James 1:2-4

2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

John 16:33

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Galatians 5:16-17

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Romans 7:15, 18, 19, 21

15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.

19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.

21…when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 

Ephesians 4:22-24

22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Romans 7:24-25a

24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

1 Corinthians 3:16

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

Ephesians 6:18a

18 praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

Tim Keller on the Struggle with Prayer and the Pathway to Enjoying God

by Matt Smethurst

"Yearning for richer communion with God, he devoured the works of respected Christian thinkers from the past. His quest ultimately yielded a newfound appreciation for, and deeper engagement with, his own theological heritage."

"Keller realized anew that he didn’t have to choose between robust theology and vibrant experience. His own tradition featured both."

“I was not being called to leave behind my theology and launch out to look for ‘something more,’ for experience. Rather, I was meant to ask the Holy Spirit to help me experience my theology.”

"Perhaps we could say that if experience without theology eventually leads to heresy, theology without experience often results in hypocrisy. Both are serious threats."

Matthew 15:7-8

7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said:

8 "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;"

Prayer, though, is the key that can 'turn theology into experience'."

"The bottom line is we need theology and experience—experience that is theological and theology that is experiential."