February 16, Morning

C. H. Spurgeon · Modern retelling

"I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content." — Philippians 4:11 · KJV

These words show us that contentment is not a natural bent 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, for they are native to the earth; and so we need not teach men to complain — they complain fast enough without any lessons. But the precious things of the earth must be cultivated. If we would have wheat, we must plow and sow; if we would have flowers, there must be a 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 does not grow in us by nature. The new nature alone can produce it, and even then we must be specially careful and watchful to maintain and cultivate the grace God has sown in us. Paul says, "I have learned . . . to be content," as much as to say that at one time he did not know how; it cost him some pains to master that great truth. No doubt he sometimes thought he had learned it, and then broke down. And when at last he had attained it, and could say, "I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content," he was an old, gray-headed man on the border of the grave, a poor prisoner shut up in Nero's dungeon at Rome. We might well be willing to bear Paul's infirmities, and share his cold dungeon, if we too might somehow reach his good degree. Do not indulge the notion that you can be content by mere learning, or learn without discipline. It is not a power to be exercised naturally, but a science to be acquired little by little. We know this from experience. Brother, hush that murmur, natural though it is, and keep on as a diligent pupil in the College of Content.