Help us, Lord, to keep on believing that the time of Your blessing may not be far away.

Lord, we've read good things about King Josiah (2 Chronicles 34:15,33) - but it wasn't all good: "He did not listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God ... " (2 Chronicles 35:22-24). After Josiah's time, there was terrible spiritual decline (2 Chronicles 36:1-2 / 2 Kings 23:31-32; 2 Chronicles 36:,5,9,11-12). We think of today's world. We wonder, "Is there any hope for the future?" Help us to draw encouragement from this: "The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia ... to build Him a house at Jerusalem" (2 Chronicles 36:22-23) - and help us to say to our neighbours, "Let us go to the House of the Lord" (Psalm 122:1). Help us, Lord, to keep on believing that the time of Your blessing may not be far away.