While watching various news updates tonight, I turned to my son and said, “It can’t be any worse in four years can it than it is now?” I was referring to the current ugly election cycle. And way ahead to 2020. But I was also thinking of the flooding in North Carolina, violence around the nation, and anxiety visited upon many locally with illness and family concerns.

For most of us, we get “down” over current events as well as anxious about the future. It comes and goes. If one stays in such states of mind for too long, medications or counseling are often necessary! Thank God for both when required.

The scriptures that address us this Sunday could have been written this past week! They are about persistence in prayer (Luke), sound teaching (2 Timothy), and hope in God’s promises (Jeremiah). I would like to think we are a gathered people who hear such words often enough that we have real hope in the future regardless of changing circumstances. And with hearing the Word, “cometh faith.”

It should make a difference in how we live in the present and how we approach the future whatever the “news” tells us! I think I will switch over to a different “news reporting”…..Good News channel!

As Paul often says: “Grace and Peace to you!”

Pastor Barry