So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
Romans 10:17
The Word of God is critical to faith in God. If you want to grow in faith, then live in God’s Word.
Paul exemplified this truth. He was a man of extraordinary faith, who was all-out for Jesus. Not surprisingly, he was steeped in Scripture.
We see this in the Book of Romans as Paul continually refers to the Old Testament Scriptures. In fact, in the six verses around 10:17, Paul refers to the Old Testament Scriptures six times. In six verses! Now, it is possible that Paul could have had a bunch of hefty scrolls out before him and he was searching through them for just the right verse. But more likely, Paul quoted these verses from memory. He had soaked and marinated in Scripture. He knew the Scriptures and had memorized large parts of it. No wonder he was a man of faith.
Jim Tour is a chemistry professor at Rice University and a renowned leader in the field of nanotechnology. From 2000 to 2010, he was one of the ten most-cited science writers by other scientists. Yet his devotion is primarily to God’s Word. An article in the Houston Chronicle testified:
“He wakes up each morning at 3:30 a.m. to spend his first two hours with his Bible. ‘I read the Bible from Genesis Chapter 1 to Revelation Chapter 22, and when I’m done I start again,’ Tour said. ‘I’ve been doing this for over 30 years. There is this amazing richness. I take a passage and I say, “Lord speak to me.” And then it just comes alive.’” (Houston Chronicle, January 3, 2010)
Charles Spurgeon wrote: “It is blessed, to eat into the very soul of the Bible until, at last, you come to talk in Scriptural language, and your spirit is flavored with the words of the Lord, so that your blood is ‘Bibline’ and the very essence of the Bible flows from you.”
Or, more succinctly, someone wrote: “The Bible is as necessary to our safe passage through this life as oxygen to a dying man.”