Burroughs was an English Congregationalist and eminent Puritan divine, born in East Anglia in 1599 or 1600.
This book is about how to live the Christian life so that you will discover contentment. It talks mostly about dealing with afflictions from God that each believer experiences via God’s providence, to conform him to the image of Christ; to teach dependence upon Christ….
Please listen through parts in order, as this is an audiobook and the initial parts lay a necessary foundation for the latter parts. See part one for links to the Kindle version of this audiobook, and to the 3 hour 22 minute audiobook you will be listening to in this series: see CATEGORIES, Spiritual Disciplines for all parts.
Part 4 (See, Categories: Spiritual Disciplines for other parts of this series)
Audio book, talk point HIGHLIGHTS, are just that; these points are meant to assist your listening, not to stand alone; they are listed below the 19 minute video.
- Contentment is freely submitting to and taking pleasure in God’s disposal [of you] [which I am interpreting as God’s providence to you – as the Bible makes clear that God brings things into our lives to conform us to the image of Christ, all types of experiences, people, situations…]
- An important aspect of the above is that in the distress of an affliction, one remains under the hand of God [does not run from His providence via pleasure seeking: avoidance, addictions, entertainment, or anything intended to generate pleasurable feelings instead of the painful feelings of an affliction. God brings afflictions to teach lessons, when one seeks to escape these, he cannot learn from them; and that is disobedience…]
- It is okay to desire the affliction to be removed and to seek that via prayer; but obedience remains under the affliction; more than that, is pleased to remain under it, thanking God for His work, knowing that He only does right
- Example: 1 Samuel 3:18, Eli accepting the Lord’s judgments
- Example: Proverbs 15:6, In the house of the righteous is much treasure, but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble (God made him righteous and in that he is satisfied)
- Example: Phil. 4:18, (Phil 4:18 [KJV]) But I have all, and abound: I am full, having received…
- Submitting and taking pleasure in God’s disposal [of you] [via His providence to you]
- One who has learned this lesson of contentment, looks up to God in all things; he does not look down at the instruments and means God uses [to afflict him or bless him]; he sees God’s wisdom in what is happening to him
- [For example, if you are mistreated by another, and you focus on that person, as though it were from him, then you are not viewing the situation rightly. God is the one providing our experiences; he uses people, situations…to bring things into our lives. We must thank Him even for such things as our name being slandered, because God permitted it to teach us something – that is not easy thing to learn]
- A right perspective would be: He knows how to order things better than I, He knows the past and future…possibly without this affliction, I would have been undone
- Submission to God no matter what KIND of affliction that befalls us; the TIME and CONTINUANCE; or the VARIETY of affliction
- Many Christians say they would accept any affliction from God, a general statement that is usually false: if God afflicted you in your child, you might say, well, anything but that…
- God may, for example, afflict you in your possessions, your health, your spouse, your child, your friends; in each of those areas in a variety of ways [many who suffer the loss of a child or related devastating loss, are not able to remain calm, silent, inwardly content; some are moved to turn from God in such experiences…; yet, God expects us to feel the pain and remain quiet, and thankful to Him]
- It is rare for an affliction to occur alone; usually it is accompanied by one or more others
- Sometimes the circumstances that accompany an affliction are harder to deal with than the affliction itself [those, however, are part of the affliction]
- In summary: Contentment is an inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit; freely submitting to and taking pleasure in God’s disposal in every condition:
- Nine things have been explained: 1) Contentment is a heart work within the soul; 2) It involves quieting of the heart [thoughts/mind; will; affections]; 3) it is the frame of the spirit; 4) it is a gracious frame; 5) it is the free working of the gracious frame; 6) in it, is submission to God; 7) pleasure in the hand [work on you] of God; 8) all is God’s disposal; 9) however hard it be, however long it continues
- He hoped that via the opening of these topics related to Christian contentment, that it can be clearly seen that most, at best, have only learned the A,B,Cs of it; that we are only in the lower levels of Christ’s school, if we are in it at all
- He has endeavored to show the great mystery of contentment
This audio book was recorded from the YouTube site, Christian Sermons and Audio Books [All square bracketed statements, emboldening, underscoring are mine.]
For other similar posts in this blog, see Categories: Spiritual Disciplines; Jonathan Edwards, posts which offer a glimpse of his spiritual life; and Study Helps.