[T]hough natural likings should normally be encouraged, it would be quite wrong to think that the way to become charitable is to sit trying to manufacture affectionate feelings….The rule for all of us is perfectly simple.  Do not waste time bothering whether you “love” your neighbor; act as if you did.  As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets.  When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently comes to love him.  If you injure someone you dislike. you will find yourself disliking him more.  If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less….[W]henever we do good to another self, just because it is a self, made (like us) by God, and desiring its own happiness as we desire ours, we shall have learned to love it a little more or, at least, to dislike it less….The world man treats certain people kindly because he “likes” them: The Christian, trying to treat everyone kindly, finds himself liking more and more people as he goes on- including people he could not have imaged himself liking at the beginning.

- C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity p. 130-131 as quoted in The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God by Tim Keller p. 100-101

If we are a distracted people, a distracted society, it stands to reason that we would also be a distracted church, a church with a diminished ability to think deeply, to cultivate concentration, to emphasize slow, deliberate, thoughtful meditation. What Paul said of the unbelieving Jews of his day could likely be said of many of us today: “I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge” (Romans 10:2). Christians may be excited about God, but because they have become a product of our digital world, they have a diminished ability to think deeply about him, to truly know him as he is. More and more of us are finding that we just can’t stop long enough to read. We can’t sustain our attention long enough to study. We can’t find the time to meet with our Father. Where prayer used to be the first activity of the day, we now begin our daily routine by checking e-mail. Where the Bible used to be a special book we read and studied, now it’s an e-book that competes with our voice mail, text messages, e-mails, and the ever-present lure of the Internet.

Challies, Tim (2011-04-05). The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion (p. 116). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.

Part of God’s gracious work in my life has been to progressively reveal my sin to me. Again, it’s not that I didn’t know I need Him. It’s just that I didn’t know how much.

Elyse Fitzpatrick in A Steadfast Heart: Experiencing God’s Comfort in Life’s Storms [With CD] page 35

“Peace is found only in knowing that this world is meant to prepare us for the next and that the temporary pleasures and pains of this world are not our final address.  When we live knowing that the God of grace will lift us out of this broken world and is now readying us for the world to come, we can face difficult without wanting to give up and experience pleasure without becoming addicted to it.  We live with hope in our heart, eyes to the future, and hands holding this present world loosely.”

Forever: Why You Can’t Live Without It by Paul Tripp, page 37

People tell us that it is a noble and brave thing to speak out whatever words are on our minds at the moment. Outspokenness is considered a virtue, a sign of honesty and authenticity. We are often told that we need to be assertive in saying what we think. Yet the Bible gives us a different word, a word of caution, telling us that our communication must be brought under control and kept under control. The first chapter of James tells us that we should be slow to speak. We learn that a person with an unbridled tongue—a person who does not control their communication or think about what they say—is a person whose religion is worthless. The third chapter of James’s letter is entirely dedicated to the taming of the tongue, to putting boundaries on our communication so that it can be used for good and not for evil. “With [the tongue] we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing” (3:9–10). Paul in Colossians exhorts the Christian to make sure that his speech is “gracious, seasoned with salt” (4:6), while in Ephesians, he warns of “corrupting talk,” filthy talk that pollutes and destroys instead of blessing and strengthening others (4:29).

God’s Word teaches us a key principle that underlies our ability to communicate: The tongue is connected to the heart. The words that come out of a person’s mouth or are typed on his keypad and texted to a friend are an expression of what is in his heart. When angry words spill out of his mouth, he cannot plead ignorance or circumstance. His words prove that there is an internal corruption. As Jesus said, “What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person” (Matthew 15:18).

And what of the vast amount of empty, meaningless conversation that goes on today? This must show that there is an emptiness, a lack of substance, in our minds and hearts. Shallow words reveal a shallow heart. Could it be that our digital technologies are encouraging us to live in a world of shallow, meaningless, immediate communication? Are these the ideologies carried within Facebook, within the cell phone? Do they promote significance in communications, or do they seem to prohibit it? Do they promote depth, or breadth?

Challies, Tim (2011-04-05). The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion (Kindle Locations 1274-1291). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.