And you, because of my blood covenant with you, I’ll raise your prisoners from their hopeless cells. ... From now on, people are my swords.  Zechariah 9:11-13 (The Message)

The past several years have been confusing years for some of us. Routines that we had followed for a long time suddenly stopped working. We would go to the grocery store for a particular item and discover that it was no longer available, or it had been moved to a different location in the store. We ended up on expeditions trying to find our favorite orange juice or the seasonings that we always used on our turkeys. Sometimes we were successful in our hunt but sometimes we had to make choices as to whether we could use a substitute ingredient or find another dish to prepare.

Many of our mainline denominations made fundamental shifts in their policies and some people found themselves worshiping with people who stood up for beliefs that weren’t shared. Many new non-denominational churches started to spring up offering other paths to God.

Many of us have become confused and overwhelmed by the conflicting events that fill our days. At one point, there was a post on Facebook that we were supposed to follow a certain course of action whenever we left our house – except on those days when we didn’t. It seemed like for every new rule we were to follow, there were so many exceptions to that rule that there wasn’t any point in creating the rule to begin with.

Zechariah was sent to the people of God after they had returned to Israel after their Babylonian exile. They were confused as to what they needed to do. They had been gone so long from their homeland that they had forgotten those old routines that used to hold their lives together. They too got lost in the grocery stores and weren’t sure which church to attend.

God tells Zechariah that there’s a new wind blowing through the world. All the nations who have diminished God’s people will be taken down a peg, and God will send his people as weapons out to take care of things. A king is coming who will be riding on a donkey and will bring peace to all the nations. All of God’s people who are held prisoner will be freed from their cells and brought back home. Everything they had lost would be returned to them.

God already sent the king riding on a donkey. Take heart! God always keeps his promises. It may take him decades or centuries; but his promises are always fulfilled. God says that he’ll wake the people and remove the confusion from their minds. He’ll stir the chi of the world and set things right. Be prepared, there’s a new wind blowing through the world. If we can just hang in there, everything will fall into place.

Becky Gillette is a former teacher, newspaper reporter, and preacher who seeks to take an original approach to life’s lessons. She has recently published her first book, Jessie’s Corner: Something To Think About, which is now available for purchase. Based on several lesser-known scriptures from the Bible, this is a collection of articles which she wrote for a weekly newspaper.