Everyone struggles with doubt once in a while. In terms of spiritual doubts, I have a hunch God welcomes them, wanting us to ask whatever questions we have. When Jesus’ good friend Thomas doubted him, he didn’t show a shred of disapproval but lovingly went about dispelling his doubts.
My most frequent doubt-struggles happen in two areas: doubts about God, and about myself. I doubt God when he doesn’t come through as I thought he would, and I doubt myself when I’ve stepped out in faith and the promised results aren’t yet evident.
The simplistic answer for both dilemmas is to have greater faith. But how? By watching God come through, and by believing before I see results, the two places I doubt most. Sounds like a classic conundrum.
Scripture has a solution though. It details one more way to increase in faith and dissipate doubt: “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Romans 10:17) So, what is faith-building about that? Isn’t it true that every time we read the Bible we’re hearing it?
Our Nelson spent several of his adult years living in Nashville, Tennessee, and four of his siblings lived with him during different periods of time. The year Klaus was there, he and Nelson decided to act on the above verse from Romans. They began each day with a visit to the local Starbucks where they opened a Bible and read verses out loud with a desire to increase in faith. Reading Scripture aloud became a stepping stone to a better hearing of God’s Word.
In another example, three of our children spent 9 months each in an intensive YWAM Bible study program devoting 70 hours a week to concentrated examination of all 66 books. As they approached each new book, their first assignment was to read the whole thing out loud. This was no small task when it came to complicated Leviticus or lengthy Psalms. But reading aloud was a way to improve on hearing the Word of God, building faith in the process.
As we read silently, words bypass voice and ears and go straight from page to brain. It makes sense, then, that using a voice adds one more layer of impact to the message. Even in my prayer group as we pray verses over people, another woman’s verbalization of a passage, even a very familiar one, causes me to hear it better than if I was just reading it myself. I hear with my mind but also my heart and soul, which puts fresh oomph behind the words.
God’s Word is keenly important to him, which is why he’s protected it through thousands of years. To read it aloud surely pleases him.
And it might also increase my faith.
“Joshua said to the children of Israel, ‘Come here, and hear the words of the Lord your God. By this you shall know that the living God is among you’.” (Joshua 3:9-10)
