Useful Bible Studies > Romans Commentary > chapter 10

How to receive faith

Romans 10:17

God does the most wonderful things when people have faith in him. So, we should believe God’s promises and we should trust him.

Faith means belief and trust in God. Faith is not merely the belief that God exists (James 2:19). Rather, it is our trust in God’s word, and especially in his promises, which shows itself in our actions.

Faith, therefore, does not come from people’s desires, their ideas, their hopes or their imagination. True faith is not a religion or an attitude of the mind. We cannot obtain or increase our faith by means of our thoughts. We can only receive it as a gift from God. We receive faith when we hear God’s word. The Bible is God’s word (2 Peter 1:20-21), and from it we receive faith.

In other words, God has given us wonderful promises in the Bible. All of God’s promises are certain (2 Corinthians 1:20). God will do everything that he has promised to do. He has given us these certain promises so that we can depend on them (Hebrews 6:13-19). So, it is wise and sensible to trust what God has said (Matthew 7:24-27).

Therefore, we need to hear and to understand what God says in the Bible. That is why God sends people to explain the Bible to us. God uses his word, and their explanations of it, to increase our faith. In other words, what we hear helps us to trust God more.

Next part: The Bible's message reaches across the world (Romans 10:18)

 

Please use the links at the top of the page to find our other articles in this series. You can download all our articles if you go to the download page for our free 1000+ page course book.

 

© 2022, Keith Simons.