Do Not Fear

(Our Theme for June)

Mark 1: 12-15

And the spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness for 40 days, tempted by Satan, and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came back to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.“

From the time that I was a teenager, I wanted to be a journalist. I was able to fulfill that ambition, first as a news reporter and editor, later as a journalism educator. During my teaching career, I tried to give students some instruction on the basic techniques and tenants of journalism. One of those tenants was to try, as much as humanly possible, to be accurate in the reporting of news. What you want, I would tell them, is for people to believe what you report.

As a journalist and journalist educator, it has meant something special to me that the gospel is described as “good news.“ All of us know that there is a lot of bad news in our world today. The bad news can overwhelm us.

Indeed, some people not only believe the bad news, but they believe IN the bad news. They believe that the world is doomed and that we are condemned to be consumed, either by environmental catastrophe or apocalyptic war. There is simply no hope for the world.

In this passage in the gospel of Mark, Jesus tells us something very different. The kingdom of God is at hand, he says. He has good news, and we are to believe in that good news.

Yes, there is plenty of bad news in our world today. We believe that bad news. But Jesus has given us good news, the good news of God’s love and grace. While we believe the bad news, we can believe IN the good news of the kingdom of God.

Our prayer today:

Our Father, with all of the bad news around us each day, help us to keep our eyes focused on the good news of your kingdom, your grace, and your love. Amen.

This devotion was written and read by Jim Stovall.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.