Pray the word with David Platt is a resource from radical. net.

Zechariah chapter 7 verses 8 through 10 and the word of the Lord came to

zechariah saying thus says the Lord of hosts render true judgments,

show kindness and mercy to one another.

Do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner or the poor and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart

What a potent few verses when you think about the context here. This is God's people in the process of rebuilding the temple and returning to God, not just to the land

that God had promised to bring them back to after the exile, but returning to intimacy with God. And right before this in

Zakoriah Chapter 7, God talks about how they had participated in religious rituals and fasting and mourning in the fifth month.

In the seventh month it talks about in verse five.

So how for years God's people had done these things but they had missed the point.

Like they had participated in religious ritual and yet they had not rendered true judgments.

They had not shown kindness and mercy to one another.

They had oppressed widows and orphans and sojourners and the poor.

They devised evil against each other in their hearts.

Is that possible?

Is it possible for the people of God

to participate in religious rituals of all kinds, including fasting,

and to miss the whole point

by not showing kindness and mercy and justice to one another and the world around them.

So God, we pray directly based on Zakariah Chapter 7

verses 8 through 10 that you would help us to render true judgments, to show kindness to one another, to show mercy to one another.

God,

...