The following short passage from The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, by Jeremiah Burroughs, is being posted to show two basic things about afflictions that God sends into the lives of Christians to fashion them to the image of His Son: 1), how one should respond and 2), what an affliction might look like.
Burroughs stated more than once in his book that God routinely sends affliction into the lives of His children, Burroughs calls that “being in the school of Christ.”
Readers may not think such ideas are biblical, because our generation wrongly believes many things about Christianity, such as: prosperity, continued joy and happiness…are marks of godliness and are sent by God into the lives of His children; such beliefs ignore that Jesus called His followers to pick up their cross, deny themselves and follow Him — since post WWII, Americans have been steeped in self-indulgence, materialism, prosperity…and are quite unfamiliar with self-denial; but many readily respond to Joel Osteen’s message about “a better life now.” By the way, Burroughs stated, as do other biblical commentators, that prosperity is often a curse from God, as most cannot receive it without increasing their sinfulness:
Consider, from Matthew 19:
22When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. 23Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
Back to the topic of affliction: the topic of biblical affliction is largely disbelieved in our day; but if one reads scriptural passages on the lives of Moses, Joseph, Daniel, Paul and the other apostles, he will see that they suffered great affliction, and that such affliction was purposed for them by God.
The two points this post makes are intended to help believers become aware of afflictions that are occurring in their lives, or that have occurred; once that is seen, one might begin to speculate about what God is doing in his life. The Puritans seemingly looked closely at the people, situations, things…God sent into their lives so they might get some idea of how God was working in them.
The text that answers these two questions also indicates that Christians make all kinds of excuses as to why they seek to escape the afflictions that God sends; additionally, Burroughs clarifies that being in the “school of Christ” is a very difficult thing at which we perform most miserably, barely getting the most basic points.
[Burroughs’ small book elsewhere speaks on the heinous sin of murmuring and other ways believers fail to rightly receive the afflictions God sends into their lives; afflictions which ought to lead to blessings if they were received correctly. A major point of Burroughs’ book is to help a Christian learn to recognize the many ways he opposes God; and that such things not only prohibit the blessings that afflictions would net, but may bring chastisement. In other words, this topic is crucial to understand and apply.]
Begin Burroughs’ text [bracketed statements, emboldening, underscoring and paragraph divisions are mine]:
AS TO THE VARIETY AND CHANGES OF AFFLICTION: WHATEVER THEY ARE, YET THERE MUST BE A SUBMISSION TO GOD’S DISPOSAL IN EVERY CONDITION.
As to the kind of affliction. Many men and women will in general say that they must submit to God in affliction; I suppose that if you were to go now from one end of this congregation to the other, and speak thus to every soul: ‘Would you not submit to God’s disposal, in whatever condition he might place you?’, you would say, ‘God forbid that it should be otherwise!’ But we have a saying, There is a great deal of deceit in general statements. In general, you would submit to anything; but what if it is in this or that particular case which crosses you most?-Then, anything but that!
We are usually apt to think that any condition is better than that condition in which God has placed us. Now, this is not contentment; it should be not only to any condition in general, but for the kind of affliction, including that which most crosses you. God, it may be, strikes you in your child.-‘Oh, if it had been in my possessions’ you say, ‘I would be content!’ Perhaps he strikes you in your marriage. ‘Oh,’ you say, ‘I would rather have been stricken in my health.’ And if he had struck you in your health-‘Oh, then, if it had been in my trading, I would not have cared.’ But we must not be our own carvers. Whatever particular afflictions God may place us in, we must be content in them.
There must be a submission to God in every affliction, as to the time and continuance of the affliction. ‘Perhaps I could submit and be content’, says someone, ‘but this affliction has been on me a long time, three months, a year, many years, and I do not know how to yield and submit to it, my patience is worn out and broken.’ I may even be a spiritual affliction-you could submit to God, you say, in any outward affliction, but not in a soul-affliction. Or if it were the withdrawing of God’s face-‘Yet if this had been but for a little time I could submit; but to seek God for so long and still he does not appear, Oh how shall I bear this?’ We must not be our own disposers for the time of deliverance any more than for the kind and way of deliverance.
[Examples given by Jeremiah Burroughs were cut to shorten post. While reading, it would be good to remember the story of Joseph from Genesis 37-50 – his many afflictions were identified as was their purpose: God meant it for good, the good of Jacob and his descendants.]
And then for the variety of our condition. We must be content with the particular affliction, and the time, and all the circumstances about the affliction-for sometimes the circumstances are greater afflictions than the afflictions themselves-and for the variety. God may exercise us with various afflictions one after another, as has been very noticeable, even of late, that many who have been plundered and come away, afterwards have fallen sick and died; they had fled for their lives and afterwards the plague has come among them; and if not that affliction, it may be some other. It is very rarely that one affliction comes alone; commonly, afflictions are not single things, but they come one upon the neck of another.
God may strike one man in his possessions, then in his body, then in his name, wife, child or dear friend, and so it comes in a variety of ways; it is the way of God ordinarily (you may find it by experience) that one affliction seldom comes alone.
[Consider, for example: if your spouse gets cancer; if your child becomes addicted to drugs…such events could be an affliction from God to transform you. In the story of Joseph, Jacob, his father, endured much affliction because he was told that Joseph had died; Joseph suffered a variety of afflictions, from a variety of people; each suffered affliction according to the purposes of God for them and the nation of Israel, as Joseph stated in the end.]
Now this is hard, when one affliction follows after another, when there is a variety of afflictions, when there is a mighty change in one’s condition, up and down, this way, and that: there indeed is the trial of a Christian. Now there must be submission to God’s disposal in them. I remember it was said even of Cato, who was a Heathen, that no man saw him to be changed, though he lived in a time when the commonwealth was so often changed; yet it is said of him, he was the same still, though his condition was changed, and he passed through a variety of conditions. Oh that the same could be said of many Christians, that though their circumstances are changed, yet that nobody could see them changed, they are the same! Did you see what a gracious, sweet and holy temper they were in before? They are in it still.
Thus are we to submit to the disposal of God in every condition.
Contentment is the inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit, freely submitting to and taking pleasure in God’s disposal in every condition:
That is the description, and in it nine distinct things have been opened up which we summarize as follows: First, that contentment is a heart-work within the soul; Secondly, it is the quieting of the heart; Thirdly, it is the frame of the spirit; Fourthly, it is a gracious frame; Fifthly, it is the free working of this gracious frame; Sixthly, there is in it a submission to God, sending the soul under God; Seventhly, there is a taking pleasure in the hand of God; Eighthly, all is traced to God’s disposal; Ninthly, in every condition, however hard it be and however long it continue. Now those of you who have learned to be content, have learned to attain to these various things.
I hope that the very opening of these things may so far work on your hearts that you may lay your hands upon your hearts on what has been said, I say, that the very telling you what the lesson is may cause you to lay your hands on your hearts and say, ‘Lord, I see there is more to Christian contentment than I thought there was, and I have been far from learning this lesson. Indeed, I have only learned my ABC in this lesson of contentment. I am only in the lower form in Christ’s school if I am in it at all.’ We shall speak of these things more later, but my particular aim in opening this point is to show what a great mystery there is in Christian contentment, and how many distinct lessons there are to be learned, that we may come to attain to this heavenly disposition, to which St. Paul attained.
Burroughs, Jeremiah. The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (pp. 13-16). Unknown. Kindle Edition.
STUDY RECOMMENDATIONS:
***For posts on Burroughs book, see CATEGORIES: Spiritual Disciplines. The following link is to the first post in a short series about Burroughs’ book, it includes a link to the Kindle version on Amazon, it was 99 cents at the time:
https://sheeplywolves.com/the-rare-jewel-of-christian-contentment-puritan-jeremiah-burroughs-part-1/
***For a post by John Calvin on the providence of God, click the following link. The post includes a reading of the section of Calvin’s Institutes on that topic:
Calvin basically states that what ever comes into a person’s life is from God. It is good to observe one’s daily events and to ponder them in light of this notion.
***For an easier book about affliction, than Burroughs’ Rare Jewel, see The Afflicted Man’s Companion, by Rev. John Willison; available at Amazon (see link below). Willison’s book is not as in depth as Burroughs,’ but he talks about a broad variety of afflictions, why God sends them and how one should respond. My brother gave me a copy of that book when I was dealing with prostate cancer and it helped me greatly.