I am hating all the attention that is being focused on COVID since the pandemic. I can understand when it first broke out it was something new and had to be dealt with in a quick and efficient manner. But, now, two years into it, still the news talk shows spend over half their time talking about what’s going on about COVID. Enough is enough. The new strains of COVID are not nearly as dangerous as the original virus, and we just need to build our immunities to this virus like we would any other virus and quit talking about it.

Part of the result of COVID is that it gives you brain fog which makes it harder to think clearly and positively about what’s happening to you and to those around you. I had COVID over Christmas this year. We had to cancel our family Christmas and I felt terrible for about a week. When I started feeling better, my body felt well, but I started feeling really anxious and fearful about everything in my life and everything around me. I could really get myself worked up into a tizzy just letting my thoughts go. I soon realized I had to get control of my thoughts. There were several things I did to get fresh air into my brain.

1. Exercise – get heart-beating, oxygen-moving exercise. It gets the oxygen not only moving through your body, but also through your brain. Your brain needs exercise. Walking on a treadmill was great for this, pushing my limits slowly at first, but gradually increasing time and intensity. Aerobics also did wonders. Listening and following directions, keeping up with the aerobics leader, and doing movements that cross the body gets the brain into the exercise routine.
2. Positive, encouraging reading material – this involves stop listening to media coverage of COVID which means cutting out at least half of the news program. The media coverage is instilling fear in the hearts and minds of people who listen to it. Read your Bible instead. Read God’s promises to be with you no matter what you are going through.

on January 1 after recovering from COVID, I realized I was worried and anxious about many things. It was the COVID fuzzy brain that had me down. I knew that to overcome fear and anxiety I needed to go to God’s Word. I read the first verse and immediately felt the arrows shooting through my fears. That first verse was:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5,6)

Another verse: “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord is an everlasting Rock.” (Isaiah 26:3,4)

And another: “They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (Isaiah 40:31)

After reading these verses, I felt incredibly better. I decided then to write out a new promise every day until I felt like I could mount up with wings like eagles in face of financial challenges, till I could run boldly, and walk without fainting through the challenges life presents. My heavenly Father is watching over me all the time. He will never leave me!

I recently read an article, “When Fear and Dread Rage: 10 Steps to Finding God’s Assurances for Your Family” by Jeff Myers, PhD from Summit Ministries (https://www.summit.org/?source=resources&s=when+fear+and+dread+rage). This article includes fifty verse cards to cut out and have handy around your home or office.

Our battle is not just against COVID, but spiritual forces are using it to bring us all down by attacking our minds. In Ephesians 6:16,17 the Apostle Paul tells us “In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” The evil forces in this world are sending darts to destroy us. Faith in God will protect us from attacks on our mind, and the Word of God gives us the weapon to attack the negativity and evil that is permeating this world.

We can break out of this cycle of fear that the media is instilling in us. We need to remember our faith in God who is with us always in all circumstances. By reading God’s promises, we are strengthened to defeat the evil that is pervading the society today.