Faith draws a person into a
living communication with God in heartfelt, concentrated prayer. When a person
comes into close contact with the Almighty, then, according to the words of the
Savior, everything becomes possible to him: "Whatever things you ask in
prayer, believing, you will receive … If you have faith as (small as) a mustard
seed, and you will say to this mountain, "Move from here to there,"
it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you" (Matt. 21:22,
17:20). Thus even the smallest faith can work wonders provided it is wholesome
and healthy like a mustard seed. The great miracle worker Saint John of
Kronstadt, speaking from his own experience, called faith "the key to
God's treasures."
True faith has nothing to do with self-confidence. Greatly mistaken are
those who confuse faith with ordinary auto-suggestion. Some sectarian preachers
teach that one must convince oneself of whatever one desires, for example: in
health, success, or well-being — and that is enough to obtain it. These
auto-suggestions resemble a game in which a child imagines that he is sailing
accross the sea or riding a horse while he sits on the floor in his room. Faith
built on self-suggestion leads to self-delusion and a
spiritual catastrophe.
True faith acts not by the power of imagination or self-hypnosis but in that
it joins a person to the ultimate Source of all life and strength
— to Almighty God. Faith is like a vessel with which one scoops up from the
Divine fountain, and prayer acts as an arm with which one reaches into
it. It is important to take recourse prudently to the power of faith.
Because only God knows what is best for us, in praying one should be less
concerned about pressing one's own desires and more about understanding what is
the will of God. After all, prayer should not become a monologue but a
two-way conversation. And in every conversation one must learn to listen
as well. When we sincerely pray to God, He replies to us in our heart and in
subsequent external circumstances.
Turning to the Gospel accounts, we see that those people who possessed an
exceptionally strong faith as, for example, the Roman centurion, the Canaanite
woman, the friends of the paralytic, and others, were all very far from any
elation or pathos. Actually, they all were extremely humble people
(Matt. 8:10, 15:22, 9:2). The combination of strong faith and humility
is not accidental. A deeply believing person feels, more than anyone else, the
greatness and the almightiness of God. And the more he realizes it, the more
keenly he becomes aware of his own limitations and deficiency. The great
miracle workers such as, for example, the prophets Moses and Elisha, the
apostles Peter and Paul and those like them were always distinguished by
profound humility.
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