“Too many of us are passive when it comes to our spiritual affections. We are practical fatalists. We think there is nothing we can do. ‘Oh well, today I have no desire to read. Maybe it will be there tomorrow. We’ll see.’ And off to work we go. This is not the way the psalmists thought or acted. It is not the way the great saints of church history have acted either. Life is war. And the main battles are fought at the level of desires, not deeds… Don’t wait until you have lost the desire before you start praying for this desire. If the desire is present, give thanks and ask him to preserve it and intensify it. If you sense that it is cooling, plead that he would kindle it… Jesus died so that our prayers for renewed love to him and his word could be mercifully answered. We are not asking him for fresh desires for his word on the basis of our merits. We are asking him on the basis of Christ’s blood and righteousness. We don’t argue with God that he owes us anything. He doesn’t. Everything we receive is a free gift of grace.”
John Piper, Reading the Bible Supernaturally, 255–57.