If you asked the average Christian what great faith was, they’d say something like “it is the kind of faith you need to work signs and wonders, miracles, healings, and deliverance.” In other words, great faith is the faith to move mountains.

While these manifestations of God’s power can be the fruits of great faith, they’re not necessarily great faith. In Luke 18, the Lord used the parable of a persistent widow to teach us to pray without ceasing. He however ends the teaching with a powerful statement which sheds light on how we look at faith: “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” 

Luke 18:8 NIV

In this parable, the Lord is not only teaching us persistence in prayer or ‘Pray Until Something Happens’ (PUSH) as we call it today, but he is teaching us that to persist in prayer is faith.

Another instance where the Lord linked great faith to persistence in prayer is in the account of the Syrophoenician woman whose daughter was tormented by a demon spirit (Matthew 15:22-28). The mother refused to give up at the first sight of apparent denial from the Lord. Because she persisted, she got what she wanted, plus a commendation from the Lord, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” 

I assume many of us would want to have such praise from the Lord. The good news is that it is possible. This great faith, expressed through praying without fainting, can be a possession of every child of God. Unfortunately, there are sad realities which stunt our growth in this area, and we must overcome them to see our faith grow.

Three Sad Realities About Our Prayer Lives That Hinder Great Faith

The first sad reality with many believers today is that we hardly pray. It is easier to actively serve God in song and preaching than it is to pray, because service often needs no faith, it needs only talent and passion. But prayer is hard because it usually looks like a chore to us, not a pleasant exercise of wonderful communication with our heavenly Father. Because faith is needed to pray effectively, it is harder to persist in prayer until we see our answer manifest as we fight doubts and fears.

Another sad reality is that we pray useless prayers.  With the popularity of say-after-me prayer books and prayer tapes, many of which stem from wrong doctrine and false teachings, some people have learned to say prayers that yield little or no fruit except for emotional satisfaction. Many who pray such prayers never take time to reflect on the results they get.

The third sad reality is that even for those who know what prayer is, there is another hindrance which is harder to discern: the issue of God’s will vs. our persistence to pray until something happens. So when we don’t see our answer soon, we give up with excuses like: 

• it must not be God’s will.”
• “God is sovereign, He can do anything whether I pray or not.”
• “God is teaching me a lesson through this terrible situation I’m passing through.”

Although these reasons can be right in their place, many times they are mere excuses for our inability or unwillingness to exercise great faith through persistence in prayer.

Remember Daniel? He prayed for 3 weeks before he got his answer. And the angel told him that his answer was released on the first day Daniel began to pray, but the angel encountered demonic opposition in bringing the answer (Daniel 10:1-12). Daniel’s persistence for 3 weeks finally saw his desired answer.

We all love to see our answer immediately. Unfortunately, we don’t always know what is behind the scenes hindering our answer. We therefore need to continue exercising our faith in persistent prayer until God reveals clearly to us what his will is about our situation. It is not up to us to guess what God’s answer is.

Do you want to build great faith? Learn to persist in prayer. Don’t just say a prayer; continue until you hear God about your situation.

Thank you and God Bless

~AkuBai

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