Nothing is Impossible with God!

In today's first reading, Zachariah 8: 1-8, the Lord makes the following promise through the prophet:
"I  will return to Zion, and I will dwell within Jerusalem; Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the Lord of hosts, the holy mountain. ...Old men and old women, each with staff in hand because of old age, shall again sit in the streets of Jerusalem. The city shall be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets. Thus says the Lord of hosts. Even if this should seem impossible in the eyes of the remnant of this people, shall it in those days be impossible in my eyes also, says the Lord of hosts?"

What God says to the remnant of the people of Israel through the prophet Zachariah, He also says to the remnant of people who remain after their nations or countries have been destroyed by weapons of mass destruction or by devastating natural disasters.  "Old men and old women, each with staff in hand because of old age, shall again sit in the streets [of these bombed out cities]. The city shall  [again] be filled with boys and girls playing in its streets."  Not only will materials things be restored, so, too, shall the faith abandoned by by people be restored.  Trust and truth and faithfulness will also be restored. 

You and I may believe that restoration is never going to happen, especially when countries and nations have strayed so far from the truth as seems to have happened here in our own country. And how, we ask, will war-torn countries such as Syria and other nations or cities destroyed by years and years of being bombed out by warring factions, and, sometimes, by their own governing bodies ever see life return to normal? God says to us, as He did to the Israelites, "[e]ven if this should seem impossible in [your] eyes..., shall it... be impossible in my eyes also?"

Lord, as I listen to the news each night or read about world conditions  I truly wonder whether we will ever return to being faithful to the way of life Jesus taught us during his public ministry.  I ask that you have mercy upon us, strengthen our faith and trust that you are God and there is no other and that your thoughts and your ways are not our ways. What you did for the people of old you can and will also do for us!  Your death and resurrection are not in vain! You overseer life now as you did in years gone farther back that any of us can remember.  Evil will not triumph--you destroyed it on the cross. Satan was defeated there Calvary's hill.  I believe that, Lord!  And when I am weak in my faith, please restore it. May I keep my eyes on you and not on the evil I see in the world. I ask through through Jesus Christ.