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Contentment is not merely one act, just a flash in a good mood. You find many men and women who, if they are in a good mood, will be very quiet. But this will not hold. It is not a constant course. It is not the constant tenor of their spirits to be holy and gracious under affliction. Now I say that contentment is a quiet frame of spirit and by that I mean that you should find men and women in a good mood not only at this or that time, but as the constant tenor and temper of their hearts. A Christian who, in the constant tenor and temper of his heart, can carry himself quietly with constancy has learned this lesson of contentment. Otherwise his Christianity is worth nothing, for no one, however furious in his discontent, will not be quiet when he is in a good mood.The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
To be content as a result of some external thing is like warming a man's clothes by the fire. But to be content through an inward disposition of the soul is like the warmth that a man's clothes have from the natural heat of the body. A man who is healthy in body puts on his clothes, and perhaps at first on a cold morning they feel cold. But after he has had them on a little while they are warm. Now, how did they get warm? They were not near the fire? No, this came from the natural heat of his body. Now when a sickly man, the natural heat of whose body has deteriorated, puts on his clothes, they do not get hot after a long time. He must warm them by the fire, and even then they will soon be cold again. The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
Let me explain myself. Someone is disturbed, suppose it to be a child or a man or a woman. If you come and bring some great thing to please them, perhaps it will quiet them and they will be contented. It is the thing you bring that quiets them, not the disposition of their own spirits, not any good temper in their own hearts, but the external thing you bring them. But when a Christian is content in the right way, the quiet comes more from the temper and disposition of his own heart than from any external argument or from the possession of anything in the world. The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
If the children of God have their little taken from them, they can make up all their wants in God Himself… If anything is cut off from the stream (a godly man) knows how to go to the fountain, and makes up all there. God is his all in all.The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment Excerpts
A contented man, just as he is the most contented, so he is the most unsatisfied man in the world. You will say, 'How is that?' A man who has learned the art of contentment is the most contented with any low condition that he has in the world, and yet he cannot be satisfied with the enjoyment of all the world… though his heart is so enlarged that the enjoyment of all the world and ten thousand worlds cannot satisfy him for his portion; yet he has a heart quieted under God's disposal.The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment Excerpts
A Christian may lack the comforts that others have—the land, and possessions; but God has instilled into his heart that contentment which is far better: in this sense that saying of our Savior is true, "he shall receive a hundred fold." (Mat. 19:29) Perhaps he who ventured all for Christ, never has his house or land again: yes—but God gives him a contented spirit, and this breeds such joy in the soul, as is infinitely sweeter than all his houses and lands which he left for Christ.https://gracegems.org/Watson/art_of_divine_contentment2.htm
A contented Christian carries heaven with him. For, what is heaven—but that sweet repose and full contentment that the soul shall have in God. In contentment there are the first-fruits of heaven.https://gracegems.org/Watson/art_of_divine_contentment2.htm
Contentment is a flower which does not grow in every garden. You would think it were excellent if I could prescribe a remedy or antidote against poverty. Behold, here is that which is more excellent, for a man to be poor—and yet have enough! Contentment teaches a man how to abound—in the midst of poverty. Contentment is a remedy against all our trouble, an alleviation to all our burdens, the cure of to every worry. Contentment, though it be not properly a grace (it is rather a disposition of mind,) yet in it there is a happy mixture of all the graces: it is a most precious compound, which is made up of faith, patience, meekness, humility, etc. which are the ingredients put into ithttps://gracegems.org/Watson/art_of_divine_contentment2.htm
If God be our God, let us learn to be contented, though we have the less of other things. Contentment is a rare jewel, it is the cure of care. If we have God to be our God, well may we be contented.The Ten Commandments, 21
A contented man cannot be a poor man, especially if a godly man. For why? The Father, that Ancient of Days, fills his memory; the Son, the wisdom of the Father, fills his understanding; the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, fills his will. And so he must needs have all that thus has the Haver of All.
Get a humble spirit if you would have a contented one. Pride causes men to be unthankful for their mercies and impatient under their crosses, but afflictions are easily borne and benefits are ever gratefully acknowledged by the mind that is truly humble under a sense of its defects.
We may say, if a Christian made the world but his servant, a little would content him; but if once he make the world his master and lord of his affections, then his desires will be infinite and cannot at all be satisfied.
Contentment consists not in adding more fuel but in taking away some fire—not in multiplying of wealth but in subtracting men's desires. Worldly riches, like nuts, tear many clothes in getting them; spoil many teeth in cracking them; but fill no belly with eating them, obstructing only the stomach with toughness and filling the guts with windiness. Yea, our souls may sooner surfeit than be satisfied with earthly things. He that at first thought ten thousand pounds too much for any one man will afterward think ten millions too little for himself.
That soul that is capable of God can be filled with nothing else but God.
Contentment is a soul business: first, it is inward; secondly, quiet; thirdly, it is a quiet frame of spirit. It is a grace that spreads itself through the whole soul.
The way for a Christian to be contented is not by raising his estate higher, but by bringing his spirit lower; not by making his barns wider, but his heart narrower. One man, a whole lordship or manor will not content him; another is satisfied with a few acres of land. What is the difference? The one studies to satisfy curiosity, the other necessity. The one thinks what he may have; the other thinks what he may spare.
the gleanings of a Christian are better than the vintage of a reprobate. "A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked."Works, 398
A true believer looks on religion, not as a burden which he must be forced to endure—but a privilege which is his happiness to enjoy.
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