One needs the sweetness to start one on the spiritual life but, once started, one must learn to obey God for his own sake, not for the pleasure.
Emotions
Eugene H. Peterson
Feelings are great liars. If Christians worshipped only when they felt like it, there would be precious little worship. Feelings are important in many areas but completely unreliable in matters of faith.
C.S. Lewis
The great thing to remember is that though our feelings come and go, his love for us does not. It is not wearied by our standards of indifference, and therefore, it is quite relentless in its determination that we shall be cured of those sins at whatever cost to us; at whatever cost to him.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Even fanaticism is to be preferred to indifference. I’d sooner risk the dangers of a tornado of religious excitement than see the air grown stagnant with dead formality.
Christine Caine
Life can get hard, and it’s easy to get mired in feelings of insecurity, fear, doubt, anger and confusion. If we keep trying to preserve what only God can renew, we will continue to struggle. And then we won’t be able to give anything to the lost and dying world that surrounds us. But if we go to the source Himself, if we fill ourselves daily with His living Word and refreshing presence, guess what happens? Whatever we are struggling against begins to fade away and is replaced by God’s love, joy, peace and hope.
C. S. Lewis
Many things–such as loving, going to sleep, or behaving unaffectedly–are done worst when we try hardest to do them.
Matthew Henry
The prayers and supplications that Christ offered up were, joined with strong cries and tears, herein setting us example not only to pray, but to be fervent and importunate in prayer. How many dry prayers, how few wet ones, do we offer up to God!
Theopan the Recluse
You must pray not only with words but with the mind, and not only with the mind but with the heart, so that the mind understands and sees clearly what is said in words, and the heart feels what the mind is thinking. All these combined together constitute real prayer, and if any of them are absent your prayer is either not perfect, or is not prayer at all.
George Foster
Christians know that joy is more than a feeling or an on-again, off-again sentiment that changes according to the circumstances they face. Followers of Jesus Christ distinguish between lasting joy and situational happiness. Fun and joy are not necessarily synonymous. We believe we can experience inner joy with no special external stimulus to make us happy.
Ray Pritchard
If you have the courage to let Christ into every room of your life, He will come in and redecorate your life so it is more beautiful that you ever imagined possible. But you’ll never know until you start opening those doors.