Remember the powerful words found in Matthew 11:28-30.  Jesus said, "Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me."  A key word here is 'yoke'.  In a nutshell it means 'service', or 'ministry'.  What Jesus is saying here is this; put service to God and others first in your life.  Let that be your number one priority, and everything else will fall into place for you.

Friend of Dial Hope, the stress and anxiety, fear and anger you may feel can be turned into something positive, something good for the cause of Christ.  Pardon my French, what we need most of all, is to get off our duff, to give up our paralysis of analysis, give up our t.v. watching addiction, and get on with life.  Let these emotions, this stress, stir us to creative service for God - that is the key to Christian living.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer had a stressful life.  He had been captured by the Nazi Gestapo and placed in one of those horrible prison death camps.  In that deplorable situation he wrote these words, "O Lord, whatever this day may bring, Thy name be praised."

You know something?  This nation is not perfect, and we are not perfect.  But I love America, and I love what people are doing - working together and getting back to basics.  God is bringing good out of evil.  This is our calling as Christians - to serve Jesus Christ wherever we are.

Prayer: Caring God, how much we need the assurance of your presence and help.  We are weighed down by the problems of life.  So inscribe on our hearts the words of your prophet, "God gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.  Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted, but those who wait for God shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint."  (Isaiah 40:28-31).  Mindful of this promise, we now can deal with this day!  In Jesus' name.  Amen.