He [Jesus] replied, ‘Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, `Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.
Matthew 17:20
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he listens and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Hebrews 11:6
Prayer Points
Ask that God’s Spirit, the spirit of faith (2 Corinthians 4:13) fill your mind.
Confess and repent about the mountain of unbelief that pervades our land. Confess your own proneness to scepticism. Have we seen things through eyes of unbelief? Ask for the ability to distinguish between faith and gullibility.
Pray about these same things in relation to your church. Pray for the ministry of the church to stimulate faith in a God who can do anything, rather than faith in a God who doesn’t do much more than we can do ourselves.
DAY 17 : HAVING
Do we have faith? Jesus encouraged people’s faith.
Again and again he said to people that their faith had
healed them. He was always looking for that kernel of faith
that he could work with and was disappointed when it was
not present.
But finding faith is not a process of ‘hyping’ yourself to believe
something that you know to be unlikely. Faith has content.
It is faith in something, in someone. And that is what Jesus
encouraged people to do – to put their faith in him.
Faith is what is needed for us to see answers to prayer. But this
frequently sends us off into a spiral of self analysis: have I got
faith? Have I got enough faith? How can I get more? However
the most important issue is not how much faith we have, but in
whom is it placed?
Our faith must be in God as revealed in Jesus. When we
understand what God is like: his nature, his person, his
compassion, his word, his love, his eternal, all-encompassing,
sovereign power, then we realise we can trust him. A tiny amount
of faith – even as small as a mustard seed – when it is in Jesus is
sufficient to move mountains.
This week as we pray let’s take a long look at Jesus and put our
trust in him for the things we ask.
Pray
* Pray for your ‘big issue’
* Pray for your ‘three friends’
* Pray for a new wave of revival.