Soulfood

I have been using the Libby app with great gusto for the last couple of years and sometimes I am surprised by what I find there. Often times the books I am hoping to listen to aren’t available right away, so I look for others to fill the gaps in the time I have to listen (generally, during my commute). I don’t even know why this one showed up in my suggestions in the app but it grabbed my attention and I started it immediately. I have not been disappointed!

I also found that there is a free PDF online which you can download here: https://grace-ebooks.com/library/Thomas%20Watson/TW_The%20Art%20of%20Divine%20Contentment.pdf

Watson mines the depths of Philippians 4:11 and other Scriptures that speak to contentment, pressing home the command to be content and offering both reasons and helps for seeking to have a heart content in Jesus. Here are a few of the take-home quotes for me in my reading and listening:

“The wise God sees that condition to be bad for one, which is good for another; hence it is he placeth men in different orbs and spheres; some higher, some lower. One man desires health, God sees sickness is better for him; God will work health out of sickness, by bringing the body of death, into a consumption. Another man desires liberty, God sees restraint better for him; he will work his liberty by restraint; when his feet are bound, his heart shall be most enlarged.” (p. 18 in the PDF)

“What is this but discontent arising from high flown pride? These do secretly tax the wisdom of God, that he hath not screwed them up in their condition a peg higher. Every man is complaining that his estate is no better, though he seldom complains that his heart is no better. One man commends this kind of life, another commends that; one man thinks a country-life best, another a city-life; the soldier thinks it best to be a merchant, and the merchant to be a soldier. Men can be content to be anything but what God would have them. How is it that no man is contented? Very few Christians have learned St Paul’s lesson: neither poor nor rich know how to be content, they can learn anything but this.”

“[The discontented] are ever telling their wants, they want this and that comfort, whereas their greatest want is a contented spirit. Those that are well enough content with their sin, yet are not content with their condition.”

[Commenting on Proverbs 30:5] “I may add a fifth; the heart of a covetous man. So that neither poor nor rich know how to be content. Never certainly since the creation did this sin of discontent reign or rather rage more than in our times; never was God more dishonoured; you can hardly speak with any, but the passion of his tongue betrays the discontent of his heart; every one lisps out his trouble, and here even the stammering tongue speaks too freely and fluently. If we have not what we desire, God shall not have a good look from us, but presently we are sick of discontent, and ready to die out of an humour. If God will not forgive the people of Israel for their lusts, they bid him take their lives; they must have quails to their manna….God will supply our wants, but must he satisfy our lusts too?” (all from p. 20 in the PDF)

“There is no sin, but labours either to hide itself under some mask; or, if it cannot be concealed, then to vindicate itself by some apology.” (p. 22)

“Contentment doth prepare and tune the heart. First you prepare the viol, and wind up the strings, ere you play a fit of music: when a Christian’s heart is wound up to this heavenly frame of contentment, then it is fit for duty.” (p. 36)

“[A]s physic works disease out of the body, so doth contentment work trouble out of the heart.” (p. 37)

“…though in every condition we must be content, yet we are not to content ourselves with a little grace. Grace is the best blessing. Though we should be content with the adequacy of estate, yet not with an adequacy of grace. It was the end of Christ’s ascension to heaven to give gifts, and the end of those gifts is ‘that we may grow up into Him who is the Head, Christ’ (Ephesians 4:15). Where the apostle distinguishes between our being in Christ and our growing in Him – our ingrafting and our flourishing – do not be content with a modicum in religion. It is not enough that there is life, but there must be fruit.” (p. 55 – but here I am pulling from a print copy I obtained which is phrased a little differently…I pulled some of these quotes from the audiobook, and some from the PDF, and now some from a print copy…but all the page references are to the PDF. Deal with it!)

“The humble man is the contented man. If his state is low, his heart is lower than his state. Therefore, be content. If his esteem in the world is low, he who is little in his own eyes will not be troubled much to be little in the eyes of others.” (p. 62)

“Contentment is the manna that is laid up in the ark of a good conscience. Oh, take heed of indulging any sin! It is as natural for guilt to breed disquiet as it is for putrid matter to breed vermin. Sin lies as Jonah in the ship; it raises a tempest…[i]f sin gets into the conscience, which is the eye of the soul, then grief and disquiet breed there. But keep the eye of the conscience clear and all is well…[w]ould you have a quiet heart? Get a smiling conscience.” (p. 62)

I have a few quibbles with the book, mostly in that Watson seems a bit insensate towards the grief of parents who lose children to death or apostasy. He’s not exactly wrong in his counsel, just not particularly pastoral. Overall, this is a very helpful little book and well worth your time to read if you, as I do, often struggle to be content in every and any circumstance. Be encouraged to be content!