as compared to hearing bad news.

Christians, of all people, should be at peace even in the most tumultuous times. And there is much to worry about these days. But, “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.” (Psalm 4:8).