"It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the creature He (God) wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those that please Him best....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 decieved, 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 around a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and ask why he has been forsaken, and still obeys."

-----C.S. Lewis, from "The Screwtape Letters", lifted heavily from George MacDonald's "Unspoken Sermons".