Training the Habit of Faith

Faith (in its larger, generic sense) is in C. S. Lewis’ words, “the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”  In order to have strong faith we must first acknowledge that our moods do change. 

 

Moods are affected by how we feel: rested, tired, sick, hungry, uncomfortable, threatened, stimulated, bored, confident in company of others, by the weather, etc. Some people are driven primarily by reason, others by emotion, others by sense of duty, others by their social environment.  Some people are driven by principles, or promises, or their sense of position or the expectation of others.  Nearly everybody is driven, sometimes, by their moods.

I am a Christian.  More than that, I am a disciple of Christ. We Christians train our life in Christ, our convictions as disciples of Christ, by deliberately holding in our mind and reviewing daily some of its main doctrines and our covenants pertaining to them.  That is why daily prayers, daily religious readings, weekly churchgoing, frequent acts of service, reviewing in our minds inspirational music, integrating our doctrines into our actions, and so on, are necessary to becoming ‘steadfast and immovable’ in our faith. These things are stronger and can displace negative moods if trained. 

We have to be continually reminded of what we believe.  Our beliefs, once activated at some point in time (e.g., our baptism, or mission, or marriage, or a sacred spiritual experience) will not stay bright in our memory unless continually reviewed.  Neither will our behavior reflect these things or our living Faith in Christ be automatically sustained.

We can be acted upon by our mood, or we can act in faith. 

 

Remembering great spiritual things that touched our lives will help us unstick ourselves from the quicksand of mood and move forward in faith.