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Do today’s news headlines leave you feeling discouraged, fearful, or just plain overwhelmed? You are so not alone. This is something I’ve struggled with my entire adult life - really, since I’ve paid any attention to the news at all. I am the kind of person who can’t take the news in with any degree of moderation; I’m either all in, internalizing every painful story, or shut off altogether. As a result, I found myself binging on news for weeks or months, getting burned out and then checking out completely for long stretches of time to preserve my emotional and mental health.

It doesn’t have to be this way, and absolutely shouldn’t!

So I wanted to offer you three simple, easy-to-implement tips to help you if you find yourself in the same situation as me: overwhelmed by news headlines, but with a desire to change the world through your prayers.

Step 1: Pay attention to the things that make you cry

I’ve heard this in many places, the first being Emily P. Freeman’s podcast called The Next Right Thing. She talked about how when we pay attention to the things that make us cry, stir our hearts or even make us anxious, we will start to see themes emerging that can distill down our life purposes and areas we should focus more on. So how this might look in our prayer lives, particularly pertaining to praying for current events, is as you skim the headlines, which ones evoke emotion, and what do they have in common? Is it stories about children being mistreated or exploited? Sex trafficking? Reports of injustice or persecuted people groups? Start making a list in your prayer journal of the headlines that stir you up inside. Rather than feeling overwhelmed at the number of news stories you have to pray for, you can begin to pray topically for one or two main issues that encompass many different news stories. In this way, you can narrow your focus down to the specific prayer burdens God has placed on you personally. Remember, God has lots of resources - you don’t have to cover every single issue!

Step 2: Get organized!

The best way to eliminate overwhelm in any area of life is to get organized. You can accomplish so much more when you have your thoughts ordered and prioritized! I have to confess, I’m not a really organized person. Alana is way better at it than I am, but one tip she’s passed on to me that I absolutely love is the “sticky note system” of journaling. Rather than writing on the actual pages of the prayer journal, you can organize your prayers, arrange and re-arrange them, as well as update with new ones as you go by using sticky notes to write topics and specific prayers. You can find out more about this method and SO many other creative prayer journaling tips in her online course “Prayer Journaling for Busy Christian Women.” And it’s HALF OFF for the entire month of March, so check it out today! Even if you don’t take Alana’s prayer journaling course, you can use a journal (and sticky notes!) to organize your prayers in a way that can make praying for current events feel less overwhelming.

Step 3: Keep your eyes on Jesus

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. ~ Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV)

This verse in Hebrews is a reminder that we can be hindered by obsessing about negative news, and fall into the sinful practice of letting our thoughts run away unchecked. We need to keep the same things in mind that Jesus did: no matter what this crazy world might throw at us, we have hope!

Jesus was able to endure the pain and shame of the cross by remembering the “joy set before him” — being reunited with God the Father. When we are Christ-followers, we have that same joy and same hope set before us! We can know that even though the injustice of the world makes us sick in the pit of our stomachs, God is the ultimate judge, and whether on this earth or after it passes away there will be judgement and justice will prevail.

When we see sickness poverty and death and war and destruction, we can remember that these mortal bodies will pass away at some point, but we have the hope of resurrection and eternal life, thanks to the immeasurable love of God and the ultimate gift of Jesus’ own blood and sacrifice.

So let’s remember to keep Jesus right in front of us at all times as we navigate the rough waters of praying for current events. He is our true North, and will guide us in all truth to maintain a positive, hopeful outlook - and to remember that whether we sense it immediately or not, prayer changes things, and opens the gates of heaven, allowing God’s “kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.”