“On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and     uncleanness.” (Zechariah 13:1).

Are you as distressed as I am about the current state of our country? Each and every day we are bombarded through the news and social media by stories of injustice, corruption, abuses of power, dishonesty, and immorality. Our hearts can do nothing more than grieve over the broken lives and homes our society is producing around us. Each and every day not just our nation but worldwide things seem to be getting progressively worse. It feels as if at any moment you were to look up, a dark cloud of evil is enveloping all we know as good and true.

It is in times like these that we must take comfort from God’s inspired word. The prophets are a great place to go when comfort is needed. The prophet Zechariah assures us that God is still our God and that in his kingdom there is faithfulness and righteousness (8:8). He dwells in our midst and we therefore have no reason to fear (2:10-11; 8:12-13; 14:11). He gives us a picture of old men and old women sitting in the streets and children playing in the streets with nary a care or concern (8:4-5). In this place there is no night but only the brightness of day (14:6-7). Living waters will come from an open fountain that flows and cleanses all (13:1; 14:8).

That’s where I need to focus my attention to have hope in a dark place. Maybe all of us need to put down the social media and turn off the news more often and just read a little more from great prophets like Zechariah.