Bible schools, excellent Christian colleges, and sound preachers of the Word are with us in greater numbers than ever before. Yet the prevailing tone among Christians is definitely not one of spiritual delight. We present a pretty glum aspect for the most part, and our religious gatherings need artificial stimulation to generate enough synthetic joy to save us from outright gloom. Rarely do we see evidence of the supernatural radiance noted in records of the early church. The answer to all these questions is our lack of strong desire.
Strong desire is indispensable to progress in godliness, yet it is missing from the church today.
Our fear of religious works has made spiritual content a kind of hallmark of orthodoxy. A longing after God is taken as evidence that we do not understand what the Bible teaches about grace. But that is exactly contrary to the fact. Moses, who found grace in God's sight, used that fact as an argument for receiving more grace. Grace unto grace is the formula of the thirsty saints, never grace unto complacency.