But a Christian finds satisfaction in every circumstance by getting strength from another, by going out of himself to Jesus Christ, by his faith acting upon Christ, and bringing the strength of Jesus Christ into his own soul, he is thereby enabled to bear whatever God lays on him, by the strength that he finds from Jesus Christ. Of his fullness do we receive grace for grace; there is strength in Christ not only to sanctify and save us, but strength to support us under all our burdens and afflictions, and Christ expects that when we are under any burden, we should act our faith upon him to draw virtue and strength from him. -Jeremiah Burroughs

I am a traveller and I must not be finding fault, I am in another man’s house, and it would be bad manners to find fault in someone else’s house, even though things are not as much to my liking as at home. If a man meets with bad weather, he must be content; it is travellers’ fare, we say. Both fair weather and foul are the common travellers’ fare and we must be content with it….When sailors are at sea they do not care what clothes they have, though they are pitched and tarred….They think of when they come home…So they are contented while away… and though they have nothing but salt meat, and a little hard fare, yet when they come to their houses, then they shall have anything. Thus it should be with us in this world, for the truth is, we are all in this world but as seafaring men, tossed up and down on the waves of the sea of this world, and our haven is Heaven; here we are travelling, and our home is a distant home in another world….Though we meet with travellers’ fare sometimes, yet it should not be grievous to us… So let us not be troubled when we see that other men have great wealth, but we have not. -Why? We are going away to another country; you are, as it were, only lodging here for a night. -Jeremiah Burroughs

To be content as a result of some external thing is like warming a man’s clothes by the fire. But to be content through an inward disposition of the soul is like the warmth that a man’s clothes have from the natural heat of his body….The warmth of the fire, that is, a contentment that results merely from external arguments, will not last long. But that which comes from the gracious temper of one’s spirit will last. -Jeremiah Burroughs

Somewhere or other in the worst flood of trouble there always is a dry spot for contentment to get its foot on. If there were not, it would learn to swim.

Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and faitherly disposal in every condition. -Jeremiah Burroughs in The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment

When in the cellar of affliction, I look for God’s choicest wines. – Samuel Rutherford