Christ Is the Soul’s Familiar Friend

Meditations on

Staying In the Grace for Today 

April 29, 2025

Christ Is the Soul’s Familiar Friend

Come close to God, and God will come close to you.

James 4:8a

On Monday, the Third Week of Lent, (March 24) I read a devotion by Harriet Beecher Stowe. (A Time to Turn, Anglican Readings for Lent and Easter Week) Ms. Stowe’s theme captured my heart: “Christ is the soul’s familiar friend.” As I pondered this devotion, I realized that I had twenty-three names on my daily prayer list, but my name wasn’t there. And it should have been. The next day I had an appointment with a specialist to discuss the shortness of breath I had been experiencing. And, in a few more weeks I am scheduled for an endoscopic ultrasound as a follow-up to an endoscopy I had a few weeks ago. These two appointments have certainly been on my mind. Why wasn’t I talking to Jesus about them?

Maybe, because of the unknowns, I rationalized they weren’t serious enough for Jesus’ time. But the unknowns were serious enough for me to worry. Ms. Stowe’s devotion showed me how my silence before Jesus was distracting my attention span while participating in the liturgy of the church. My worrying was taking my focus away from staying in God’s grace for each day.

My Takeaway: Throughout each day, I often stop what I am doing, and simply pray, “I love you, Lord.” I sense I am close to God, and that He has drawn close to me. But that is not the same as kneeling before Him, and saying, “Lord, I am worried . . .”

I’m still learning how to make the life in Christ my way of life. My thanks to Harriet Beecher Stowe for drawing me close to my soul’s familiar friend on Monday, the Third Week of Lent.

Sē’lah

My book on prayer,

First Think, Then Pray

is now available on Amazon Kindle.

 

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2025 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.