A dear friend once told me, "I don't go on what I'm feeling, but I like to feel what I'm going on." He was an honest man. We rely on our feelings more than we realize, certainly more than us men like to admit.
Once in prayer, I complained that though I truly loved God, I didn't feel the affection I thought I should. God seldom speaks to me in words, or perhaps the words come in data bursts too fast to be decoded now but have to be stored for a slow period later. Anyway, I had complete assurance that He had spoken. Just a tiny flash, a scintilla of light in my mind, which I later synthesized as: there doesn’t have to be an affect for there to be an effect.
So nowadays, though interiorly I long for the Lord as a deer that pants for the running stream, I don’t worry about the affections. I can be confident that Jesus will put my prayer on the Altar of Incense no matter what I’m feeling.
But I still pray for greater affection. I don't go on what I'm feeling, but I like to feel what I'm going on.
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