Faith, Not Feelings

In absolving it is not as necessary to say: Are you sorry? as it is to say: Do you believe it possible for me to absolve you? Thus Christ says to the blind: "Believe ye that I am able to do this? (Matt. 9:28) and "All things are possible to him that believeth" (Mark 9:23). This faith is certainly most clearly in evidence in the case of those who, agitated by a trembling conscience, rather feel their unbelief.

Source: Quoted in Ewald M. Plass, What Luther Says, A Practical In-home Theology for the Active Christian. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House. 1959 Edition, 10th Printing (1994), p. 8