Still Obeys

From C.S. Lewis' masterwork, "The Screwtape Letters." A senior devil is teaching a junior devil how to get a human to go to hell. (so..."The Enemy" is God. And we humans, to a depraved, sinister spirit, are "its.")

...He leaves the creature to stand upon its own two legs - to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be.

Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those which please Him best....He cannot 'tempt' to virtue as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there He is pleased even with their stumbles.

Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.