Lately, wherever you turn for news, whoever you talk to, everyone is talking about how bad things are.  The airwaves are full of news of terrorist attacks both here and abroad.  Accounts of Rape and murder on our streets have become common place.  Hatred and strife fills the world in which we live.  Many have no respect for life, either the unborn or for those who are living.  Just when we thought we had heard it all, we hear of another even more horrific story.  It is so depressing that many people have simply chosen not to listen to the news.  This is somewhat like the proverbial Ostrich hiding its head in the sand.  The problem here is that the rest of its posterior is still above ground and in plain view.  No matter how hard we try – these problems are not going to go away.  We all wish they would.  So what should we do?  Listen to what the scripture has to say in II Timothy, chapter 3; “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-having a form of godliness but denying its power.  Have nothing to do with them.”   There is more that follows, but you get the point.  These are tough times.  In response to such out-of-control times, the apostle Paul tells young Timothy, “but as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of…and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, (vs.14:ff).”

This is the answer to these “terrible times,” to sink the roots of our faith in God and the salvation He has provided to us through his son Christ Jesus, ever deeper.  To grow everyday in the grace and knowledge of the Lord.  Like Timothy, the longer I live, the more I am “convinced” of the truth of God’s Word, the Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed to us through his written word, the Bible.

I understand how those feel who simply want to turn off the news and hide their head in the sand, so to speak.  Sometimes I feel the same way.  It is good to have balance at such times – to shut off the constant bad news and turn on the good news by opening the Word of God and drinking deeply from the well spring of his Good News – such hope – so refreshing.

Listen to these beautiful prayers and verses from the Bible so full of hope and faith:

“O Lord, be gracious to us; we long for you.  Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress…He will be the sure foundation for your times..,” (Isaiah 33:2&6).