Spurgeon: February AM
* 02/16/AM
"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.