Anyone with an eye to observe what is happening in our world today cannot help but conclude that we are living in an unprecedented time of instability - whether through political turmoil, global pandemics, environmental crises, financial uncertainty or the breakdown of societies generally.

Such events have caused, and continue to cause, mass stress, fear and anxiety upon so much of the world’s population, not helped by large sections of the media stoking the fires of fear and panic.

I can hear that well known character Corporal Jones shouting ‘don’t panic Mr Mainwaring!’ while running about like a headless chicken – panicking!

We are all subject to forces we cannot control in the natural, which will inevitably cause a negative reaction of some kind.

The world is full of ‘doom and gloom merchants’, willing to give you all the bad news going, but there is another message out there that ‘scatters fear and gloom’ - from the famous hymn Thine be the Glory. It’s the message of the gospel - good news - of Jesus Christ, who, through His life, death and resurrection conquered sin and death, once for all people, for all time.

Sadly, so often the message of Christianity and the voice of Christians is being silenced across the globe, due to it’s complete antithesis to the ruling narrative of this age from those in apparent power.

Despite this, the gospel of Christ is still changing thousands of lives every day worldwide, as individuals put their faith and trust in Jesus, the Saviour of the world.

One Christian preacher put it this way: ‘We may not know what the future holds, but we Know who holds the future’. You too can know The One who holds the future personally.

Jesus is described in the bible as our ‘true and living hope’, which makes Him the only real and credible antidote to fear and gloom.

There is a bible verse to apply here, which states ‘cast all your cares on Him (Jesus), because He cares for you’ - why not apply this personally, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Bob House

Rockwell Green Christian Centre