Articles
Don't Carry a Heavy Load
Job’s friend, Eliphaz got it right when he said that “man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward.” (Jo. 5:7) The world has always been a troubled place, and while it keeps turning, it always will be, but that doesn’t mean we have to bear the weight of the world’s problems.
In our time of freely-flowing information, we’re inundated with news stories warning of serious dangers and decrying terrible misdeeds. You don’t have to take in the news very long before you get an anxious sense that something bad is about to happen. It’s easy to respond to the news by living your life braced for catastrophe.
We can focus on bad news, or we can look in the Bible and take in the good news of the gospel. Concerning the troubles of this life, Jesus says, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world." (Joh. 16:33)
If we believe Jesus has overcome the world, we can do the good we have the power to do, we can give the rest to God, and then we can be calm and quiet. This was David’s practice. He said, “I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me. O Israel, hope in the LORD from this time forth and forevermore.” (Psa. 131:1-3)
Don’t let bad news fill you with distress. Instead, remember the good news that God is in control, he loves you very much, and he’ll be with you no matter what you face. -Paul
