Could you use a boost in optimism? Are you in such challenging times that you think there is no end in sight, and that maybe your best days are behind you?

Joel Osteen, senior pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, has written his most recent book, “It’s Your Time” to tell people that now is not the time to get discouraged. He has these six specific words to offer: “You are closer than you think.”

Joel (and I choose to call him by his first name because he does that in all of his ministry teachings) has written a book with five parts, each of which I will very briefly summarize. Joel’s message of encouragement takes him 300 pages to tell, and each page is packed with stories, affirmations of faith and reasons why God is the answer and faith is the way for fulfillment of His plans for you.

Part One: It’s time to believe

It is during life’s most difficult times that it seems hardest to see a way out. Joel explains that maybe you don’t have an answer or the strength to keep on fighting, but that God has both just waiting for you. Joel says that it is your time to believe.

Part Two: It’s time for favor

Joel wants people to know that you are never alone, and God has not abandoned you. God has released blessings into your future, and you can claim His favor through faith and by accepting His plans that He has preordained for you. Joel says that it is your time for favor.

Part Three: It’s time for restoration

Joel offers encouragement that not only does God want you to survive during tough times, but that He will provide ways that allow you to be creative and innovative so that you can soar to even greater heights than you ever did before. Joel says that it is your time for restoration.

Part Four: It’s time to trust

This part contains many messages drawn from stories of people for whom the right people, the right skills and the right opportunities were placed in their path through their trust in God. Joel says that it is your time to trust.

Part Five: It’s time to stretch

Joel offers prayers, inspiring stories and practical tools for activating all of the good things that God has in store for you. In this section Joel presents ways for you to not only pick up the pieces but to stretch towards achieving above and beyond what you’d ever dreamed of having. Joel says that it is your time to stretch.

To conclude this review/sharing of excerpts from It’s Your Time, I would just say that I highly enjoyed this book and will probably go back and read his other books as well. Osteen provides a hope-filled, positive message of faith that is a refreshing, welcome change from what you get on the evening news or in the morning paper. You can tell when reading the book that these are not just platitudes that Osteen is presenting; he deeply believes what he is saying. And most of it gels quite nicely with what I believe about life and God. It gives me hope that the best is yet to come, and that there is a power at work in the Universe that wants to bless me.

Sources: Mark Andrew Alward- www.markandrewalward.blogspot.com &

R.C Johnson- www.associatedcontent.com