By-Product of Faith

1.  "Whom having not seen, ye love...." (I Ptr. 1:8).  Love seems to be our first by-product of faith.  We love him because he first loved us.  We can continue our love for him.  Yet, our love can grow cold, but love never leaves us completely.  We love Christ.

2.  "...though now ye see him not, yet believing..." (I Ptr. 1:8).  We continue believing.  That's what caused us to be saved.  But we continued to believe, and our faith in him became one of our early by-products of faith.  We never lose that, even though we may backslide.

3.  "...ye rejoice with joy unspeakable..." (I Ptr. 1:8).  I've never met a new believer that was not happy since he or she was saved.  God gives us that.  We enjoy it.  It's just one of those automatic by-products of our salvation.  Even today aren't you happy you are saved?  This is our by-product.

4.  "...what things ye desire, when ye pray..." (Mark 11:24).  Prayer is one of the earliest by-products of being saved.  And we pray the rest of our lives.  We pray when we are happy.  We pray when we are sad.  We pray between these.  We just pray.  And prayer is one of our by-products of being saved.  Be glad we pray.

5.  "For the Scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed" (Rom. 10:11).  We may think or say or do some things about which we are ashamed.  But we can ask forgiveness from God and he will forgive us.  For this and many other things we are not ashamed.  For everything in life God gives us.  For these we are not ashamed.  Praise the Lord!