Bad news brings more than just the bad news. It's widely known that when any person receives some terrible or unwanted news, that person gets negatively influenced which may get worse if the issue isn't handled properly.
Consider all the negative, destructive, and discouraging things that are constantly being reported day by day in the news. Killings happen here; rapes happen there; abuses happen somewhere. As if it's not enough, people rant on social media, as if their comments will solve the problems.
Truth be told, bad news brings more than just the bad news. It brings with it something deeper, something that negatively influences us. Some of us become fearful; some become anxious; some get unreasonably angry. We need to know how to receive bad news so that we won't be negatively affected by it!
Behind the Scenes
To effectively address the negative influence that bad news brings, we need to realise that there are more than just the natural forces at work in the scenario.
Ephesians 6:12 tells us, "For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places."
Yes, a criminal killed a person, but it's his demonic and sinful influence that drove the criminal to do that. Yes, a vagrant has stolen bread from that shelf. But we must realise that it is sin that has caused the world to be a nasty and unfair place full of hunger and thirst.
We need to realise that what happens in this physical world is but a manifestation of what's happening in the spiritual: sin and Satan working effectively to destroy what God has created.
The Right Perspective
Friends, we need to realise that if we are in Christ, there's no reason for us to panic or to be negatively influenced by bad news. We all know that's easier said than done, but the truth is that Jesus has already overcome!
In John 15 and 16, we read there that Jesus warned His disciples of the coming hardships. He warned them of God pruning them, the world hating them, religious and non-religious people persecuting them, Him leaving as He will go back to the Father, and His promise to send them the Holy Spirit in His place.
Of course, these things probably caused the disciples to fret. We can imagine the worry in their faces at the sound of Jesus leaving them. We can visualise their anxious faces as they hear that some will kill them "in the service of God." Still Christ assured them of His peace.
"I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)
The right perspective then, friends, is to keep looking at bad news from the cross of Christ's victory. Sure they may be injustice, but Christ's victory assures us of God's justice. There might be confusion, but the Spirit of Truth will lead us into all truth. The world might be coming to an end, but we know that God is Sovereign and is eternal. We receive bad news from a standpoint of victory: Our lives are hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3), and it will never affect us nor take us away from the love of God in Christ (Romans 8:31-39).
Focus on the truth of God in His Word. Let the salvation of Christ decide what you will believe in, and let His Lordship decide how you will respond to the bad news around you.
