Not that I speak in respect of want:

for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am,

therewith to be content.

Philippians 4:11

We’ve spent 2021 looking at what Pastor Jeremiah Burroughs (1599-1646) had to say about Learning Christian Contentment in his book, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment. One thing I’ve learned in this year of Covid 2.0 is how difficult it is to be truly content with what God is doing in our lives. I will be honest that I find it discouraging sometimes to see how God is working in the lives of other believers. When I find myself being critical or judgmental, I need to stop and say to myself, “Let God be God! Let Him work out his plan in me and in others through this pandemic. Leave it all in His hands.” This has been a year to observe the contrast between the sinful works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21) and of the Holy Spirit (2:22-23). Because of what I’ve seen in myself and in others during the past year, I want to be more spiritual. We will examine the topic of Spirituality in 2022!

A few final encouraging words from Jeremiah Burroughs:

“I have spent many sermons on this lesson of contentment, but I am afraid that you will be longer in learning it than I have been preaching of it: it is a harder thing to learn it than it is to preach or speak of it. I have been thirty-eight years learning this lesson and have not learned it thoroughly. The truth is, there are many, I am afraid, who have been (believers) near eight and thirty years, who have hardly learned this lesson.

“Contentment is a necessary lesson for a Christian. Paul said, he had learned in all estates therewith to be content (Philippians 4:11). Oh, do not be content with yourselves till you have learned this lesson of Christian Contentment, and have obtained some better skill in it than heretofore.”

I am crucified with Christ:

nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:

and the life which I now live in the flesh

I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me,

and gave himself for me

Galatians 2:20

This last list of suggestions from Jeremiah Burroughs (1599-1646) on Learning Christian Contentment has gems of wisdom for our consideration.

Number 15 (below) is a truth that holds forth the sanctification of every believer in Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 6-8 are too often overlooked. They speak of our “co-crucifixion” with Christ (Galatians 2:20 above). When Christ died-we died with Him. When Christ was buried-we were buried with Him. When Christ rose from the dead-we rose with Him. When God saved us we became so identified with Christ that we are in Him and He is in us. “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me” (John 15:4).

14. “Do not reckon on too great things. Paul says, ‘And having food and raiment let us be therewith content’ (I Timothy 6:8). He did not soar too high aloft. Those who look at high things in the world meet with disappointments, and so they come to be discontented. Be as high as you will in spiritual meditations; God gives liberty there to anyone of you to be as high as you will, above angels. But for your outward estate, God will not have you aim at high things; as the Lord said to Baruch, ‘And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not’ (Jeremiah 45:5). ‘For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith’ (Romans 12:3).

15. “Labor to get your hearts mortified to the world, dead to the world. We are baptized into the death of Christ (Romans 6:3-5) that is to signify that we have taken such a profession as to be professed to be even dead men to the world (Colossians 2:20-23). The things in which our happiness consists are of a different kind, and we may be happy with these; this is a kind of deadness to the world.

16. “Let not men and women pore too much upon their afflictions: that is, busy their thoughts too much to look down into their afflictions. You find many people, all of whose thoughts are taken up about what their crosses and afflictions are, they are altogether thinking and speaking of them. It is just with them as with a child who has a sore: his finger is always on the sore; so men’s and women’s thoughts are always on their afflictions.” ‘Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things’ (Philippians 4:8).

17. “Do not so much regard the fancies of other men. For the reason of our discontentment many times is rather from the fancies of other men than from what we find we lack ourselves. ..almost all the discontent in the world is rather from the fancies of others than from the evil that is in themselves. Oh, do not let your happiness depend on the fancies of other men!

18. “Be not inordinately taken up with the comforts of this world when you have them.” ‘For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows’ (I Timothy 6:10).

This next-to-last lesson from Jeremiah Burroughs (1599-1646) on Learning Christin Contentment fits well with my topic for 2022! Using terms from a different century, he touches on things like the Christian’s relationship to the evil world system (Greek – cosmos), contentment is living by faith, and being spiritually minded

In January we will examine this critical question: “What does it mean to be spiritual?” God instructs us to live our lives “in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16), but what does that mean? The answer to that questions is foundational to living the Christian life the way God wants us to live it. Stay tune!

Set your mind on things above,

not on things on the earth.

Colossians 3:2 (NKJV)

Burroughs gives us five more considerations for attaining contentment:

9. “Do not grasp too much of the world. Do not take in more of the business of the world than God calls you to. Do not be greedy of taking in a great deal of the world, for if a man goes among thorns, when he may take a simpler way, he has no reason to complain that he is pricked by them. Must you of necessity go among the thorns of the world? Then it is another matter. But if you choose to walk among the things of the world, you will meet with disappointments and discontentments in everything we meddle with.

10. “Be sure of your call to every business you go about. (Ephesians 2:10) Though it is the least business, be sure of your call to it, that whatever you meet with, you may quiet your heart with this: I know I am where God would have me be. Oh, this will quiet and content you when you meet with trouble.

11. “Walk by rule in the work that I am called to. I must walk by the Word of God and order myself in this business according to God’s mind as far as I am able. Let men and women keep within the bounds of the command of God, of the rule that God has set them in his Word. But if they go beyond the pale, if they pass their bounds, then they may expect to meet with troubles, and afflictions, and discontentment. [I understand that Burroughs is not advocating legalism here. God’s Word is to be our guide in all we do in life. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Psalm 119:105]

12. “Exercise faith. A life of faith is the way of contentment. Master Perkins said, ‘The life of faith is a true life.’ Exercise faith, not only in the promise that all shall work together for good to them that love God (Romans 8:28), but likewise exercise faith in God himself, as well as in his Word, and in God’s attributes [loving-kindness, mercy, grace, etc.]

13. “Be spiritually minded. Meditate on things above and not on things on the earth (Colossians 3:2; Philippians 2:5-11). Many Christians who have an interest in the things of Heaven converse very little with them. Their meditations are not much upon heavenly things. (Psalm 63:5-6)”

And Jesus saith unto him,

The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests;

but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

Mathew 8:20 (KJV)

As these lessons in Learning Christian Contentment draw to a close, our instructions from Jeremiah Burroughs arrive at recommendations about “How to Attain Contentment.” My next few blog posts will divide each of these into two short sections that will bring us to the end of the lessons on contentment and the end of 2021. Watch for the last post in December for a peek at the topic in view for 2022!

Burroughs continues with four more considerations for attaining contentment:

5. “Consider the condition that others have been in. Moses might have had all the treasure in Egypt, and some historians say of him, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him for her son, and so he was likely to have come to the crown. Yet what a low condition he lived in, when he went to live with Jethro his father-in-law forty years tending sheep in the desert! …the great instruments of God in the first Reformation lived in great straits, in a very low condition. But above all, set Christ before us, who professes that the birds of the air had nests, and the foxes holes, yet the Son of man had no place to hide his head, such a low condition was he in.

6. “Consider that, before your conversion, before God wrought upon your souls, you were contented with a world without grace and you had no interest in God nor Christ. Why cannot you now be contented with grace and spiritual things without the world?

7. “Consider, when God has given you such contentments in the past that you have not given him glory. When God has given you your heart’s desire, what have you done with your heart’s desire?

8. “Consider all the experiences that you have had of God’s doing good to you even though you have lacked some comforts. It is true, when ministers only tell men that God will work good out of afflictions, they hear them speak and think they speak good words, but they feel little or no good. They still feel nothing but pain. When I tell you that God will work good out of your affliction, have you yourselves not found it to be so by your own experience? Think this to yourself: Lord, why may not this affliction work as great a good upon me as other afflictions have done in the past?”

I have seen this last consideration in my own life and in the lives of others. A woman’s husband went through the suffering of a heart attack, surgery, and a full recovery only to praise God that the experience worked so powerfully in his life that he could not imagine being as close to God as he was if he hadn’t gone through that experience. A woman I knew went through treatments for pancreatic cancer and before she died she testified that her daily prayers and time in God’s Word were the best she’d ever had in all her years as a believer.

I think of the chorus to the hymn, His Yoke is Easy by R.E. Hudson where he reflects on the yoke that God placed on him and found from experience that it was not a harsh, crushing burden, but an easy yoke and a light burden because God was with him each moment.

His yoke is easy; His burden is light.

I’ve found it so; I’ve found it so.

He leadeth me by day and by night,

Where living waters flow.