Living a good-news life

The Sovereign Lord has filled me with his Spirit. He has chosen me and sent me to bring good news to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to announce release to captives and freedom to those in prison. (verse 1)

Read Isaiah 61:1-9

When was the last time you heard a piece of good news?

Our television newscasts and newspapers are full of bad news. Sometimes our own lives or the lives of people we know seem like one ‘bad-news story after another’.

In his Little Book on Joy, Matthew Harrison describes the Christian faith as holding ‘the secret to living a good-news life in a bad-news world’. A good-news life is one in which the message of Jesus is front and centre. It is a life that rejoices in God’s small gifts of grace, despite the bad news around us and within us.

Re-read the above verse from Isaiah.

Isaiah announced it, Jesus fulfilled it (Luke 4:18-21). It was God’s plan all along to bring good news to a bad-news world. Even now he works to bring ‘joy and gladness instead of grief, a song of praise instead of sorrow’. And he continues to send us his Holy Spirit to help us lead a good-news life in a bad-news world.

Father in heaven, thank you for the good news announced by Isaiah and fulfilled by your Son. Bring healing and release in my life, and strengthen me by your Holy Spirit to share your good news with other people. In the name of Jesus. Amen

Devotion by Ben Pfeiffer from “Time Out … with Jesus” (Australian Church Resources, 2014)

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