No emotions required

Faith really is a gift. Let me give an example: My friend Joan tells me that she has a spare ticket for a Christmas Carol Show and invites me to come with her. I show up, Joan hands in two tickets one for her, one for me, and we sit down and watch the show. Faith in Joan meant that I believed she had the tickets, I believed the show was the time and place she said, and I went along. In the same way faith in Jesus means I believe he was/is speaking the truth and I believe him to be trustworthy.

There are no prerequisites: If faith were a mystery than only mystery solvers could receive faith. If faith is a goal then only certain people can make the journey.

Faith is a gift because the object of my faith is trustworthy, not because I worked up some strange emotion called faith.

Emotion does accompany faith but it comes as a result of God's faithful response to our decision to believe in him. Ecstasy sometimes accompanies faith but it is not required and usually happens to us after some great evidence of the trustworthiness of God.

So if you're working up your faith, rest. The greater part of todays world has found that God can be trusted. God can be relied upon. That's a starting point. Faith grows but you are not asked to grow it before you receive it.