This week’s Daily Prayers uses my sermon notes on Lessons on the Life of Faith from Hebrews 11 as a basis for the prayers.

Nov 7 – Faith carries the meaning of a close relationship with one whom you trust as trustworthy and true – fides.

It is slightly different from belief in that to believe is our active confidence or persuasion that Christ is whom He says He is, and is able to save us when we call upon Him. We also believe in the truthfulness and power of God’s word – it is active, living and accomplishes that which God sends it to do.

Thus belief is a conviction that what Scripture says about Christ is true – and therefore we can believe into Christ – into salvation.

Pisteuw [peac-tu-o] believe is the verb of pistis [peac-tis] faith. Often John writes that we believe eis ‘into’ Christ – John uses the verb pisteuw 98 times in his Gospel – way more than the other Gospel writers – 34 times in total in Matthew, Mark and Luke taken together.

Father, thank You that when we believe into Christ, it leads to salvation. We declare that this is a wonderful, amazing salvation – forgiven of our sins, made anew by Your Spirit, and brought into covenant relationship with You as Your children.

We pray for clarity and understanding to see how to apply these truths to our lives this week. As we pray to You, guide us by Your Spirit, and help us to pray so that our prayers are in line with Your word and will.

We pray for our non-Christian family members, friends, work colleagues and neighbours to come to Christ, repent of their sin, believe into Him and be saved. Amen.

Nov 8 – Father, thank You that as we believe into Christ – we have faith in Christ; help us to understand the full importance of this great biblical word. Therefore, faith is our confidence in someone we know personally – the Lord Jesus Christ. We have got to know Him through His word, and through His presence and impact on our lives.

We declare that as we believe into Christ as our Saviour – we have faith in His goodness because faith is a positive word which expresses that we have found One who agape loves us without limits, and who is fully committed to our salvation by covenant and by family connection.

Our faith is a spiritual muscle. It is concrete and real. The more we feed it Your word, obeying Your commands, loving as You call us to do – the more faith develops, grows and matures in our lives.

Faith develops as we seek to live daily being filled with Your Spirit, led by and walking in the Spirit. Every time we chose the pathway Jesus sets before us of self-denial, dying to self, taking up our cross daily and following Him – our faith is working in partnership with the Holy Spirit within us. Amen.

Nov 9 – Hebrews 11:1, 6, CSB, ‘Now faith is the reality [hypostasis – substance or assurance] of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen. 6Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.’

Thank You Father, that our faith deals with the eternal and beyond us God. But it is based in agreement with the personal and knowable Son of God who reveals the You to us. Thus it calls us to godly change, our thoughts, actions and motivations, all being renewed as we walk by faith.

Bishop Moule, Faith, viii, we are ‘called to act on earth under the influence of Heaven.’ Lord, as we live under the influence of Heaven, even in the reality of this life with its pressures, difficulties, sorrows and joys, we have an anchor for our souls because our faith is rooted firmly in Christ. 

The influence of heaven comes through our relationship with Christ as we learn about Him in His word and by His impact upon our lives, and by Your Spirit at work in our lives. Continue to sanctify or set us apart by Your word and Spirit so we can be Your salt and light – witnesses for Christ in this world. Amen.

Nov 10 – Father, our faith takes us out of this world’s many truths and makes us right with You, we find Your approval in Christ. We believe into Jesus as Saviour, and discover His truth, trusting in Him as truth, and seeking to walk with Him by faith in His truth.

Faith leads to obedience because we trust You as Creator, and we trust Your word.

Faith leads us to trust Your leading and good intentions toward us, and therefore we act in faith, in obedience to what Your word tells us, Your Spirit teaches us, and what His revelation leads us to do.

We believe in You as a supernatural God, but know our faith is in the very real Lord Jesus, and thus acts and is rooted in Him, not what He necessarily does for us. We have faith in Christ, and Your good, perfect and pleasing will in and through Him.

We ask that we may be strengthened to be able to walk in this truth every day, no matter how we feel. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Nov 11 – Father, on this Remembrance Day – we remember all who have died in war, all who have been injured or traumatised by their experiences, and for their families as they live with a person who has faced battle and seen the horror of war. Comfort and hold them close on this day.

We pray especially for the people of Ukraine – set them free from the Russian invasion and tyranny, save many, and heal their land leading to a just, lasting and righteous end to this war.

Thank You that Jesus often used faith to mean a personal reliance on Him. ‘Faith takes You at Your word, and pleads Your promises for an answer’ (Moule, Faith, 49-50).

Our faith takes hold of Christ just like that woman did when she touched the hem of His garment (Matt 9:18-26, Mark 5:21-34).

When we come to Hebrews 11, it reveals people who trusted in You, believed into a life of trust and obedience – a people who knew You as their God, took You at Your word, and followed You as their trustworthy God acting in obedience to Your revelation to them.

In Ephesians 6:16, Paul says, ‘In every situation take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.’

It is really surprising that Paul says, ‘with which you can extinguish…’ We can think that You protect us from Satan, and yet here it is our faith – the shield is our faith – that protects us and everything about us. Thank You that our relationship with Christ means that our faith can be a shield against the enemy of our souls as we stand with Christ in this wonderful union. Hallelujah! Amen.

Nov 12 – Father, helps us to learn how to apply each of the following Life Lessons:

1. Being a person of faith in Jesus is the important thing, not just a person of faith. Faith in itself is a human trait, but it must be rooted in Christ to be effective, living and protective. Our faith is in the Lord Jesus – He turns it into living faith.

2. Faith is laying hold of the promises revealed in Your word, learning how to stand on them, and apply them in every given situation. This can only be done in partnership with the Holy Spirit.

WM Sinclair (Ellicott commentary p. 233), ‘loving God and keeping His commandments are the true work of faith.’

Faith is not something beyond our understanding; nor is it some mystical force working on our behalf. No, not that. It is rooted in our living relationship with Christ and developed as we feed on His life-giving word.

3. Our faith grows out of the New Birth, it is Your gift to us. In that it is birthed within us at that moment as the Spirit makes us alive in Christ – regeneration by the Spirit leads to saving faith.

It is the thing that turns us into truly spiritual beings able to understand, apply and obey Your word. It enables us to have our thinking renewed as You would have it to be so. Amen.

Nov 13 – Father, again, helps us to learn how to apply each of the following Life Lessons:

4. Faith grows as we feed and exercise it – in other words: fill our minds with Your word, do what it says, practice the Christian Disciplines, and join Christ in His mission to the world.

5. Faith matures as we test it through the course of our lives proving Your faithfulness to us because of Christ, and gaining understanding and insight in how to walk and live by faith.

6. Our faith is real. Satan sees it as a shield around our lives. As in the Roman infantry, it protects best when it is exercised in a local church with other believers also exercising their faith. This interlocks our faith in the midst of a faith community – a community of sisters and brothers rooted in Christ and stronger together than when on their own.

7. Faith is infectious – it spreads. When others see our faith developing, growing and maturing, it causes them to ask, ‘how are you growing in faith?’ Our example, and our testimony inspire and challenge others to desire to walk by faith following Christ.

Our faith is rooted in Christ – that is what John says in 1 John 5:5, NLT, ‘And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God.’

Without Jesus, God the Son, our faith would be anchored in religion or a soulish interpretation of what faith is.

Our faith is secure because Christ is secure – He is our Rock of Salvation. Amen