Faith Comes from Hearing

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

I'm Amy Boucher-Pye and I titled today's devotion, Faith Comes From Hearing. When Pastor Bob suffered an injury that affected his voice, he entered 15 years of crisis and depression. What, he wondered, does a pastor do who can't talk? He struggled with this question, pouring out his grief and confusion to God.

He reflected, I only knew one thing to do, to go after the word of God. As he spent time reading the Bible, his love for God grew. I've devoted my life to absorbing and immersing myself in the scripture because faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of God. We find the phrase, faith comes from hearing, in the Apostle Paul's letter to the Romans. Paul longed for all of his fellow Jewish people to believe in Christ and be saved.

How would they believe? Through the faith that comes from hearing the message, through the word about Christ. Pastor Bob seeks to receive and believe in Christ's message, especially as he reads the Bible. He can only speak for an hour a day and has constant pain when he does so, but he continues to find peace and contentment from God through his immersion in scripture. So too we can trust that Jesus will reveal himself to us in our struggles. He will increase our faith as we hear his message, whatever challenges we face. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Romans chapter 10 verses 8 through 17.

But what does it say? The word is near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the message concerning faith that we proclaim. If you declare with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved. As scripture says, anyone who believes in him will never be put to shame.

For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. Let's pray. Loving God, you give us hope even when we feel stuck and in pain. Shape us into the people you want us to be. We thank you and we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.