Charles Haddon Spurgeon's Morning Devotional For Saturday February 16, 2019 |
Morning Time: 6:51 AM PST
"I have learned, in whatever state I am, therewith to be content."
--Philippians 4:11
These words show us that contentment is not a natural propensity of man. "Ill
weeds grow apace." Covetousness, discontent, and murmuring are as natural to man
as thorns are to the soil. We need not sow thistles and brambles; they come up
naturally enough, because they are indigenous to earth: and so, we need not
teach men to complain; they complain fast enough without any education. But the
precious things of the earth must be cultivated. If we would have wheat, we must
plough and sow; if we want flowers, there must be the garden, and all the
gardener's care. Now, contentment is one of the flowers of heaven, and if we
would have it, it must be cultivated; it will not grow in us by nature; it is
the new nature alone that can produce it, and even then we must be specially
careful and watchful that we maintain and cultivate the grace which God has sown
in us. Paul says, "I have learned . . . to be content;" as much as to
say, he did not know how at one time. It cost him some pains to attain to the
mystery of that great truth. No doubt he sometimes thought he had learned, and
then broke down. And when at last he had attained unto it, and could say, "I
have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content," he was an old,
grey-headed man, upon the borders of the grave--a poor prisoner shut up in
Nero's dungeon at Rome. We might well be willing to endure Paul's infirmities,
and share the cold dungeon with him, if we too might by any means attain unto
his good degree. Do not indulge the notion that you can be contented with
learning, or learn without discipline. It is not a power that may be
exercised naturally, but a science to be acquired gradually. We know this from
experience. Brother, hush that murmur, natural though it be, and continue a
diligent pupil in the College of Content.
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