Work Produced by Faith - Your Nightly Prayer
Work Produced by Faith
Your Nightly Prayer for May 12, 2025
by Britt Mooney
TONIGHT’S SCRIPTURE
"We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith." 1 Thessalonians 1:3
SOMETHING TO PONDER
Every now and then, we hear a story about how a person mistakenly puts diesel into a car that requires unleaded. The car might go for a while, but unless they address the issue quickly, they’ll ruin the whole engine, an expensive result. However, when we put the right fuel in the right car, the vehicle runs the way it should. The right fuel produces the right power. It works.
Christianity, the new covenant, and life with Jesus require the right fuel to work—faith. As my mentor used to say, faith is the perception and pursuit of God and his heavenly, unseen reality. God gives this faith as a gift, the ability to perceive how things operate, how the unseen is created, and holds power over what we see. Without this eternal perspective, we’re left alone in ignorance and deception. We have no hope. Yet with it, we can make decisions that impact the now and forever future for the ultimate good.
Knowing the blessings available through Christ, we pursue the unseen, as Paul tells us in Colossians 3. We act differently. Therefore, faith by its nature produces works. Faith without producing transformed behavior is dead, like putting diesel in a car that takes unleaded. Faith opens the door for grace, another gift of God, and then we walk in faith. Otherwise, we travel in our own power, which was the original problem Christ came to solve. Looking through Hebrews 11, each Old Testament figure had the same faith, and yet they each fulfilled a different, unique God-purpose with their story.
We aren’t saved by works but for them, ones God has planned in advance for us to do. It matters the source of our walk, our life, and our actions. Our choices must be fueled by faith and not ourselves. May we live by faith, by God’s revelation of himself and us through the Spirit and the Bible, producing lives giving the glory due him and our blessing.
YOUR NIGHTLY PRAYER
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the gift of faith, the ability to perceive, and the grace to pursue what matters, the unseen and eternal things which will last. Help us to have faith in you alone, believing in your Word and promises, placing our trust in them. As you speak to us through your Spirit and the Scripture, empower us with your grace to obey and love others as you have loved us. In this, may our lives point others back to you and inspire people to give you glory.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
THREE THINGS TO MEDITATE UPON
1. Have you ever used the wrong fuel for a car? Or the wrong power source for a hair dryer? How did that work?
2. What are the ways you hear from God the best? What disciplines help you better see the unseen?
3. How do you practically take God’s Word and obey it?
Photo Credit: ©GettyImages/AleksandarNakic
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