However, It has been good and I have enjoyed the book… the challenge has been profitable for me, both personally and as a pastor!

God Bless,
Yogi

The form and style of Burroughs seemed to be more difficult for me than previous authors. Also, it seemed like the background of Burrough’s community/cultural context of his day was interestingly more evident in this book…

My favorite section was chapter 5, pgs. 87-89
1. I am nothing
2. I deserve nothing
3. I can do nothing
4. I am so vile I cannot of myself receive any good
5. I can make use of nothing
(in fact…)
6, I am WORSE than nothing!
7. If we perish we will be no loss….

Also, I really liked pg. 221-2:
“Let afflictions and troubles find you with a mortified heart to the world, and they will not break your bones; those whose bones are broken by crosses and afflictions are those who are alive to the world, who are not dead to the world. But no afflictions or troubles will break the bones of one who has a mortified heart and is dead to the world; that is, they will not be very grievous or painful to such a one as is mortified to the world.”

…just something about how he used the imagry of Christ’s bones not being broken….the analogy/imagry just resonated with me. Add this to the list of ways I am inspired by the Cross of Christ…I want to be dead to the world, so that afflictions or troubles will not even attempt to break my bones…”

The worst part about reading these books is that you know you are going to have to go back and re-read them because you missed so much of the finer details while you were paying attention to the peaks and valleys. Good stuff.

What can I say about this book, except that it “connected the dots” between the gospel, the affections of my heart, complaining, and discontentment. It has been a pleasure to think about this subject, especially in light of the gospel. I pray that I would soon learn the “ABCs”, as Burroughs would put it, before feeling that I can move on to something greater. There is nothing greater for me than being satisfied in Christ for all that he with all that I am not.
This book also put encouraging words into my mouth, and scripture into my brain, that was used in counseling a brother who is going through a point where God is taking a lot of things away. It was a great pleasure, and medicine for my soul, to awkwardly explain to him what Burroughs explains so eloquently: Christ is all sufficent, and he will lovingly remove all barriers to us realizing this. When he doesn’t remove these barriers, we should begin to worry. Often this refinement hurts, but the contentment in our all-sufficent Lord and Saviour to be found on the other side of the pain is well worth it.

“No creature in all the world has any goodness in it any further than it has reference to the first inifinte supreme good of all, that so far as I can enjoy God in it, so far it is good to me, and so far as I do not enjoy God in it, so far there is no goodness in any creature. How easy it would be, if we really believed that, to be contented!” (page 97)

“If I become content by having my desire satisfied, that is only self-love, but when I am contented with the hand of God, and am willing to be at His disposal, that comes from my love to God. In having my desire satisfied, I am contented through self-love, but through the grace of contentment I come to be contented out of love to God, and is it not better to be contented out of love to God, than from a principle of self-love?” (page 131)

Would that I learn that lesson! I also pray that I will be “humbled for the lack of this grace” and take seriously how evil it is in the sight of God to have a murmuring spirit. Chapter 11 is very good at shooting down all the excuses that I come up with to excuse my lack of contentment.

I have shared this book with 2 other sisters in Christ. God willing, we are going to study the Word and “The Rare Jewel” together. There is so much in this book that I will not mind rereading it again.

I think this book also challenged me with how much I truly believe God is sovereign over all things. Burroughs shows that since God is sovereign over even our afflictions we are to be content in whatever affliction that might be. So often I get caught in the trap of just praying for something to be added that would make me content but in Chapter 2-Point 2: A Christian comes to contentment, not so much by way of addition, as by way of subtraction (pg 45). He says:

“That is his way of contentment, and it is a way that the world has no skill in. I open it thus: not so much by adding to what he would have, or to what he has, not by adding more to his condition; but rather by subtracting from his desires, so as to make his desires and his circumstances even and equal.”

Now that is putting theology to practice.

The other thing that I thought was greatly helpful was on page 42: “It may be said of one who is contented in a Christian way that he is the most contented man in the world, and yet the most unsatisfied man in the world; these two together must needs be mysterious.” This puts in perspective the Christian pilgrimage in that we are to be content with our walk with God but there is always to be a level of discontent in out waiting to be in eternity with God. This way we can better see our place here on earth in light of the coming final rest we have awaiting us.

Great book, can’t wait for the next one