By Thomas Watson
It is our work to cast away care; and it is God’s work to take care.
A discontented Christian is like a rough tempestuous sea; when the water is rough you can see nothing there; but when it is smooth and serene, then you may behold your face in the water.
Whatever we have is not merit, but bounty; the least bit of bread is more than God owes us; we can bring faggots to our own burning, but not one flower to the garland of our salvation.
The wise God hath ordered our condition; if he sees it better for us to abound, we shall abound.
To live contented upon God in the deficiency of outward comforts, is an art which flesh and blood hath not learned; nay, many of God’s own children, who excel in some duties of religion, when they come to this of contentment, how do they bungle?
Be not content, O sinner, in this estate!
If men are poor, they learn to be envious; they malign those that are above them.
True grace is always progressive; as the saints are called lamps and stars, in regard of their light, so trees of righteousness, for their growth: they are indeed like the tree of life, bringing forth several sorts of fruit.
Thieves may plunder us of our money and plate, but not of this pearl of contentment, unless we are willing to part with it.
Care is a spiritual canker that doth waste and dispirit; we may sooner by our care add a furlong to our grief than a cubit to our comfort.
Grace is beyond gifts; thou comparest thy grace with another’s gifts, there is a vast difference.
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.
If men are rich, they learn to be covetous; thirsting insatiably after the world, and by unjust means scraping it together.
A man may read the figure on the dial, but he cannot tell how the day goes, unless the sun shines upon the dial: we may read the Bible over, but we can not learn the purpose, till the Spirit of God shines into our hearts.
It is not trouble that troubles, but discontent; it is not the water without the ship, but the water that gets within the leak, which drowns it; it is not outward affliction that can make the life of a Christian sad; a contented mind would sail above these waters.
A man had better be at the trouble of setting a bone, than to be lame, and in pain all his life.
The world is like a shadow that declineth; it is delightful, but deceitful; it promiseth more than we find, and it fails us when we have most need of it.
A man may know much of Christ, and yet not learn Christ: the devils knew Christ. A man may preach Christ, and yet not learn Christ, as Judas and the pseudo-apostles. A man may profess Christ, and yet not learn Christ.
God will distill the sweet influences of his love into thy soul; he will raise thee up friends; he will bless the oil in the cruise; and when that is done, He will crown thee with an eternal enjoyment of himself; he will give thee heaven, where thou shalt have as much contentment as thy soul can possibly thirst after.
When there is a tempest without, there may be music within; a bee may sting through the skin, but it cannot sting to the heart; outward afflictions cannot sting to a Christian’s heart, where contentment lies.
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