As Christians, we call ourselves people of faith, but how much practical faith do we really have?

Naturally all of us don't think we deserve very much. We don't believe that things will go well for us in the future, generally because they may not have in the past. Our natural bent is to expect the worst. Our natural tendency is to be negative and doubtful. It is actually very hard to be positive. It takes faith to be positive and believe that good things are in our future.

Be careful what you wish for or pray for, because whatever you wish for or pray for, you will have to take care of.

Prayer can be a tricky thing, because there are passages that say do not doubt and believe you have received whatever you ask for and you will, but then Jesus prayed 'Not my will by thy will be done.'  Ultimately, we can't tell God what to do.  He will accomplish, in our lives, whatever He wants to accomplish.  God is God and we are not.