Now Faith, in the sense in which I am here using the word, is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods. For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes. I know that by experience. Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable. This rebellion of your moods against your real self is going to come anyway. That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you teach your moods ‘where they get off’, you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion. Consequently, one must train the habit of Faith.
The first step is to recognise the fact that your moods change. The next is to make sure that, if you have once accepted Christianity, then some of its main doctrines shall be deliberately held before your mind for some time every day. That is why daily prayers and religious readings and churchgoing are necessary parts of the Christian life. We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed. And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away?  

​"Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope."  Psalm 119:49, NIV
​
Whatever your especial need may be, you may readily find some promise in the Bible suited to it. Are you faint and feeble because your way is rough and you are weary? Here is the promise: “He giveth power to the faint.” When you read such a promise, take it back to the great Promiser, and ask him to fulfil his own word. Are you seeking after Christ, and thirsting for closer communion with him? This promise shines like a star upon you—“Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.” Take that promise to the throne continually; do not plead anything else, but go to God over and over again with this, “Lord, thou hast said it, do as thou hast said." Are you distressed because of sin, and burdened with the heavy load of your iniquities? Listen to these words—“I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions, and will no more remember thy sins.” You have no merit of your own to plead why he should pardon you, but plead his written engagements and he will perform them. Are you afraid lest you should not be able to hold on to the end, lest, after having thought yourself a child of God, you should prove a castaway? If that is your state, take this word of grace to the throne and plead it: “The mountains may depart, and the hills may be removed, but the covenant of my love shall not depart from thee.” If you have lost the sweet sense of the Saviour's presence, and are seeking him with a sorrowful heart, remember the promises: “Return unto me, and I will return unto you;” “For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee.” Bank your faith upon God's own word, and whatever your fears or wants, repair to the Bank of Faith with your Father's note of hand, saying, “Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.”

​Summing up: Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless—that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing.
Whoever wants to embrace life
    and see the day fill up with good,
Here’s what you do:
    Say nothing evil or hurtful;
Snub evil and cultivate good;
    run after peace for all you’re worth.
God looks on all this with approval,
    listening and responding well to what he’s asked;
But he turns his back
    on those who do evil things.
 

​Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
and his loyal love endures.
Let Israel say,
“Yes, his loyal love endures.”
Let the family of Aaron say,
“Yes, his loyal love endures.”
Let the loyal followers of the Lord say,
“Yes, his loyal love endures.”
In my distress I cried out to the Lord.
The Lord answered me and put me in a wide open place.
The Lord is on my side; I am not afraid.
What can people do to me?
The Lord is on my side as my helper.
I look in triumph on those who hate me.
It is better to take shelter in the Lord
than to trust in people.
It is better to take shelter in the Lord
than to trust in princes.
All the nations surrounded me.
Indeed, in the name of the Lord I pushed them away.
They surrounded me, yes, they surrounded me.
Indeed, in the name of the Lord I pushed them away.
They surrounded me like bees.
But they disappeared as quickly as a fire among thorns.
Indeed, in the name of the Lord I pushed them away.
“You aggressively attacked me and tried to knock me down,
but the Lord helped me.
The Lord gives me strength and protects me;
he has become my deliverer.”
They celebrate deliverance in the tents of the godly.
The Lord’s right hand conquers.
The Lord’s right hand gives victory;
the Lord’s right hand conquers.
I will not die, but live,
and I will proclaim what the Lord has done.
The Lord severely punished me,
but he did not hand me over to death.
Open for me the gates of the just king’s temple.
I will enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.
This is the Lord’s gate--
the godly enter through it.
I will give you thanks, for you answered me,
and have become my deliverer.
The stone that the builders discarded
has become the cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s work.
We consider it amazing!
This is the day the Lord has brought about.
We will be happy and rejoice in it.
Please, Lord, deliver!
Please, Lord, grant us success!
May the one who comes in the name of the Lord be blessed.
We will pronounce blessings on you in the Lord’s temple.
The Lord is God, and he has delivered us.
Tie the offering with ropes
to the horns of the altar.
You are my God, and I will give you thanks.
You are my God and I will praise you.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good
and his loyal love endures.

Matthew 28:16-20 (NET)
So the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain Jesus had designated. When they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

11 1 Now as they approached Jerusalem, near Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples 2 and said to them, “Go to the village ahead of you. As soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here soon.’” 4 So they went and found a colt tied at a door, outside in the street, and untied it. 5 Some people standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6 They replied as Jesus had told them, and the bystanders let them go. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus, threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. 8 Many spread their cloaks on the road and others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Both those who went ahead and those who followed kept shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” 11 Then Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. And after looking around at everything, he went out to Bethany with the twelve since it was already late.
 
14...3 Now while Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, reclining at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of costly aromatic oil from pure nard. After breaking open the jar, she poured it on his head. 4 But some who were present indignantly said to one another, “Why this waste of expensive ointment? 5 It could have been sold for more than 300 silver coins and the money given to the poor!” So they spoke angrily to her. 6 But Jesus said, “Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a good service for me. 7 For you will always have the poor with you, and you can do good for them whenever you want. But you will not always have me! 8 She did what she could. She anointed my body beforehand for burial. 9 I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.”

​God is our strong refuge;
he is truly our helper in times of trouble.
For this reason we do not fear when the earth shakes,
and the mountains tumble into the depths of the sea,
when its waves crash and foam,
and the mountains shake before the surging sea. (Selah)
The river’s channels bring joy to the city of God,
the special, holy dwelling place of the Most High.
God lives within it, it cannot be moved.
God rescues it at the break of dawn.
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms are overthrown.
God gives a shout, the earth dissolves.
The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is on our side.
The God of Jacob is our stronghold. (Selah)
Come, Witness the exploits of the Lord,
who brings devastation to the earth.
He brings an end to wars throughout the earth.
He shatters the bow and breaks the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
He says, “Stop your striving and recognize that I am God.
I will be exalted over the nations! I will be exalted over the earth!”
The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is on our side!
The God of Jacob is our stronghold! (Selah)

​Then he began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went on a journey. At harvest time he sent a slave to the tenants to collect from them his portion of the crop. But those tenants seized his slave, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. So he sent another slave to them again. This one they struck on the head and treated outrageously. He sent another, and that one they killed. This happened to many others, some of whom were beaten, others killed. He had one left, his one dear son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and the inheritance will be ours!’ So they seized him, killed him, and threw his body out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this scripture:
‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?”
Now they wanted to arrest him (but they feared the crowd), because they realized that he told this parable against them. So they left him and went away.

By Dr. Latayne C. Scott
When my son Ryan and I read through the Old Testament when he was in high school, we used The Narrated Bible (now re-titled as The Daily Bible). We read a section out loud every morning.
Old Testament names can be tongue-twisters. But I insisted we sound them out and say them. "After all," I reasoned, "if God honored someone by having their name in His eternal Word, we should at least say them aloud."
We named the names.
Something similar happened when I began to read The Gulag Archipelago, the memoir of Alexander Solzhenitsyn that Time Magazine called "the best book of the 20th Century." I read the abridged version (I’m a wimp—the three-volume original version is a bazillion pages long) and kept getting characters mixed up in my mind.
Finally, I realized that I needed to read the unfamiliar sounds of the Russian names out loud. I did this for the whole book. After a while, the cadences and inflections of the Russian language helped me see patterns in names and consistency.
I named the names.
In a way I may never fully understand, naming the Name of Jesus has power beyond its syllables and sounds. (I capitalize the word Name, because its identification with God partakes of His holiness—see Acts 5:41).
The Bible repeats over and over
the idea of calling on His Name.
For the last year, a prayer practice of naming the Name has become an essential part of my daily life. And for at least 1600 years (that we have documentation of), my brothers and sisters of Church history have prayed a simple prayer known as The Jesus Prayer.
"Repetition" to many Protestants is irretrievably linked to the word "vain”, as if all repetitions are meaningless. (They don’t know what to do with Psalm 136 and others, I guess.)
The Jesus Prayer is simple:
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me.
For my students, this is the Agent/Patient relationship in its purest form. It is anthropology and supernatural cosmology in a single sentence.
For unnumbered Christians for millennia, it has become as natural as breath, and as ever present. What effect has it had on others? I hear stories. But I have one of my own.
I’ve never had a problem with wanting to access porn. (I’ve got plenty of other sins; that just happens to be one that doesn’t tempt me). But one day I was reading a news report that described the kind of porn that is being depicted in library books for students in the public schools. The description was of an act I hadn’t thought about before. Then I couldn’t get it out of my mind.
Here’s a good thing about getting older. Whereas I was able in the past to mentally juggle several lines of thought and activity in my head, now I’m basically two-tracks.  I can do physical things, but my mind has only two other tracks. And the act, played out in my mind, became like background music. I didn’t want it to. But it did.
So with two tracks available to me, I did this: Something physical like walking or unloading the dishwasher or even listening to an audiobook—and when that act came into my mind, I prayed the Jesus Prayer.  I found I was functioning in the physical activity. I was following and enjoying the audiobook. And with the Jesus Prayer crowding out the "act," there was no mental room for anything else.
It took me a week, but that thought was kicked downstairs, so many floors, so repeatedly, that a door closed to a hellish basement.
I named The Name. And it helped. Can this ancient prayer help you?
Blessings to you, Latayne