My God, let me know and love you, so that I may find my happiness in you. Since I cannot fully achieve this on earth, help me to improve daily until I may do so to the full. Enable me to know you ever more on earth, so that I may know you perfectly in heaven. Enable me to love you ever more on earth, so that I may love you perfectly in heaven. In that way my joy may be great on earth, and perfect with you in heaven. O God of truth, grant me the happiness of heaven so that my joy may be full in accord with your promise. In the meantime let my mind dwell on that happiness, my tongue speak of it, my heart pine for it, my mouth pronounce it, my soul hunger for it, my flesh thirst for it, and my entire being desire it until I enter through death in the joy of my Lord forever. Amen.
St. Augustine

There is of course a sense in which no one can give to God anything which is not already His; and if it is already His what have you given? But since it is only too obvious that we can withhold ourselves, our wills and hearts, from God, we can, in that sense, also give them. What is His by right and would not exist for a moment if it ceased to be His (as the song is the singer's), He has nevertheless made ours in such a way that we can freely offer it back to Him. "Our wills are ours to make them Thine."
C. S. Lewis

Set Christ before you as the only goal of your whole life and direct all your efforts, all your activities, all your leisure, all your business in his direction. Think of Christ, not as an empty word, but as nothing other than love, candor, patience, purity - in brief, whatever He taught. Think of the Devil as nothing but whatever things call us away from those qualities. A man impelled toward virtue alone is turning toward Christ; a man serving his own vices is surrendering to Satan. Let your eye be clear, therefore and your whole being will be full of light. Look at Christ alone as the absolute Good, so that you may love nothing, marvel at nothing, want nothing but Christ or because of Christ; and hate nothing, despise nothing, shun nothing except wickedness or because of wickedness.

No man has given such joy to the world as Jesus Christ has given. Have you seen Christ's star in the east? That is a sight which we may never behold: But we may see a greater sight than that. We may see Him! It will be a happy day when we are more eager to see Christ than we are to see any symbol of Him that could be found, either in the heavens or on the earth. I do not want you as fellow students of the Word, to care about baptism and the Lord's Supper and the Sabbath day and the church built with hands - except as these may lead you further into the inner sanctuary where is enthroned Christ Himself. If I found men now earnestly searching the heavens with the most scientifically constructed telescopes, hoping to find a star resembling what the sages saw, that they, too, might be following its guiding light to some distant Bethlehem, I would say to them, 'Christ is not here nor there; He is not to be found in sign or symbol; He is to be found in our consciousness; He is to be the answer to our sin; He is to be the satisfaction of our hunger; He is to be the light of our firmament; He is to be the glory of our spiritual hope.'
Joseph Parker

Look to Christ, not only to give you all, but to be your all; for he is not only the way to life, but the life itself: 'I am the way, the truth, and the life.' 'As I desire,' says one, 'never to be happy, if Christ be not able to bring me to happiness, so I desire no greater, no better happiness, than what Christ is, and can be to me.' O sirs, he is all, and there is all in him; all to justify, all to sanctify, all to glorify, all to fill and satisfy, all to delight and solace the largest faculties of the immortal soul; 'in His presence there is fullness of joy.' The highest happiness here is, 'Christ in us the hope of glory' and the highest happiness hereafter is Christ, even to be for ever with the Lord. The thief on the cross had this preached to him, 'This day shalt thou be with me in paradise.' To be in paradise is not happiness; to be with angels there is not happiness; but to be with Christ there, this is heaven and happiness.
Raoph Erskine

God is able to do all things. Believer, until you can drain dry the ocean of omnipotence, until you can break into pieces the towering mountains of almighty strength, you never need to fear. Think not that the strength of man shall ever be able to overcome the power of God. The same God who directs the earth in its orbit, who feeds the burning furnace of the sun and trims the lamps of heaven, has promised to supply you with daily strength. While He is able to uphold the universe, think not that He will prove unable to fulfill His own promises.
Charles Spurgeon

Before the Word was made flesh, died on the cross, came forth from the grave, and returned to His Father, the commandment had been uttered, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.' And it is not unjust for God to claim this from His own work and gifts. Why should not the creature love the Creator, who gave him the power to love? Why should not he love Him with all his being, since it is by His gift alone that he can do anything that is good? I owe all that I am to Him who made me: but how can I pay my debt to Him who redeemed me? What reward shall I give to my Lord for all the benefits that He has given me? In the first creation He gave me myself; but in His new creation, He gave me Himself, and by that gift, restored to me the self that I had lost. Created first and then restored, I owe Him myself twice over in return for myself. But what have I to offer Him for the gift of Himself? If I could multiply myself a thousandfold and then give Him all, what would that be in comparison with God?
Bernard of Clairvaux

Charles Spurgeon quoting a spiritual writer of his day whose last name was Rutherford:

"Heaven and Christ are the same things; to be with Christ is to be in heaven, and to be in heaven is to be with Christ. . . Oh! my Lord Christ, if I could be in heaven without thee, it would be a hell; and if I could be in hell, and have thee still, it would be a heaven to me, for thou art all the heaven I want."

Since ancient times, 'acidia' - sorrowfulness of the heart, "resignation" - has been one of the deadly sins. "Serve the Lord with gladness (Ps. 100:2) summons us to the Scriptures . . . Joy dwells with God; it descends from God and seizes spirit, soul, and body, and where this joy has grasped us it grows greater, carries us away, opens closed doors. There is a joy which knows nothing of sorrow, need, and anxiety of the heart; it has no duration, and it can only drug one for the moment. The joy of God has been through the poverty of the crib and the distress of the cross; therefore it is inseparable, irrefutable. It does not deny the distress where it is but finds God in the midst of it, indeed precisely there; it does not contest the most grievous sin, but finds forgiveness in just this way; it looks death in the face, yet finds life in death itself. We are concerned with this joy which has overcome. It alone is worth believing; it alone helps and heals.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"If you will take care of the things that are dear to God, God will take care of the things that are dear to you."

. . . believers, to the very end of life, burn with desire of more abundant grace'
John Calvin

Happy are they who have reached the end of the road we seek to tread, who are astonished to discover the by no means self-evident truth that grace is costly just because it is the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Happy are the simple followers of Jesus Christ who have been overcome by his grace, and are able to sing the praises of the all-sufficient grace of Christ with humbleness of heart. Happy are they who knowing that grace, can live in the world without being of it, who, by following Jesus Christ, are so assured of their heavenly citizenship that they are truly free to live their lives in this world. Happy are they who know that discipleship simply means the life which springs from grace, and that grace simply means discipleship. Happy are they who have become Christians in this sense of the word. For them the word of grace has prove a fount of mercy.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

He is the Word-made-flesh, the Incarnation of the compassion of the Father. He is Messiah, Savior, dreamer and storyteller, servant, friend, and parable of God. Close to the brokenhearted, he speaks words of comfort; he revives the crushed in spirit with words of consolation. Rescuing drunks, scalawags, and ragamuffins, he is the Shepherd who feeds, leads, and searches out. He is prophet, poet, and troublemaker, the scourge of hypocrites and authority figures who use religion to control others, sending them sagging under great burdens of regulations, watching them stumble and refusing to offer assistance. He excoriates the perverted spirit of legalism and the smug religious bureaucrats who condemn simple folks who for good reasons have broken bad religious laws. When he looks out at the bedraggled, beat-up, bollixed, and burnt-out, his heart overflows with unspeakable tenderness.
Brennan Manning

Our nature can't contemplate heavenly things by its own strength. We must learn from God what we should think of Him. We have no source of knowledge but God Himself. You might be as well trained in secular philosophy as possible, and you may have lived a life of righteousness. But, although all of this will add to your mental satisfaction, it won't help you know God. . . We must confine whatever we say about God to the words He has spoken to us about Himself (in His Word).
Hilary of Poitiers

Love to others arises from the love of the Father. Do not attempt then to fulfill the commandment of brotherly love by yourselves. You are not in a position to do this. But believe that the Holy Spirit who is in you to make known the love of God to you also certainly enables you to produce this love. Never say, "I feel no love; I do not feel as if I can forgive this man." Feeling is not the rule of your duty but the command, and the faith that God gives power to obey the command. In obedience to the Father, with the choice of your will and in faith that the Holy Spirit gives you power, begin to say, "I will love him (this person or that person); I do love him." The feeling will follow the faith.
Andrew Murray

Blessed Lord Jesus,
Before thy cross I kneel and see
the heinousness of my sin,
my iniquity that caused thee to be 'made a curse' . . .
Show me the enormity of my guilt by
the crown of thorns,
the pierced hands and feet, the bruised body,
the dying cries.
Thy blood is the blood of incarnate God,
its worth infinite, its value beyond all thought . . .
Yet thy compassions yearn over me,
thy heart hastens to my rescue,
thy love endured my curse,
thy mercy bore my deserved stripes.
Let me walk humbly in the lowest depths of humiliation,
bathed in thy blood,
tender of conscience,
triumphing gloriously as an heir of salvation.
Unknown

Late have I love thee, O Lord, beauty so ancient and so new!
Late have I loved thee!
Thou wast within me, and I stood without.
I sought thee here, hurling my ugly self on the beauty of thy creatures.
Thou wast with me, but I was not with thee.
Thou hast called me, thy cry has vanquished my deafness.
Thou hast shone, and thy light has vanquished my blindness.
Thou hast broadcast thy perfume, and I have breathed it:
bow I sigh for thee.
I have tasted thee, and now I hunger for thee.
Thou hast touched me, and now I burn with desire for
thy peace.
Augustine

When one is possessed with doubt, that though he call upon the Lord he cannot be heard, and that God has turned his heart from him and is angry, . . . he must . . . arm himself with God's Word, promising to hear him. As to when and how God will hear him, this is stark naught; place, time, and person are accidental things; the substance and essence is the promise.
Martin Luther

For God does not deal, nor has He ever dealt, with man otherwise than through a Word of Promise. We in turn cannot deal with God otherwise than through faith in the Word of His promise. He does not desire works, nor has He need of them; . . . But God has need of this: that we consider Him faithful in His promises (Heb. 10:23), and patiently persist in this belief . . . Promise and faith must necessarily go together.
Martin Luther