In the early years of our marriage we lived in an apartment (the downstairs of an old house) that was cozy enough when it was just for the two of us. But when we became three and then four, it started to lose its charm for me. In fact, I grew mighty weary of that place. We kept looking for another place, but nothing turned up that would be an actual improvement. And the longer we looked, the more grumbly I got about our little spot.
I won’t list off the problems with that place here. Trust me. It was not a very convenient house for us, and I wasn’t making things up. But I remember well one day having a conversation with my husband where I was listing my woes about our apartment. And I well remember what he told me in response. He said that God would not provide a new place for us until I was at the point where I would be sad to leave our old place. Yikes! You’ve got to be kidding! That will never happen! But he kindly Continue reading ‘From Strength to Strength’
Godly men get more riches out of their poverty than ever they get out of their revenues.
Godly men are better for an affliction; many godly men are worse for their prosperity.
Jeremiah Burroughs
I’m preparing to lead a five-week study on the subject of contentment, so I am wandering through my notes from Watson and Burroughs’ books. I came across this quote ( I think from Burroughs), and I felt I should share it. It’s a wing dinger. I love the way those old Puritans did not mince words.
“Some people are so weak that they cannot restrain the unrest of their spirits, but in words and behavior they reveal what woeful disturbances there are within. Their spirits are like the raging sea, casting forth nothing but mire and dirt, and are troublesome not only to themselves but also to all with whom they live.”
One of the things my children teach their children is to “blow it out” when they get hurt. They always allow for a justifiable time for sorrow and comforting, but then they ask (or tell) them to blow it out. In other words, it is time to be done with this and press on. There is a lesson in this for adults as well. Some people need to blow it out when it comes to things that happened ten, twenty, thirty, or forty years ago. Rather than still troubling their own souls with how they were wronged, they should learn to blow it out. It’s time to be done. Actually, it is way past time. It would be better to blow it out immediately. If we practice with the little things (like not losing it when we stub our toe), then we will be better at the bigger things, like breaking our leg. And if we practice with the bigger things, then we’ll be better for the serious afflictions and troubles that are bound to come some day. It is like being in school. The more proficient we get at a subject, the harder the tests.
“This murmuring and discontentedness of yours reveals much corruption in the soul. As contentment argues much grace, and strong grace, and beautiful grace, so murmuring argues much corruption, and strong corruption, and very vile corruptions in our heart.” –A little more from Burroughs, The Rare Jewel
“Carnal men and women do not know their own spirits, and therefore they fling and vex themselves at every affliction that befalls them, they do not know what disorders are in their hearts which may be healed by their afflictions, if it pleases God to give them a sanctified use of them.” Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
“You think it much if you have a friend who always makes bad interpretations of your ways towards him; you would take that badly. If you should converse with people with whom you cannot speak a word, but they are ready to make a bad interpretation of it, and to take it in an ill sense, you would think their company very tedious to you.”
The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, Jeremiah Burroughs
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