On four different occasions, Jesus scolded the disciples over their little faith. But on other occasions, He praised people for their great faith.

Matthew 8:26 Jesus said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm.

Matthew 15:28 Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once.

Jesus declared the great possibilities for anyone with faith even if it was as small as a mustard seed.

Matthew 17:20 And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

We grow our faith by exercising it and there is no greater exercise for developing great faith than praying, especially praying together with your church family. While praying, we pray to a God that we can’t see or hear, we pray for things that we really don’t know if they got answered or not.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

We finished day four in our “Five Days of Prayer” tonight at 10:00pm and I will have prayed for 35 hours when we finish tomorrow night. We have a “Five Day Prayer” event four times a year, and I almost always pray for at least 40 hours. Over the last 30 years of having prayer events my faith has grown a little bit more each time. Now my faith in the power of prayer has grown so strong compared to what it used to be, that I couldn’t miss one of these events unless I was dying or a family member was dying. I believe without a doubt that God is in our midst as we pray together, and that our praying together results in great things happening in the lives of people.

The stronger my faith the more power I have with God in prayer, and the more I pray the stronger my faith grows. I talk a lot about “God’s favorites” and in scripture it is easy to see that God’s favorites are the ones with great faith.

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.