Welcoming Good News

 Good News

Good news – we all love it.  A teenager passes their driving test.  A couple announces that they are expecting a new baby.  A loved one gets released from the hospital after an illness and is able to go home.  All sorts of things are good news.

The very best news, and news that has a long term positive effect in our lives is the good news of God’s love for us demonstrated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

This is what is being referred to in these verses from the Bible:

For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.

This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.

Colossians 1:4-6

Life can be difficult for all of us at various times and it’s the good news of “light at the end of the tunnel” that sometimes is all we have to hang onto when times are tough.

As people who have put their faith in Jesus Christ, we have such an amazing hope because we know that God has reserved all sorts of good things in heaven for us – things that are way beyond even our ability to imagine how good they are.

Loving God, we look to many things to put a smile on our faces and hope in our hearts but it’s true that the only lasting source of that kind of peace and joy is what You give us because of what Jesus has done for us. 

We are so grateful that we can live in the confidence that You have given us eternal life and we will be with You forever in eternity.  We may have struggles and pain and disappointment in a variety of ways in our days right now but we can get through with Your help, and be encouraged by the hope of the wonderful life that awaits us in heaven. 

When we are troubled and discouraged, help us to lift our thoughts and our hearts to what really matters and let Your presence with us today, and Your promises about our future strengthen and encourage us.  Amen

Let’s be nourished by this good news today and do our part to spread it all over the world so other lives can be changed and uplifted just as ours have been.