Faith in antagonism to common sense is fanaticism, and common sense in antagonism to faith is rationalism. The life of faith brings the two into a right relation. Common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense; they stand in the relation of the natural and the spiritual; of impulse and inspiration.

Nothing Jesus Christ ever said is common sense, it is revelation sense, and it reaches the shores where common sense fails. Faith must be tried before the reality of faith is actual. "We know that all things work together for good," then no matter what happens, the alchemy of God's providence transfigures the ideal faith into actual reality. Faith always works on the personal line, the whole purpose of God being to see that the ideal faith is made real in His children.

For every detail of the common-sense life, there is a revelation fact of God whereby we can prove in practical experience what we believe God to be.

Faith is a tremendously active principle which always puts Jesus Christ first - Lord, Thou hast said so and so (e.g., Matthew 6:33), it looks mad, but I am going to venture on Thy word. To turn head faith into a personal possession is a fight always, not sometimes. God brings us into circumstances in order to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make its object real. Until we know Jesus, God is a mere abstraction, we cannot have faith in Him; but immediately we hear Jesus say - "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father," we have something that is real, and faith is boundless. Faith is the whole man rightly related to God by the power of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

We all need faith for desperate days, and the Bible is filled with accounts of such days. Its story is told with them, its songs are inspired by them, its prophecy deals with them, and its revelation has come through them.

Desperate days are the stepping-stones on the path of light. They seem to have been God’s opportunity to provide our school of wisdom.

Psalm 107 is filled with stories of God’s lavish love. In every story of deliverance, it was humankind coming to the point of desperation that gave God His opportunity to act. Arriving at “their wits’ end” (Psalm 107:27) of desperation was the beginning of God’s power.

Remember the promise made to a couple “as good as dead,” that their descendants would be “as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore” (Hebrews 11:12). Read once again the story of the Red Sea deliverance, and the story of how “the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan” (Joshua 3:17 NASB). Study once more the prayers of Asa, Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah when they were severely troubled, not knowing what to do. Go over the history of Nehemiah, Daniel, Hosea, and Habakkuk. Stand with awe in the darkness of Gethsemane, and linger by the tomb in Joseph of Arimathea’s garden through those difficult days. Call to account the witnesses of the early church, and ask the apostles to relate the story of their desperate days.

Desperation is better than despair. Remember, our faith did not create our desperate days. Faith’s work is to sustain us through those days and to solve them. Yet the only alternative to desperate faith is despair. Faith holds on and prevails.

There is not a more heroic example of desperate faith than the story of the three Hebrew young men Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Their situation was desperate, but they bravely answered, “If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up” (Daniel 3:17–18). I especially like the words “But even if he does not”!

Let me briefly mention the Garden of Gethsemane and ask you to ponder its “nevertheless.” “If it be possible . . . nevertheless . . .” (Matthew 26:39 KJV). Our Lord’s soul was overwhelmed by deep darkness. To trust meant experiencing anguish to the point of blood, and darkness to the very depths of hell—Nevertheless! Nevertheless!

Find a hymnal and sing your favorite hymn of desperate faith. S. CHADWICK

When obstacles and trials seem Like prison walls to be, I do the little I can do And leave the rest to Thee.

And when there seems no chance, no change, From grief can set me free, Hope finds its strength in helplessness, And calmly waits for Thee.

God loves an uttermost confidence in Himself—to be wholly trusted. This is the sublimest of all the characteristics of a true Christian—the basis of all character .

Is there anything that pleases you more than to be trusted—to have even a little child look up into your face and put out his hand to meet yours and come to you confidingly? By so much as God is better than you are, by so much more does He love to be trusted.

There is a Hand stretched out to you; a Hand with a wound in the palm of it. Reach out the hand of your faith to clasp it, and cling to it, for “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6). HENR Y VAN DYKE

Reach up as far as you can, and God will reach down all the rest of the way. BISHOP VINCENT

Not what, but whom I do believe! That, in my darkest hour of need, Hath comfort that no mortal creed To mortal man may give.

Not what, but whom! For Christ is more than all the creeds, And His full life of gentle deeds Shall all the creeds outlive.

Not what I do believe, but whom! who walks beside me in the gloom? who shares the burden wearisome? who all the dim way doth illume, And bids me look beyond the tomb The larger life to live?

Not what I do believe, but whom! Not what, But whom! JOHN OXENHAM

Without faith it is impossible to please him.—So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.—The Lord taketh pleasure in his people.

This is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.

If, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.—The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, . . . is in the sight of God of great price.

Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.—I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. This also shall please the Lord better than an ox or bullock that hath horns and hoofs.

I beseech you, . . . brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.

When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any.

Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins.

Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.—Father, glorify thy name.

Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.—Lo, I come to do thy will, O God.—Not my will, but thine, be done.

As he is, so are we in this world.—This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.

Whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.

Without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

He ever liveth to make intercession for them.—We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God.

Without faith it is impossible to please him.

He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

Whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.

Faith worketh by love.

Faith without works is dead.

We walk by faith, not by sight.

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory; receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

Have faith in God.—Without faith it is impossible to please God.—With God all things are possible.

Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver?

My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.

Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear.—Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many or with them that have no power.

We should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.

A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

No man, having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.—Let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord.—What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

Be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive: but speaking the truth in love, . . . grow up into him in all things which is the head, even Christ.

Abide in me.—Be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.