It brought joy and peace and gratitude for what Jesus did for me and for those who have accepted Him as Lord and Savior.  I thought I would write out the words to the hymn and pray that you, too, will find comfort and strength in the wonderful, simple and yet powerful message of the song.

What a Friend

What a Friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry Everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer!

Have we trials and temptations?  Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged, Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful, Who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness, Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Are we weak and heavy laden, Cumbered with a load of care?
Precious Savior, still our refuge, Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?  Take it to the Lord in prayer,
In His arms He’ll take and shield thee, Thou will find a solace there.

Be blessed today as you sing the familiar hymn and take it all to the Lord in prayer today.  He cares deeply for you and wants very much for you to trust and rest in Him.

Christine

Today, Jesus is our High Priest.  He has once and for all made a sacrifice for our sins so that now we can go boldly to the throne of grace and receive mercy and find the help in our time of need.  Even as Christians we may feel like God is inapproachable and distant–always at odds with us.

Nothing can be further from the truth when we have accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior.

We were created by and for God but sin separated us from Him ever since the fall of Adam.  Jesus came and GAVE His life for us so that we would be reconciled back to God.  He took God’s wrath for our sins on Himself so that in Him we might become righteousness.  Read 2 Corinthians 5:20-21.

No matter what you have or have not done, God can and will forgive your sins if you will but ask Him.  Then, according to the Word of God you become His child.  The best part is we can then approach Him and talk to Him and trust Him to take care of us.

Many people might associate God with an earthly father who was not approachable or loving toward them.  Your Heavenly Father, however, is filled with lovingkindness and longs for you to talk to Him each day.

Give praise today for the Lord Jesus Christ and the price He paid for your sins in order for you to have access to the Father.  Give praise to Him today for the fact He is your High Priest who intercedes on your behalf and hears your prayers and cares for your every need.

What a glorious prayer Paul prayed for believers in Christ!

This verse applies to us as well as the Roman Christians to whom he wrote because it comes to us through the Word of God.  We have hope in our circumstances no matter how difficult they may be because God is willing and able to fill you with His joy and peace.  I love how the scripture says our hope overflows by the power of the Holy Spirit.  This peace and joy comes through putting my trust in Him and allowing Him to carry me and care for me.

Our hope is the very fact that we have a God who loves us, and takes care of us and promises to give us eternal life.  No matter what life may bring, trust in the One who gave his life for you and be filled with His joy and peace through the Holy Spirit.

My prayer for you today is Romans 15:13.

Christine Walker is the webmaster of  Christian Fiction Book Club.com.

According to 2 Corinthians 4:7 we are jars of clay.  Clay jars are fragile and in Bible days were a very common household thing.  God, however, chose to place His Holy Spirit within us!  That is what makes us strong and able to accomplish what God wants us to do.  That is how we are overcomers in the many trials we face in life.

It is not we ourselves, it is our God who is victorious!

It also means that’s how God sees us.  He sees us through the shed blood of Jesus Christ who gave His life for us.  If we have accepted Him as Lord and Savior the Holy Spirit can and does dwell within us. What choice do we really have but to see ourselves as God sees us: cleansed and pure, free from sin.

Jesus paid a great price for your sins and mine.  Let’s turn any guilt and condemnation we may have into praise and worship to God.

Take comfort today in knowing who you are in Christ.  Stand on the wonderful scripture Galatians 2:20 — one of my favorites — which says I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Be Blessed,
Christine

Christine is the webmaster of ChristianFictionBookClub.com. That’s THE website for you if you’re a lover of Christian novels.

When you think about it, the narrow road keeps you focused on Jesus and makes it so much easier to follow His lead. The broad road gives you way too many choices and temptations and does in fact lead to destruction. Read Matthew 7:13 I love how God’s ways are opposite of the world’s ways!

The narrow road is our security as believers. We sang a song one Sunday morning in church that really touched me with the words, the way is narrow, but the burden is light.

The narrow road is not the problem; it is the burdens we carry.

Jesus told us in Matthew 11:29-30 to come to Him if we are weary and burdened and He will give us rest. He says His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

My Bible commentary says that rest is the absence of guilt, worry, anxiety, and lack of meaning. Jesus promises us hope, peace and joy even in our troubles when we rest in Him. We are also free from the heavy burden of sin.

Even when we stumble and fall or start to wander or stray on the narrow path, Jesus is right there to pick us up and to keep us from straying too far. The narrow road is the only way to Jesus and it is the only road I want to travel on. I for one am glad to be on it!

Gracious God

Oh God your righteousness covers me
Not by my hand, but
By my choice to know of you

How oh God can you love me?
Not by my choice, but
By your first loving me

Oh God how can I but love you
You have given me your righteousness,
Your Spirit, Your love

Oh God how great your are
How great you are!

Your loving kindness, your grace
And mercy cover me all the days of my life

I love you my God and King
Thank you for loving me

There are no more beautiful words than those of Paul in Romans 3:22-23:

This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.  There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

It doesn’t matter what you have done or haven’t done; God will forgive.  In my Bible commentary it states that redemption means Christ’s act of ransoming us from sin.  This redemption means our freedom from the guilt, power and consequences of our sins.

If you have never asked Jesus to be your Lord and Savior and to forgive you of all your sins, then I urge you to do that right now.  It truly is that simple.

The scriptures tell us in 2Cor 5:17 that ”if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” That is the good news of the gospel.  We longer have to fear the future or be under condemnation because our sins have been forgiven.

If you are already saved and forgiven by the blood of Jesus, then rejoice everyday that you are a child of God.  Another scripture that I love and have committed to memory is Galatians 2:20:

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

So, no matter what, God will forgive you and give you eternal life!  Trust in His Word because it is Truth.

Be Blessed,
Chris

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

More Than Conquerers

What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:28-39

And if that’s the case, then who can be against us?

These scriptures tell us, too, that God predestined us to be conformed to the likeness of His Son.  That’s a powerful statement in that the life of Jesus lives within each of us as believers and God works in us to conform us to the likeness of His Son.  It is not we ourselves who do the work but God’s power working in and through us.

We can withstand the pressures and the evil influences of this world by allowing the character of Christ to develop within us and allow the power of His Word sustain us.

Because of these wonderful promises of God, He tells us in verse 35 that nothing can separate us from the love of God.  When things don’t go as we think they should, remember that God is at work and He will bring good out of your circumstance and stand strong on the promise if God is for you, then WHO CAN BE AGAINST YOU?

In Christ,
Christine

God, however, told Hosea to go after his wife even though she has had other lovers and bring her back to live with him.  Another extraordinary request!

Again, Hosea obeyed.

God was demonstrating His love for Israel in all of this.  Israel had prostituted herself by worshiping other gods and turning their backs on the one true God.  Though it grieved God’s heart, He would not break his covenant with His people, Israel.

Instead He chose to forgive them because He is constant in His love and He is faithful to His promises.

This entire message was twofold in that when we enter into a marriage, it is a covenant between a husband and a wife.  In the ups and downs of marriage, we are to be faithful to one another.  A man should love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (Eph 5:25).  I would challenge any woman who is married that, even though our role is to submit to our husbands, we should ALWAYS keep in mind how we are to be loved and cherished.

That does not make submission unpleasant or sexist as the world would like to believe.  Ephesians 5:22-23 says: Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.

When you submit to a godly husband it is as if you are submitting to the Lord.  Our role is not to be doormats but to be able to bend and accept the decision our godly husbands might make.  If you think about it, there is great power and grace in submission and God will enable you to do it when you give your heart to Him.

The other part of the message in Hosea’s story is that of what God does Himself.

What a comfort to know that He will not walk away from us no matter what we do or don’t do.  God is faithful even if we are not.  Even if He disciplines us, it is not out of condemnation but out of conviction that leads us back to where we need to be in Him.

If we stray from God’s way in our lives we actually open ourselves up to Satan’s attacks.  I believe with all my heart that God will do what He needs to do to get us back on track.  That is a God of power, love and redemption.

Rest in God’s love today and let Him lead you to be the wife or husband you are called to be.  To live in grace is really the most liberating way to live because God is there with you every step of the way.

In Christ,
Christine

They are still connected to the tree itself and the life of the tree flows through every one of those branches from the largest to the smallest.

Just as the bare branches stay connected to the tree in winter, so must I stay connected to God in my “Winter Seasons.”  The branches go dormant for a season or two, and my spiritual life may go dormant periodically as well.

This is the time to allow the Holy Spirit to flow through me as I read and meditate on the Word and continue to praise God regardless of how I may feel.

God will sustain me through this time and then, like the tree sprouting beautiful leaves, fruit or blossoms in the springtime, my life will begin to sprout the fruit of the Spirit again.

God will never leave us nor forsake us and He is faithful to take care of us.  So, continue to trust Him in your seasons of “Winter”.  Then, when your see your circumstance change, or your longtime prayer answered, you can give God all the glory and the praise!

The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Deuteronomy 31:8

Be encouraged. Stay connected to God in the “Winter”!

Christine