We can't believe what we believe to be untrue, and we can't love what we believe to be unreal.

We try too much and trust too little. Count the times God's Book tells us to "try." Now count the times it tells us to "trust.

But if he had come down from the Cross, he would have made it impossible for them to believe in him, for he would have substituted sight for faith. That is why he does not take us down from our crosses: so that we do not substitute feelings and experiences for faith. He wants the very best for us, the strongest and most precious gift, and that is faith.

It is true, as John Bunyan said, that God infinitely prefers a heart without words to words without a heart when we pray.

What our Heavenly Father wants us to do about our spiritual failures is like what our earthly father wants us to do about our earthly failures. When we fall off the horse, or the bike, or the high road to Heaven, we must simply climb on again as soon as we are aware of the fact that we have fallen off, rather than sitting there stewing in self-pity or self-hatred.