Should Christians Watch the News?

This is Misha’s friend, Claire, back to explore a question on my heart today: should Christians watch the news?

I don’t know about you, but lately I’ve been feeling constantly berated with bad news. I do want to stay informed about the lives of those within my own circle, and hearing about the struggles and hardships of my loved ones is a burden I am more than willing to carry.

But what I’m talking about here is something more: the exhaustion that comes from doomscrolling and the fretting it produces, leaving us feeling overwhelmed and afraid, with no real direction or purpose.

I’ve been flooded with tragedies from distant places, wars, suffering, political disappointments, and crises I have no power to change. At times it makes me wonder whether we were ever meant to be this informed about everything.

I find myself withdrawing from conversations that dwell almost entirely on what is broken, because when the focus is always on the negative, it can slowly become the lens through which the world is viewed.

Scripture, on the other hand, calls us to notice what is good and holy, to set our minds on things that are true, noble, and praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8).

Christian faith does not require us to carry the emotional weight of every tragedy we hear about. We are actually not meant to hold any of it alone. We need to give it to Jesus. But many of us are still learning how to do this. In the meantime, as He grows our ability to hold things, it is more than okay to set boundaries around the information we take in.

Jesus Himself often withdrew from crowds, noise, and conflict. After feeding the five thousand, He “withdrew to a solitary place by himself” (Matthew 14:23), choosing prayer over constant engagement. When the Pharisees and crowds pressed Him, He sometimes went away quietly rather than seeking attention (Luke 5:16).

His withdrawal in these instances was not apathy. It was faithful alignment with God’s rhythm and purpose. He was doing exactly what His Father instructed Him to do, no more and no less.

By Jesus’ example, we see that protecting one’s peace can be an act of spiritual discernment, not avoidance. Just as He “went up on the mountain to pray” (Mark 6:46) and spent nights in communion with the Father (Luke 6:12), setting boundaries around our time and energy can be a faithful way to honor God, allowing Him to refresh our souls and protect the clarity of our hearts.

Salvation is not sustained by our vigilance, our outrage, or our weariness. The world is held by God’s love, not by our ability to stay constantly informed about every news event from around the globe or even by our personal prayers for it.

We can pray generally without knowing every detail of a tragedy and trust that Jesus will take it from there. After all, the power of prayer comes from Him, not from our articulation or emotional involvement in the trouble.

There is a difference between hardening our hearts and recognizing our limits. We can care deeply about human dignity without allowing the barrage of tragic headlines to disturb the peace of our inner life.

I personally don’t watch the news often, but when I do, I think about how many large institutional investors hold stakes in both media companies and the pharmaceutical companies that produce antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications. It seems to me that these industries gain immense profit by keeping society in constant fear, the very thing that God’s perfect love promises to cast out of us (1 John 4:18).

Sometimes I wonder if His casting out of fear can happen through my intentional choice not to engage with media that hijacks the amygdala, the fear center of the brain, through sensationalized trauma and amplified catastrophe.

Where is God in all of this? He is never presented on the news. His overarching vision and plan are rarely, if ever, mentioned or considered in mainstream media or even in conversations among Christians. Yet we know His involvement is active and evident in the world today. If we focus only on the negative, though, we will not have eyes to see it.

In my life, I want to be more immersed in the hope that comes through reading the Word than in the troubles and messages of the world.

What would happen if every time we heard bad news, we simply held hands with another believer and lifted the cause to Him quickly and concisely, knowing that He already knows the details, and that all we need to do is lay the situation at His feet and trust Him with the rest? What if we did the same when someone tells us gossip?🤯

I am sharing this today because it is something that God is really putting on my heart, especially as I help friends through big issues. I am realizing that I cannot also carry the weight of the world on top of all these personal hardships. I need to recognize the things that God is calling me to help with, and the things that I simply need to let go.

To know about things, I cannot help but care. I cannot help but feel heartbroken when I hear of things that are heartbreaking.

That is where boundaries come in. I need to protect myself from how much news I take in, and that is more than okay.

While it has all felt like too much, I feel God lifting up my focus. I see that in the greater picture, we can trust in the work that He has already done, and simply love those in front of us.

Our love for Jesus can be expressed in seemingly small, everyday actions: how we treat our coworkers and difficult family members, in our honesty, kindness, restraint, forgiveness, and mercy.

Sometimes we need to conserve our emotional energy to focus on the things we can affect instead of getting bogged down by the bigger things that God wants us to let go of and allow Him to handle.

It feels like in some Christian circles there is an assumption that being moral means being constantly informed and perpetually upset about all the injustices and tragedies happening every day. But that is not the posture Scripture calls us to. Peace is a fruit of the Spirit. A godly life does not grow out of continual agitation but out of trust, surrender, and obedience, letting Him do what only He can while we remain faithful to what He calls us to do.

I think a better question is not, “Should I watch the news?” but:

• “Am I responsive when someone near me has a practical need I can fulfill? Am I showing up in helpful and constructive ways to the people God has placed in my life for me to help?”

• “Am I capable of compassion when love over judgment is required of me?”

• “Am I lifting up concerns in prayer as they arise, letting Jesus take them and trusting Him to act where I cannot?”

If the answer is yes, then our faith is alive and well.

Jesus invites us to zoom out of the constant cycle of bad news that leaves us anxious, stressed, and hopeless, and instead to acknowledge God’s larger movement through it all. He does call us to bring Heaven down, but often this happens in small and faithful ways rather than all at once, such as loving our actual neighbors through His love as a way to push back against the hate that can grow into war.

We are invited to rest in the truth that God has already acted on behalf of the world. Choosing a quieter, grounded faith that notices the goodness, holiness, and love in this world alongside its brokenness is not a break from Christianity. It is one of the clearest ways to live it.

What this looks like in each of our lives will be different. If God has given you the heart and emotional capacity to take in more news without becoming discouraged or overwhelmed, that is a gift.

For me, in this season, I sense Him saying that it truly is okay to let go and trust Him, to protect my peace and guard my heart by limiting exposure to things that bring nothing but discouragement.

At the end of the day, being firmly grounded in Him is far more important than being constantly informed.

I wanted to share this message in case anyone else needs the same assurance today. Be blessed today, friends! 💕 Misha and I are praying especially for you.

This prayer was shared by another beautiful friend of mine, Autumn, on our Bible group today.

Speaking of our group, 2026 is right around the corner! If you’d like to join us as we go through the entire Bible together on the YouVersion Bible app, all women are more than welcome. Leave a comment with your email, and I’ll send you an invite. 😄

Here’s today’s prayer to our Heavenly Father:

Father God,

We come before You with open hands and humble hearts. In a world that is loud, heavy, and often overwhelming, we choose to lean into You, the One who is steady, faithful, and unchanging.

Lord, help us release the pressure to carry what was never meant for us to hold. Teach us that surrender is not weakness but trust, and that protecting our peace is not avoidance but obedience. Remind us that You are fully aware of all that is broken, yet You remain sovereign over it all.

For my sisters, I pray for discernment to know when to engage and when to rest, when to listen and when to be still. Guard our hearts and minds, Father. Anchor us deeply in Your truth so that we are not shaken by what we see, but strengthened by who You are.

Help us choose a quieter, grounded faith, one that notices Your goodness even amid brokenness, rests in Your holiness, and is rooted in Your love. May we trust that being firmly grounded in You matters far more than being constantly informed.

We surrender anew today. We lean on You. We place our peace, our worries, and our hearts in Your capable hands.

In Jesus’ name, Amen. 🙏🏼💜