We talk about prayer often, we encourage others to pray, we even say, “I’ll be praying for you.” But when it comes down to it—when life feels heavy, when the mountain is high and the answer seems far away—we wrestle with doubt. We question whether our prayers really matter, whether they actually move the heart of God.
The Power of Our Prayer is in Direct Correlation with the Depth of Our Faith
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Let’s be honest: we struggle to believe that prayer has power. That’s the tension. Deep down, we wonder if our prayers make any difference at all. We say that God can do anything, and we believe He has the authority and power to do anything; yet we take the exit ramp and say something like this; If it is in God’s Will, or I guess it was not the right timing”. And it is not that what we are saying is wrong, it is the amount of faith and the amount of passion and belief we place in what we are saying.
From my experience, this doubt usually falls into two categories. First, we doubt because we wonder if it’s even possible. Will God really move the mountain in front of us? Will He heal? Will He provide? Will He make a way where there seems to be no way?
Second, we doubt because we’ve prayed before, and nothing seemed to happen. We’ve stood at the base of that same mountain, spoken the same prayer, and watched the same mountain remain unmoved. Next week we’ll talk about unanswered prayers—but today, I want us to focus on this first reality: the doubt that rises when we see the mountain in front of us.
And before we move forward, there are two questions that we need to identify. First, what mountains has God already removed in your past? The ones you prayed about, cried over, and then watched God cast into the sea. Did you stop to thank Him? Did you recognize that it was His hand, not luck or timing or coincidence? Or maybe He did it simply out of His generosity, out of His favor and blessing over your life.
Second, what mountain stands in front of you right now? What seems too large, too heavy, too impossible to move? What has you standing still in fear or doubt, listening to the negative voices that tell you it can’t be done?
Because the truth is, before the mountain moves, our faith must.
Jesus Teaches Mountains Can Be Moved
Matthew 21:20-23
When We Ask How Did That Happen, We Have Revealed Our Level of Faith
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Our Focus Should Be on the Maker of the Mountain, Not the Mountain
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It is Not About Having “More Faith,” it is a Focus on a Rightly Placed Faith in God
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Do We Trust Before We See
John 11:37-42
We Can Grieve & Still Believe
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When We Trust God to Lead Us, He Will Show Us What Only Faith Can See
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So here’s the question that sits heavy on my heart today: if we compared our prayers, the ones we pray when the mountain feels unmovable, to the prayer Jesus prayed here, how would they compare? Are we praying out of routine, or are we praying out of relationship? Are we asking God to act, or are we trusting Him to lead?
The First Step to Move Mountains
Faith that believes when it doesn’t see. Faith that prays when it doesn’t understand. Faith that steps forward even when the path ahead is still covered in fog.
Here are just a few examples. In Luke 7:9, Jesus marveled at the centurion’s faith, saying, “I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” In Matthew 15:28, He praised the faith of a Canaanite woman who refused to give up. And in Mark 6:5–6, the Bible tells us that Jesus marveled at the lack of faith among His own friends,. neighbors, and family. In every case, faith—or the absence of it—moved the heart of Jesus.
It is our faith that matters. Not the faith of our parents, not the faith of our pastor, not the faith of our Sunday school teacher or missionary hero—our own faith. The faith you personally carry is what connects you to the heart of the Father through Jesus Christ.
Isaiah 29:13 warns us about a faith that lives only on the lips. “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” We’ve all done this at some point—thought we were saying the right words, but our hearts were distant.
Faith that Moves God is an Honest Heart
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Hearts Must Bow and Submit Before the Mountains Move
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So maybe today the mountain isn’t meant to move until you do. Maybe the first step of faith is what unlocks the movement of heaven. Maybe God is waiting for you to trust Him enough to take that first step—because when you do, you’ll find that the mountain was never as solid as it seemed.
3 Action Steps:
I believe that sometimes the biggest mountain we need to confront and bring before God is the one we ignore the most. Many people have great faith and even have wonderful conversations with God—yet deep down, they feel like nothing ever really changes.
The reason, in my life and in yours, is often the same: the mountain that needs to be moved is us. We are the foundation that gets stuck. We dig our heels into places where God wants to bring freedom. We carry memories that haunt our rest. We hold onto dreams we’ve quietly stopped believing in because of doubt, discouragement, or the words of others.
The greatest obstacle and the greatest mountain that needs to be cast into the sea is ourselves.
And when that mountain finally moves—when we surrender our pride, fear, and control—our prayer life begins to overflow with true power. Last week, I provided you with three action steps, and I would like to do the same today.
First, what is the one thing that you know is standing in your way of having a prayer life that is powerful and filled with God’s presence? Identify that mountain. Name it before God.
Second, who is the one person you are praying for during this series—the one who’s far from God, who crosses your mind at unexpected times, or the family you’ve lost touch with? Could it be that one of the mountains you’ve built is the belief that they will never come to faith? Maybe it’s time to trust God to move that mountain.
Finally, using the prayer framework we discussed last week—private, specific, structured, and marked by a forgiving spirit—add the layers we’ve seen in Jesus’ example today:
A history of prayer where God has answered.
A firm and growing faith.
A relationship rooted in trust and obedience.
And a remembrance of the miracles and moments when you could say without a shadow of a doubt, “That was God.”
When we take those steps, we begin to pray with the kind of faith that not only moves mountains, but also changes lives, starting with our own.
