Jesus taught that prayer must be with faith (Matthew 21:21-22; Mark 11:22-26)
In theses verses I see three aspects of faith in prayer that Jesus teaches. First of all…
(1) Faith must be in God. Matthew 21:22 says, “Have faith in God.” Prayer with faith, therefore, is prayer that believes in God and in the promises that He has given us. Then it is prayer that expects God to answer based on those promises; it is prayer that has a continuing hope for the answer and a lasting energy to pray until the answer comes. Secondly…
(2) Faith must be with obedience. Prayer with faith is prayer that doesn’t just pray and then believe that God will do it by Himself without us; it is prayer that counts on God to help usdo it; it is prayer that stops praying and starts obeying.
In my last post I wrote a little on how to have great faith instead of little faith. If you are still not sure how you can increase your faith (make your faith more complete or consistent) here are a few ideas—taken from my book Prayer A to Z.
Eight Ways to Increase Your Faith
1. Take your unbelief to God. Ask Him to fill you with the Holy Spirit and with His desire. Surrender yourself completely to Him. Be humble before Him and confess your sins and helplessness. Be like the man who said to Jesus, “I believe; help my unbelief” (Mk. 9:24)! Always remember that faith is a gift from God. None of us were born with it; none of us can create it in ourselves. We have to humbly ask for faith. Asking for faith in prayer is the way we received it when we were…
The apostle Peter, in 1 Peter 2:2, wrote, “As newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby.” Here we see that spiritual growth is by the Word. But what I want to point out is that since faith is the foundation of Christian life, when we grow spiritually, which is by the Word, our faith grows too. Our spiritual growth is always a growth of faith. And so we grow from faith to faith (Rom. 1:17). Just as we were saved by faith, we live the Christian life by faith; and at every point we are to continue to live by faith—“from faith to faith.”
Now the question is, why do some people have very little faith (their faith doesn’t seem to grow), while others have great faith (their faith grows and grows)? Here are…
In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus talks about how we ought not to worry or be anxious in life; and He talks about how we should look at the birds and the flowers to see how God our Father takes care of them and how He will even more take care of us. Then in Matthew 6:30 Jesus points out to us what the ultimate problem is that is causing us to worry. We have a lack of faith. He said, “O ye of little faith.”
What does He mean by little faith? He does not say “no faith,” but little faith, or not enough faith. And Jesus is not speaking to unbelievers, but to believers—those who began a life of faith in Him.
But we must proceed on from the faith we began with—from the faith that saved us. Let us desire a larger, deeper faith. Or let me say this: if we don’t move on to a larger faith, we may always have trouble with worries and doubts—and along the way, some may even doubt their salvation!
What is a larger faith? It is a faith that believes on God for more than salvation; for our entire life—for every little thing; for food and drink and clothing, and also that He will care for you in everything you do.
To be of little faith means that we are mastered by our circumstances. This should not happen to a Christian! We as Christians should be above our circumstances. We can even rejoice in tribulation.
Another way of looking at it is that we as Christians who are of great faith learn to be thinkers not just responders. Hence, the trouble with the one of little faith is that he does not think; he does not think of the truth and the promises of God. He is just blown around by the wind of circumstances.
We must spend more time studying the bible and thinking of on the lessons that the Lord gives us, and on His promises, and to believe them. This is the essence of faith. And conversely, little faith is not to open the bible but rather to cling to a vague memory of our salvation.
I am not saying that our salvation is not important. But we must go on and build on that salvation. A larger faith realizes the full implication of our salvation. It sees who we are as Christians; that we are children of our heavenly Father and that we have a great inheritance in Christ. All the promises of God are meant for us. Paul wrote, “He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things (Ro. 8:32).
Here are some things to think about which He has given us:
He has put our names in His book (Rev. 20:12). He has many things in store for us for all eternity.
Think of His great love for us (John 3:16).
He is concerned for us. He cares for us (1 Pt. 5:7).
He is so strong for us. His great power is working for us (Eph. 3:16-20).
Jesus taught that prayer must be with faith (Matthew 21:21-22; Mark 11:22-26) 
Stephen Nielsen 