This month sees the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and highlights the concern about war in the world. In the country affected by war there is always terrible suffering, loss of life and shortages of medicine and basic necessities.

Sometimes wars have a knock on affect to other countries such as the problems this current war in Ukraine has caused with shortages of gas, oil and food. The effects of war are far-reaching and are of concern in many countries around the world, including here in the UK.

Our news is dominated by this particular war because of the direct effect it is having in our country, but you may be surprised to know that there are currently 27 ongoing conflicts worldwide (according to the Council on Foreign Relations’ Global conflict tracker). The tracker categorises conflict into 3 groups: ‘worsening’, ‘unchanging’ and ‘improving’. Right now, there’s not a single conflict described as ‘improving’.

The world is in a very sorry state, and no one has an authoritative answer of how to fix the problem of war, or any of the many problems we face personally or globally. This can seem depressing and pull us down but if we are able to believe God’s word and see beyond this there is great hope for the future. There will be a time when all suffering of every kind will end. It will be the time when Jesus Christ returns to this earth (Revelation 16v15) to set up the Kingdom of God, ruling with justice and authority to achieve the words of Isaiah 2 v 4 “…they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” (ESV)

As believers in God, we long for that day.

_{Photo 242640879 / Putin Ukraine © Peter Kováč | Dreamstime.com}