Many men and women
will in general say that they must submit to God in affliction; I
suppose that if you were to go now from one end of this congregation to
the other, and speak thus to every soul: 'Would you not submit to God's
disposal, in whatever condition he might place you?', you would say,
'God forbid that it should be otherwise!' But we have a saying, There is
a great deal of deceit in general statements. In general, you would
submit to anything; but what if it is in this or that particular case
which crosses you most?-Then, anything but that! We are usually apt to
think that any condition is better than that condition in which God has
placed us. Now, this is not contentment; it should be not only to any
condition in general, but for the kind of affliction, including that
which most crosses you. God, it may be, strikes you in your child.-'Oh,
if it had been in my possessions' you say, 'I would be content!' Perhaps
he strikes you in your marriage. 'Oh,' you say, 'I would rather have
been stricken in my health.' And if he had struck you in your
health-'Oh, then, if it had been in my trading, I would not have cared.'
But we must not be our own carvers. Whatever particular afflictions God
may place us in, we must be content in them.
- Jeremiah Burroughs (The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, Chapter 1: Christian Contentment Described)
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