On p. 43 of The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, 17th century Puritan pastor Jeremiah Burroughs says, “Mark, here lies the mystery of it [i.e., contentment], A little in the world will content a Christian for his passage, but all the world, and ten-thousand times more, will not content a Christian for his portion.” So the maturing believer is at one and the same time both deeply content and utterly dissatisfied.
How can that be? “A soul that is capable of God can be filled with nothing else but God...” It is not enough to know earthly comforts or even the peace of God: one must have the God of peace. Burroughs speaks to the “gracious heart” and explains: “If God gave you not only earth but heaven, that you should rule over the sun, moon and stars, and have the rule over the highest of the sons of men, it would not be enough to satisfy you, unless you had God himself” (p. 44).
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