God’s mercy provides us with hope. We must have
hope for our faith to work because faith is the substance
of things hoped for. Without it, our faith has no image to
bring to pass.

Lamentations 3:21-23 says, “This I recall to my mind,
therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are
not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are
new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”

Our hope is in recalling that the Lord’s mercy is
renewed every morning. We can place our faith in knowing
that God is faithful to His mercy. Every day when we wake
up, He is there to fall in love with us all over again!

We are to remind ourselves, as the psalmist did in Psalm
103, of the provisions of God’s mercy. The psalmist told his
own soul—his own mind—to remember them. He said:

Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within
me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord…and forget
not all his benefits. (Then he went on to list the
benefits:) Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who
healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy
life from destruction; who crowneth thee with
lovingkindness and tender mercies; who satisfieth
thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is
renewed like the eagle’s.

God causes His mercy to sit as a crown on our heads
and to fill our mouths with good things. As we spend
time praying in tongues, the Holy Ghost will work on the
weaknesses of our flesh and create in us new desires to
which our bodies will respond.

God will build within us the desire to pray, walk in
love and speak the right words with the result that we will
speak out good things—good prayers and good confessions
of faith, mercy and freedom from sin. The filling of our
mouth with good things will then, in turn, produce fruit
according to the things we have spoken, and our youth
will be renewed.

Gloria Copeland

The communion elements are powerful symbols of
the body and blood of Jesus that ratified our covenant
with God in Him. Taking communion and reminding
yourself of the blood covenant can help stop
unbelief more than anything else.

Hebrews 6:16-20
KJV—For men verily swear by the greater:
and an oath for confirmation is to them
an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing
more abundantly to show unto the heirs
of promise the immutability of his counsel,
confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable
things, in which it was impossible for
God to lie, we might have a strong consolation,
who have fled for refuge to lay hold
upon the hope set before us: Which hope
we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure
and steadfast, and which entereth into that
within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for
us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest
for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

Amp—Men indeed swear by a greater
[than themselves], and with them in all disputes
the oath taken for confirmation is
final—ending strife. Accordingly God also,
in His desire to show more convincingly and
beyond doubt, to those who were to inherit
the promise, the unchangeableness of His
purpose and plan, intervened (mediated)
with an oath. This was so that by two
unchangeable things [His promise and His oath],
in which it is impossible for God ever to
prove false or deceive us, we who have fled
[to Him] for refuge might have mighty indwelling
strength and strong encouragement
to grasp and hold fast the hope appointed
for us and set before [us].

[Now] we have this [hope] as a sure and
steadfast anchor of the soul—it cannot slip
and it cannot break down under whoever
steps out upon it—[a hope] that reaches farther
and enters into [the very certainty of
the Presence] within the veil, Where Jesus has
entered in for us [in advance], a Forerunner
having become a High Priest forever after
the order [with the rank] of Melchizedek.

Moffatt—For as men swear by a greater
than themselves, and as an oath means to
them a guarantee that ends any dispute,
God, in his desire to afford the heirs of the
Promise a special proof of the solid character
of his purpose, interposed with an oath;
so that by these two solid facts (the Promise
and the Oath), where it is impossible for
God to be false, we refugees might have
strong encouragement to seize the hope
set before us, anchoring the soul to it safe
and secure, as it enters the inner Presence
behind the veil. There Jesus entered for us
in advance, when he became high priest for
ever with the rank of Melchizedek.

NEB—Men swear by a greater than themselves,
and the oath provides a confirmation
to end all dispute; and so God, desiring to
show even more clearly to the heirs of his
promise how unchanging was his purpose,
guaranteed it by oath. Here, then, are two
irrevocable acts in which God could not
possibly play us false, to give powerful encouragement
to us, who have claimed his
protection by grasping the hope set before
us. That hope we hold. It is like an anchor
for our lives, an anchor safe and sure. It
enters in through the veil, where Jesus has
entered on our behalf as forerunner, having
become a high priest for ever in the succession
of Melchizedek.

Gloria Copeland