Required reading
Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs (available from Amazon or free on the internet,
here for example)
- Chapter 11: Sections I to VIII.
My notes and thoughts
Burroughs' attention now turns to the excuses a discontented heart uses to legitimise discontentment.
The first excuse reminded me so much of people who hide behind the line, 'depression is an illness', and therefore feel no need to correct their despair: 'It is not discontent, it is a sense of my condition.'
Excuse three was helpful when Burroughs argued that it is evil for Christians to claim God has departed from them just because they suffer: 'Now for you to make such a conclusion, that every time God lays an affliction upon you, he is departed, is a sinful disorder of your heart, and is very dishonourable to God, and grievous to his Spirit.' God is always near to us if we are his.
Also excuse five is very important, that Christians should expect suffering and not be surprised when it occurs: 'So a Christian should do: he should look for afflictions wheresoever he is, in all conditions he should look to meet with afflictions; and therefore if any affliction should befall him, though indeed he could not forsee the particular evil, yet he should think, This is no more than I looked for in general. Therefore no affliction should come unexpectedly to a Christian.' Understanding this during prosperity is a great inoculation against discontentment.
Finally, I thought it interesting that Christ's sufferings were not mentioned in regards to excuse seven: 'But however you may lessen my affliction, yet I am sure it is far greater than the affliction of others.' An elderly woman at church fractured her hip recently and said that, while in agony at hospital, what got her through was thinking that this was nothing compared to the physical suffering of Christ at the cross. That isn't even taking into consideration the cumulative spiritual anguish Christ experienced for the sin of so many! Yet did he show discontent?
(Don't forget we start Flavel on 1st September and to vote for what comes after him, Watson or Bunyan)
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
2 comments:
Oh, now I get # 1 a little better. Nice clarification. I found Burroughs otherwise to have done an excellent job laying out our excuses, and destroying them one by one. Thanks for picking out some jewels here.
Hi Lisa,
Glad my post was helpful in clarifying something. Thanks for stopping by here again and giving me the encouragement.
Joel.
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