Bad things are all over the news; terrorism, disaster, misery etc. The headlines are screaming for our attention about brutal things happening on earth.
When you leave your house in the morning, it’s just everywhere; on the newspaper someone forgot in the metro, you walk down a street and hear people talking about it, while waiting at Starbucks for a coffee, you hear discussions about the latest terror attack and later you check your phone to see the news spread all over social media.
We almost can’t escape those headlines. They are all over the place!
But the Bible reminds us to guard our hearts in Proverbs 4, 23:
Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.
In the Hebrew, the term “heart” means the innermost. It covers things like our thoughts, mind, reason, wishes, feelings and motives. When the Bible tells us to shield our heart, it means that we should protect the part of us that’s responsible for our deeds.
One way you can guard your heart is by deciding what you let into your mind and therefore determine what influences your actions.
Look at what Jesus said:
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.” Matthew 6, 22
Your eye is the window to your heart. The unhealthy eye looks at the bad circumstances of this world like greed, terrorism, egoism, etc.
What you let through your eyes into your mind, in other words, what you are looking at and thinking about, influences your deeds and out viewpoints. When I see all the catastrophes happening, fear spreads into my heart, it cripples me and I loose my joy.
This is the reason why I stopped watching and reading the news. Otherwise it jams me and I would surely get bitter over time.
What is the alternative? I read and look at the truth, which is God’s Word. He is the certainty and the light. I let him fill me up with love every morning.
Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16,24
Good news lifts up your spirit, brings joy into your heart and can even heal you. When you read God’s truth, it warms your heart and it will eventually determine your actions and reactions to different circumstances and events.
But what if you aren’t informed when you stop reading and watching the news? Well, in my own experience, you will get to know what’s happening sooner or later because people are talking about it.
And what if you start looking away from the poverty and misery in the world and stop helping those people? This won’t happen either. Because when you are not constantly distracted and influenced by the news, you can make decisions based on your preferences. Take your time and look through different organizations that do good things for the poor and support them. Or find something near your home where you can actively diminish the misery of some people.
But it doesn’t help anyone when you constantly fill yourself with bad news and grow weary with worry.
I‘m not saying that reading the news is bad. There is just a much better way full of joy and love! Fill yourself up with THE good news every day!
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