Look Around - You Might Like What You See

Do you ever watch Fox News?  Or maybe CNN? Or perhaps you read The Drudge Report for your daily news?  Whatever your source for daily news, do you ever find it quite depressing and discouraging?  Famine in Africa, constant fighting and riots in the Middle East, Celebrities being weird, Sean Payton being suspended from the Saints, politics, politics, and more politics.  Murders, Amber Alerts, corrupt politicians, athletes getting too much money, and oh, did I mention politics?

If you spend very much time watching the news, you will walk away questioning if there is any good in the world.  It's not your fault by any means;  we must remember that "bad news sells", and when we immerse ourself in it too much, we can easily lose hope in the things of God in this world.

In the midst of this broken world in which we live Psalm 33 is a pleasant reminder for me today:  "The Lord loves righteousness and justice;  the earth is full of his unfailing love."  (NIV verse 5)  No matter what we see covered in today's news we can take comfort in knowing that the earth is FULL of God's unfailing love.  So if that's true . . . . how do we find it?

Honestly, it's kind of simple, we just usually don't do it.  All we have to do is look.  But it begins by looking at God:  "But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love." (verse 19)  When we fear Him, when we revere Him, and we our hearts are focused on Him we tend to see things a little more clearly.

So instead of focusing on merely the bad of this world, try today to look at the good.  Instead of the inches of rain falling down in Mississippi today, give thanks, for God is nourishing the Earth.  (We will need this in July remember!)  When you see the suffering in a nation like Haiti, thank God for the many adults, college students, and high school students that have been and will be traveling to that nation to minister to the orphans of Haiti, and lift all up in prayer.  When the world around you is going way too fast, stop and take notice of God's creation.  The Dogwoods still bloom, the Azaleas explode in color, Japanese maples begin to come to life, a few Camellias still carry their elegant flowers, and Lilies have risen up from their winter rest and now begin to reveal their splendor as they sing their song to God.

We live in a fallen, broken, and sinful world, BUT, God's unfailing love IS all around.  We just have to see it.  So I leave you with this prayer:  "May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you." (verse 22)