The nature of water is soft, that of stone is hard; but if a bottle is hung above the stone, allowing the water to fall drop by drop, it wears away the stone. So it is with the Word of God; it is soft and our heart is hard, but the man who hears the Word of God often, opens his heart to the fear of God.
Spiritual Coldness
Sadhu Sundar Singh
While sitting on the bank of a river one day, I picked up a solid round stone from the water and broke it open. It was perfectly dry in spite of the fact that it had been immersed in water for centuries. The same is true of many people in the Western world. For centuries they have been surrounded by Christianity; they live immersed in the waters of its benefits. And yet it has not penetrated their hearts; they do not love it. The fault is not in Christianity, but in men’s hearts, which have been hardened by materialism and intellectualism.
A. W. Tozer
In the Church of God two opposite dangers are to be recognized and avoided; they are a cold heart and a hot head.
Jim McGuiggan
In some ways, it’s those of us who are most familiar with the Spirit’s promises who are in the greatest danger. Someone has said that familiarity may not breed contempt, but it takes the edge off of awe. Something like this is true about the rich texts and glory-filled promises that drop the jaws or widen the eyes of newcomers but provoke no more than a raised eyebrow in the old-timers who have ceased to dream.
Carlyle Fielding
Too many churches today are devoid of the Spirit of Pentecost because they are dry and stale, where people are in a stupor; where worship services are wooden and so scripted that they are hollow; where the preaching is dull and flat; where the singing is Geritol-tired and without the vim and vigor which speaks of a crucified, died and risen Lord; where if anyone taps his foot and says, “Amen”, he is stared into silence, and if anyone shouts, “Thank you, Jesus” the people call the EMS or 911!
Seraphim of Sarov
God is a fire that warms and kindles the heart and inward parts. And so, if we feel in our hearts coldness, which is from the devil, – for the devil is cold – then let us call upon the Lord, and He will come and warm our hearts with perfect love not only for Him, but for our neighbour as well. And from the presence of warmth the coldness of the hater of good will be driven away.
Arthur John (A. J.) Gossip
Well, to begin with, you can pray. Pray!, you say scornfully, pray! I knew it would all fizzle out, and come to nothing. I could pray! Yes, you could pray, and, whatever you may think about it – using it as a poor makeshift of a thing much lower than a second-best, not really a best at all, on which men fall back only when they can do nothing effectively, and are too fidgety to be able to do nothing at all – Christ holds that prayer is a tremendous power which achieves what, without it, was a sheer impossibility. And this amazing thing you can set into operation. And the fact that you are not so using it, and simply don’t believe in it and its efficiency and efficacy as our fathers did, and that so many nowadays agree with you, is certainly a major reason why the churches are so cold, and the promises seem so tardy of fulfillment.
Ralph Erskine
The law breaks the hard heart, but the gospel melts it. A stone duly broken, may be still a hard stone; but the gospel melts.