100 Days of HopeSample

Fame Of A Different Kind

Paul was a very organized writer. So, when writing to the church in Rome, he was specific in explaining why he was so thankful for them and even spelled it out, beginning with the word “first.” Paul was commending them because all over the world people were talking about the faith of the Romans. It was, indeed, truly amazing, perhaps supernatural, how fast the Gospel spread—without email, YouTube, or Facebook! In that world, Rome’s faith was famous.

The point here, though, is that Paul emphasizes not the church’s faith itself, but that people were talking about it worldwide. Contemporary churches may draw attention, but it is many times because of conflict and all the other things that sap the Church’s energy. By contrast, Paul points out, the Romans were truly living the Gospel. Their faith was worth talking about.

However, even though there are negative examples of fame, there are good ones as well! Right now the faith of believers is being shared among groups of other believers worldwide. Miracles, answered prayer and encouragement happen in a split second over our modern communications systems. As long as we are careful to remain in line with the Gospel, our faith will also be something worth talking about!

Prayer: God, bring to our hearts those brothers and sisters living and working in lonely, hard places, needing faith and thirsting to display it. As we see Jesus more and more, may our faith grow and truly be something worth talking about.