Entering 2018 Unafraid

Do you look forward to New Year, geared up and ready for new challenges and opportunities ahead? Or are you, like me, apprehensive and maybe a little worried about what might come your way or what news you might hear before 2018 is over? We know from past experience that not every year is what we’d call a good one, and I have a suspicion that most people approach the first of January with varying measures of trepidation.

Earlier this week I was reading Psalm 112, a psalm about the righteous man. At verse seven, I came to an abrupt stop.

‘He is not afraid of bad news…’

 

Bad news. Isn’t that what many of us are scared of? News of illness, job loss, bereavement, tragedy, heartache, failure… The list is never ending. Yet this remarkable man isn’t afraid!

Why? Because he’s wealthy, has a good doctor, obedient children?

‘He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.’

 

His secret is his trust in the Lord. He has a firm, fixed, steady heart. This man knows that the Lord is able to preserve him from trouble and heartache, but, more than that, the Lord is able to sustain him in the middle of trouble and heartache. He knows that anything the Lord permits is only for our good. Nothing is out of His control. He is fully worthy of our trust.

So as we go into a new, unknown year, let us be like the righteous man in Psalm 112 – not afraid of bad news, because our hearts are firm, trusting in the Lord.