“We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” – 1 Thessalonians 1:3
“Work produced by faith” is a result of resting in Him! As we rest in Him and His finished work on the cross, as we see how much He Radically Loves us a whole lot of nothing gets burned up.
What does that look like?
It’s somewhat different for each person but the end result is that things on this earth just don’t seem to matter so much anymore. Money, power, sex, popularity and religious doings kind of fall by the way side as we see what really matters – Love and the Full Value of what He did which was All about God’s Love for us!
Even this work of seeing the non-importance and non-value of things is a work that can Only be produced by Faith – and Faith is Trust in what you cant see!
As this Trust grows through seeing that His Love for us is beyond compare, a strange thing happens, we begin to emulate that Love as this Love changes us in ways we could never have imagined!
There is a growth of extreme Gratitude in the heart and soul of every believer as an ever growing awareness of His Gift of Love on the cross becomes more apparent!
None of this is done on our own! None of this is self-made man determination, grit your teeth and hang on because Heaven is coming stuff! It’s all based on an ever growing awareness of His Great Love for you!
Because of this Love and the growing Gratitude that it creates endurance, through whatever comes our way develops because we understand how much He Loved us to send His Son and how much His Love holds us now in each moment.
Once you get this, once you grasp the reality of the simplicity of centering your life around His Great Love – the Peace that is in you and the Love that grows in and through you will change not only you, your perception of others and life itself but it will also change others.
Faith without works Is dead because it’s not growing! This doesn’t mean – have Faith and work hard – it means have Faith and watch that Faith change you as you see the value of the Faith in what you cant see but constantly rest in!
Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. – James 2:14
Elija – thanks for sharing that passage! I hope you got that from what was written in the devotional as well. Just to be sure you understand the position of this site and me, Bob Hildreth here is a link to 7 questions and scripture:
https://www.begracefull.com/let-the-journey-begin/
I would be more than happy to visit with you about this!