So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. — Romans 10:17
One of my fondest memories growing up was my dad’s garden. At the time, I thought it was terrible. I wanted nothing to do with the work it required. I even wanted nothing to do with most of the vegetables that came out of it. But now, as an adult, I can look back and see how much I learned in that garden that I could not have appreciated as a child.
I remember my dad plowing the ground and preparing it to receive seed. I remember the planting. And I will never forget watching my dad pray over that garden, asking God to send the nourishment it needed to grow. He understood something that I was too young to grasp at the time. A seed in the ground is only the beginning. Without consistent nourishment, the plant might sprout. But it would never reach its full potential.
Faith works the same way.
Paul’s statement in Romans 10 is deceptively simple. Faith comes by hearing. Hearing comes by the Word of God. There is no shortcut in that equation and no substitute for what it requires. Faith is not something we are simply born with in a fixed amount that either gets us through life or does not. It is something that grows when it is fed, and something that weakens when it is starved.
We are remarkably intentional about feeding the things we want to grow. We feed our bodies multiple times a day without being reminded. We feed our careers with education, experience, and effort. We feed our relationships with time and attention. We feed our hobbies, our ambitions, and our interests with whatever resources we can spare.
And then we wonder why our faith feels thin when we need it most.
The answer is almost always the same. We have been feeding everything else and giving faith whatever is left over. A few minutes here. A Sunday service there. A verse when things get hard enough to make us look for one. And we expect that to produce a faith strong enough to carry us through the genuine difficulties of life.
My dad did not plant that garden and then walk away, hoping rain might fall on it. He tended it. He watered it. He prayed over it consistently. The harvest that eventually came was the product of faithful, repeated nourishment over time.
The Word of God is the nourishment faith was designed to grow on. Not occasionally. Not only in crisis moments. Consistently. Regularly. As a habit that shapes the soil of our hearts long before the difficult seasons arrive.
A faith that is well fed does not panic when the storm comes. It does not waver when circumstances are hard or when the answer has not yet arrived. It has roots deep enough to hold because it has been nourished long enough to grow.
The seed of faith may already be planted in you. But seeds alone do not produce harvests. Feed your faith. It will grow into exactly what you need.
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Another Well Ministries exists to help people slow down, listen deeply, and encounter God in the ordinary places of life. Through devotionals, reflections, and spiritual resources, we seek to create space for faith to be formed with honesty, grace, and hope.
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