Faith. Everyone has heard about it, many have seen it, but relatively few have experienced it in any depth.
Yet Hebrews 3 and 4 tell us that Israel could not enter into God’s Rest because they did not have the faith required of them to enter into that level of experience. But why? Had they not seen all the miracles Moses did? Had they not seen the parting of the Red Sea, the manna sent from heaven, and the fiery presence of God upon Mount Sinai? Of course they did, and they were certainly convinced that these things came from God. Nonetheless, they did not have the faith necessary to enter the Promised Land. The question is: Why not?
There is a difference between mental persuasion and faith.
One can be totally convinced of the authenticity of Scripture and that Jesus was the Son of God who died and rose again for us, and yet not have the level of faith needed to enter the Promised Land. If it takes faith only the size of a mustard seed to move a mountain, as Jesus said, then how little faith we must have! When we are confronted by mole hills, we are often frustrated and helpless to do anything. Or if we do, we seem to resemble the prophets of Baal in our antics as we try to manipulate God into doing something for us, rather than Elijah who simply prayed and got the job done...
Prayer is something that most people do not really believe will work for them.
For this reason, prayer meetings usually fail to draw more than a handful of interested people, and many of them seem to attend more out of duty and pastoral compulsion than from a genuine interest. Most are not excited by the prospect of a prayer meeting, because they do not really expect much to be accomplished by their prayer. Thus, only the dutiful and the disciplined are able to enter that labor, and seldom is it a joyous celebration of God’s interaction with men...
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