I get very discouraged when I watch the news. The political rhetoric that twists words until they mean nothing makes me angry. The political leaders who think they have been elected to be God make me angrier. Over all of it, I worry that our country will be irreparably destroyed by political decisions that will turn us into a socialist trash heap.
Nehemiah wrote about a time when the country of Israel was quite demonstrably in the trash. Yet in that time, the reading and explanation of God's word in the Book of the Law changed everything. It reminds me that no matter how much I despair, I can trust God. I must turn away from the events and people that appear to show the victory of evil and turn to God, who will with certainty overcome evil in the end.
No matter how bleak things look, I will focus on God, I will let him give me joy, and I will grow strong in the joy that wells up inside like living water.
The joy of the Lord will, indeed, be my strength.

Nehemiah 8:10