This and That: Contentment 092412

But contentment does not come in that way, it does not come, I say, by adding to what you want, but by subtracting from your desires. It is all one to a Christian, whether I get up to what I would have, or get my desires down to what I have, either to attain what I do desire, or to bring down my desires to what I have already attained. 

Burroughs, Jeremiah (2010-07-05). The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (Kindle Locations 504-506).  . Kindle Edition.

Having entered the fray with covetousness it seemed good to add a dash of contentment to the mix.  In Burroughs’ work you will find much to guide you, challenge you and comfort you.

The above quote, I take as guidance, challenge and comfort.  Since it is my mis-guided or mis-motivated desires that so plague me in the area of covetousness it makes sense that addressing them is part of the way to contentment.

BUT – I would have you know that just knowing how to learn (and it must be learned) to be content is not enough.  We must attend the class, study the material and take the test.  Contentment comes through learning.

Paul writes:

Php 4:11-13  Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.  (12)  I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  (13)  I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Whatever part of the course in contentment I am in (as we do not all start at the same point or progress at the same rate) the absolute key to the learning is Christ.  It is only His strength that keeps me in the course.  It is only His Word that helps me learn the lessons.  It is only His wisdom that enables me to rightly apply His cure to the condition.  It is not only, “all of /Christ,” it is “only of Christ.”

Contentment is having what I want or wanting what I have in absolute submission to the will and providence of God.  A crumb from our King is as glorious a gift as a coronet.  This we must labor to understand and implant in our hearts.  But that only comes through Him, our strength.

In this early stage of moving out of covetousness and into contentment the most difficult thing is to accept the depth of the corruption of the heart.  The ways, means and measure of the covetousness that lives in the flesh is terrifyingly large.  You cut one root only to find another and another and yet another still.  You cease to covet X and you find half the victory is wrapped up in coveting Y and Z is lurking just out of sight.

I was once told that there were really only 9 individual commandments because the 10^th, “thou shalt not covet,” simply meant that we would not even want to do the preceding 9. 

We are caught up in the world’s expectation of more, bigger and better and the shame of it is that we serve the One to whom it all belongs.  If one gets what they covet from a thief (Satan) it is not the same as getting it from the true owner.  Satan will give you what you want especially if it draws you away from God.  God will not give you what you cannot benefit from.  To whom would you go for a cure?  Patient “0” or the best doctor you could find – or the One who controls every disease and comfort?

If you would be content you must get to heaven for only there will we find absolute contentment?  Here, in this veil of tears, we must constantly and consistently, in the strength of our Savior, strive after it; one time laying hold of it another missing.

Heb 13:5-6  Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."  (6)  So we can confidently say, "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?"

Here is the bottom line of contentment.  He has promised to never leave of FORSAKE us.

Forsake:  By implication, to leave in the lurch, desert, abandon.

1Ch 28:20  Then David said to Solomon his son, "Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the LORD God, even my God, is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you, until all the work for the service of the house of the LORD is finished.

In the end, it all goes back to the heart:

If the heart of a man is fashioned to his circumstances, he may have as much contentment as if his circumstances were fashioned to his heart.

Burroughs, Jeremiah (2010-07-05). The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (Kindle Locations 510-511).  . Kindle Edition.

God can, and will, change my heart and/or my circumstances.  I can really do neither – at least not if I am submitted to Him.  That I am never without my Redeemer and that he will never “leave me in a lurch,” is the truth upon which I must place my feet and the truth I must work into my heart.

Learning contentment does not come easy. The flesh, finding covetousness a most useful tool, fights tooth and talon to keep it alive and active.  It will not go peacefully and so, in dealing with it, we will have to accept the tribulation, the fight, and the blows.  The object is not to tame it or to convert it but to kill it.  It is a fight to the death – its death - for all being said, it cannot kill us.  It can cripple and maim but it can never kill.

Isa 35:4  Say to those who have an anxious heart, "Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you."

The world is infinitely deceived in thinking that contentment lies in having more than we already have. Here lies the bottom and root of all contentment, when there is an evenness and proportion between our hearts and our circumstances.

Burroughs, Jeremiah (2010-07-05). The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment (Kindle Locations 514-515).  . Kindle Edition.