“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” Romans 15:13
It has been said that, in order to get a restful sleep, one ought not to watch the news immediately before going to bed. Today, news channels broadcast news 24 hours a day, and the vast majority of what is pumped out, is bad news! Bad news sells! While Covid-19 has been, and continues to be, very tragic for many, it is great news for the media! Audiences are hungry for updates. Cable news viewership has jumped more than 50% since the outbreak began at the start of the year. The chief marketing officer for Alfonso, a company that analyzes viewer behaviour, went so far as to say, “TV is in uncharted waters.”
Why this hunger for information? Scripture provides the answer: Paul tells the Ephesian believers, “remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, … having no hope and without God in the world.” Without God – without hope! The world is utterly hopeless! The only hope is to somehow evade this awful virus that seems to be attacking people at random! If we are merely physical beings, comprised of cells that evolved from a pool of slime, then our only hope for survival lies in taking every physical precaution possible to ward off a destructive virus. And the news media may give some small help in revealing how we can be successful in our battle against it. Tragically, many cling to this foundation of sand for hope in this hopeless world!
In contrast, Paul tells the Roman believers, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.” As believers we can and we must abound in hope, especially at a time like this! A very fruitful exercise at this time is to take a concordance and examine every instance of the word hope in the New Testament! You will come away from that so much more refreshed, than from watching the news! Our lives are not a collection of random cells being attacked by a random virus – our lives are governed by the tender, gracious, providential care of a loving Heavenly Father! May God help us to radiate hope, the living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to a world without God and without hope!