The Russians' Secret: What Christians Today Would ... - GOD'S WORD

that our minds quiet down and bad thoughts go away.The secret of Salvation lies in unceasing prayer. Chris­tian, if you feel unable toworship God in spirit and in truth, if nothing comes to you (no sensation ofwarmth or fulfill­ment) when you pray, then you must simply do what you can.You can call on the name of Jesus. You can do it frequently and keep it up. Ittakes little effort and anyone can do it.To pray continually can certainly become a habit. It can become our secondnature, bringing our minds and hearts continually back to the right place. Ifpeople obeyed God in this one area (to pray continually) they would obey him ineverything, for those who keep calling in secret on Jesus’ name—even thoughthey must force themselves to do it at first—have no time for foolish talking, forcriticizing their neighbours, or for wasting their time in sinful entertainment. Ifpeople would remember Christ their sinful thoughts would diminish. Their sinfulideas (hatched in idleness) would not get carried out. Multitudes of unnecessarywords would never get said, and for calling on his holy name, every sin would bewashed from their souls. 9Niceforus, a Greek teacher of the later Byzantine period, summed up what thosewho still followed Christ believed. “Calling on the name of the Lord,” he said,“leads one to salvation without hard work and sweat.”Russian TeachingIn Russia, Feodosy Pechersky may first have written about Christ awareness. Butby his time the simple practice of “calling on the name of the Lord to be saved”had spread among the common people. To them it was “prayer”—living in thepresence of God.“Gennady” wrote:To pray is to open one’s soul to the light. . . . Do not neglect prayer, the soul’snourishment. As a body deprived of food suffers and grows weak, so the souldeprived of prayer heads toward spiritual death. 10Centuries later the author of one of the “home wisdom” documents wrote: