What Christian Contentment Is
“For I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (Phil 4:11).
Here is a very timely comfort to revive the drooping spirits of the saints in these sad and sinking times. For the “hour of temptation” has already come upon all the world to try the inhabitants of the earth, and this is especially the day of Jacob’s troubles within the body of our own people.
Our great apostle presents from experience, in this gospel text, the very life and soul of all practical theology. In it we may plainly see his progress in Christ’s school and the lesson that every Christian must learn from him if that Christian would demonstrate the power and growth of godliness in the soul.
Paul offers these words as a plain argument to persuade the Philippians that he did not seek great things in the world, and that he sought not what belonged to them, but them. He did not care about having substantial property, for he had better things with which to occupy his heart. He explains that he is not speaking because of need. Whether he had possessions or not, his heart was fully satisfied. He had enough: “I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”
“I have learned.” Contentment in every condition is a great art and a spiritual mystery. It must be learned, and learned as a mystery. Therefore, in verse 12, Paul affirms, “I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound, every where and in all things I am instructed” (Phil 4:12). The word translated “instructed” comes from a word that signifies a mystery. It is as though he had said, “I have learned the mystery of this business.”
Contentment must be learned as a great mystery, and those who are thoroughly trained in this art have learned a deep mystery. To the natural person, it is a Samson’s riddle. “I have learned it.” It is not something I must now begin to learn, nor did I possess it at first. I attained it with much difficulty, and now, by the grace of God, I have become a master of this art.
“In whatsoever state I am.” The word state is not in the original. The phrase is more precisely, “In what I am,” meaning whatever concerns or befalls me, whether I have little or nothing at all.
“Therewith to be content.” The word translated content here has great elegance and fullness of meaning in the original. Strictly speaking, it is attributed only to God, who has called himself God All-Sufficient because he rests wholly satisfied in and with himself alone. Yet he is pleased freely to communicate his fullness to the creature. Thus, from God in Christ, the saints “receive grace for grace” (John 1:16), so that in their measure there is a grace corresponding to the grace in Christ. In this sense, Paul says, “I have a self-sufficiency,” as the word indicates.
But you may ask, does Paul have self-sufficiency? How can we be sufficient in ourselves? Our apostle affirms elsewhere, “That we are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves” (2 Cor 3:5). His meaning, therefore, must be this: I find sufficient satisfaction in my own heart through the grace of Christ within me. Though I do not have outward comforts and worldly accommodations to meet my needs, what I possess between Christ and my own soul is abundantly sufficient to satisfy me in every condition.
This interpretation agrees with the statement, “A good man is satisfied from himself” (Prov 14:14), and with what Paul confirms about himself elsewhere: “though he had nothing, yet he possessed all things.” He had a right to the covenant and promise, which contain all things in their power, and an interest in Christ, the fountain and good of all. Having Christ, it is no wonder that Paul says he was content in whatever condition he found himself.
This is the genuine interpretation of the text. I will not divide the words, because I take them to pursue only one most necessary duty: quieting and comforting the hearts of God’s people under the troubles and changes they encounter in these heart-shaking times. The doctrinal conclusion is briefly this:
To be well skilled in the mystery of Christian contentment is the duty, glory, and excellence of a Christian.
This gospel truth is sufficiently presented in Scripture, but consider one or two parallel passages that confirm it. In 1 Timothy 6:6, 8, both the duty and its glory are expressed. “Having food and raiment,” Paul says in verse 8, “let us be therewith content.” There is the duty. “But Godliness with Contentment is great gain,” he says in verse 6. There is its glory and excellence, as though godliness were not gain unless contentment accompanied it.
You have a similar exhortation in Hebrews 13:5: “Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as you have.” I do not find any apostle or writer of Scripture treating this spiritual mystery of contentment as extensively as Paul does throughout his epistles.
To explain and prove this practical conclusion clearly, I will demonstrate four things. First, the nature of Christian contentment, what it is. Second, its art and mystery. Third, the lessons that must be learned to bring the heart to contentment. Fourth, the things in which the glorious excellencies of this grace principally consist.
The Nature of Christian Contentment
Concerning the first, take this description:
Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit that freely submits to and takes pleasure in God’s wise and fatherly ordering of every condition.
I will open up this description, for it is a box of precious ointment, very comforting and useful for troubled hearts in troubled times and conditions.
1. It Is an Inward Work of the Heart
First, contentment is a sweet, inward matter of the heart. It is a work of the spirit within. It does not consist merely in refraining from seeking help for ourselves through outward violence, or in withholding discontented and murmuring expressions, perverse words, and hostile behavior toward God or others. It is the inward submission of the heart.
“Truly my soul waiteth upon God” (Ps 62:1), and in verse 5, “My soul wait thou onely upon God.” That is how it reads in your books, but the words may just as rightly be translated, “My soul be thou silent unto God; Hold thy peace, O my soul” (Ps 62:5). Not only must the tongue hold its peace, but the soul must be silent.
Many people may sit down silently and refrain from expressing discontent, yet be inwardly swollen with it. This reveals a deeply disordered and perverse condition in their hearts. Despite their outward silence, God hears the peevish, fretting language of their souls. The shoe may be smooth and neat on the outside while pinching the flesh within. There may be great outward calm and stillness while wonderful confusion, bitterness, disturbance, and vexation rage within.
Some are so weak that they cannot contain the agitation of their own spirits. Through their words and behavior, they reveal the woeful disturbances within them. Their spirits are like the raging sea, casting up nothing but mire and dirt. They are troublesome not only to themselves but to everyone who lives with them.
Others are able to contain such disorders of heart, as Judas did when he betrayed Christ with a kiss. Yet they continue boiling inwardly, and their distress eats like a canker. David speaks of people whose words are smoother than honey and butter while war remains in their hearts. Elsewhere he says, “whilst I kept silence my bones waxed old.” In the same way, these people may have a serene calm upon their tongues while blustering storms remain in their spirits. While they keep silent, their hearts are troubled and worn away with anguish and vexation. They have outward peace and quiet, but inward war from the unruly and turbulent workings of their hearts.
If true contentment were as easy to attain as outward quietness, there would be no great need to learn it. It could be obtained with less skill and strength than an apostle possessed, or even than an ordinary Christian possesses or may possess. Therefore, there is certainly much more to contentment than can be attained through common gifts and the ordinary power of reason, which often restrains our natural impulses. Contentment is a matter of the heart.
2. It Is the Quieting of the Heart
Second, contentment is the quieting of the heart. Everything there is calm and still. To understand this better, consider what this quiet, gracious frame of spirit does not oppose.
First, it is not opposed to a proper sense of affliction. God allows his people to feel what they suffer. Christ does not say, “Do not regard as a cross what really is a cross,” but tells us to take up our cross daily.
Consider the natural body. If the body takes medicine and cannot bear it but immediately vomits it up, or if the body is entirely insensible to it and is not stirred by it at all, the medicine does no good in either case. Both responses indicate that the body is seriously disordered and will be difficult to cure.
So it is with people’s spirits under affliction. If they cannot bear God’s medicines but cast them up again, or if they are insensible to them and their souls are no more stirred than a body would be by a drink of small beer, it is a sad sign that their souls are in a dangerous and almost incurable condition.
This inward quietness, then, is not opposed to feeling affliction. Indeed, there would be no true contentment if you were not aware of and sensitive to your afflictions when God is angry.
Second, it is not opposed to making an orderly lament and complaint to God and to our friends. Though a Christian ought to be quiet under God’s correcting hand, he may complain to God without violating Christian contentment. As one of the ancients says, though not with a tumultuous clamor and shrieking out in a perplexed passion, yet in a quiet, still, submissive way he may open his heart to God.
He may likewise communicate his sad condition to gracious friends, showing them how God has dealt with him and how heavily the affliction lies upon him, so that they may speak a timely word to his weary soul.
Third, it is not opposed to lawfully seeking help toward another condition or simply endeavoring to be delivered from present affliction through lawful means. I may make provision for my deliverance and use God’s appointed means while waiting upon him, because I do not know whether it may be his will to change my condition. As far as he leads me, I may follow his providence. It is only my duty.
God is mercifully indulgent to our weakness in this respect. He will not take it badly from us if, by earnest and persistent prayer, we seek deliverance from him until we know his good pleasure in the matter. Certainly, seeking help with submission and a holy resignation of spirit, willing to be delivered when God wills, as God wills, and in the way God wills, is no opposition to the quietness God requires in a contented spirit. In this way, our wills are melted into the will of God.
[Question:] “What is this quietness of spirit opposed unto?”
[Answer:] First, it is opposed to murmuring and complaining against the hand of God, as the discontented Israelites often did. If we cannot endure such behavior in our own children or servants, much less can God bear it in us.
Second, it is opposed to vexing and fretting, which go a degree beyond murmuring. I remember the saying of a heathen: “A wise man may grieve under, but not be vexed with his afflictions.” There is a vast difference between proper grieving and disordered vexation.
Third, it is opposed to tumultuousness of spirit. In that condition, the thoughts run distractedly and work in a confused manner. The affections are like the unruly multitude in Acts, who did not know why they had come together. The Lord expects you to be silent under his rod. As it is said in Acts, “You thought to be quiet and to do nothing rashly” (Acts 19:36).
Fourth, it is opposed to an unsettled and unfixed spirit by which the heart is drawn away from the present duty God requires in our various relationships toward God, ourselves, and others.
We should value duty too highly to be drawn away from it by every trivial occasion. A Christian values every service of God so much that, though it may appear to the world and to natural reason to be a slight and empty business, a beggarly rudiment, or foolishness, he sees that God calls for it. The authority of the command so overawes his heart that he is willing to spend himself and be spent in carrying it out.
Luther expressed it this way: “Ordinary works that are done in faith, and from faith, are more precious than Heaven and Earth.” If this is so, and a Christian knows it, no small matter should divert him. He should answer every distraction and resist every temptation as Nehemiah answered Sanballat, Geshem, and Tobiah when they tried to hinder the building of the wall: “I am doing a great work,” he said, “so that I cannot come down, why should the work of the Lord cease?” (Neh 6:3).
Fifth, it is opposed to distracting, heart-consuming cares and fears. A gracious heart values its union with Christ and the work God has assigned to it so highly that it will not willingly allow anything to enter and choke or deaden it.
A Christian desires the Word of God to take such full possession that it divides between soul and spirit. But he does not want the fear and noise of evil tidings to make such an impression upon his soul that they produce division and struggle there, like the twins in Rebekah’s womb.
A great man may permit common people to stand outside his doors, but he will not allow them to enter and make a noise in his private room or bedchamber when he has purposely withdrawn from all worldly employments. In the same way, a well-ordered spirit may inquire about affairs outside in the world and permit some ordinary cares and fears to enter the suburbs of the soul, lightly touching the thoughts. Yet it will not, on any terms, admit them into the private chamber that should be wholly reserved for Jesus Christ as his inward temple.
Sixth, it is opposed to sinking discouragements. These arise when events do not meet our expectations and the tide of secondary causes runs so low that we see little remaining in outward means to support our hopes and hearts. Then the heart begins to reason like the man in Kings: “If the Lord should open the windows of Heaven how should this be?”
Such a heart does not consider that God can open blind eyes with clay and spit. He can work above means, beyond means, and even contrary to means. He often makes the fairest flowers of human endeavor wither and brings improbable things to pass so that the glory of the undertaking may be given to himself. If his people need miracles for their deliverance, miracles fall as easily from God’s hands as the daily bread he gives them.
God’s blessing upon his servants is often so secret that they do not know how it comes. As it says in 2 Kings 3:17, “Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain, yet the valley shall be filled with water.” God would have us depend upon him even when we cannot see the means by which something will be accomplished. Otherwise, we do not show a quiet spirit.
Though an affliction is upon you, do not let your heart sink beneath it. To the extent that your heart sinks and you are discouraged under your affliction, you lack this lesson of contentment.
Seventh, it is opposed to sinful maneuvers and evasions in search of ease and help. We see this in Saul when he went to the witch of Endor and when he offered sacrifice before Samuel came. Even good King Jehoshaphat joined himself with Ahaziah (2 Chr 20:37). Asa went to Ben-hadad, king of Assyria, for help, “not relying upon the Lord” (2 Chr 16:7-8), though the Lord had delivered into his hands an Ethiopian army of a million men (2 Chr 14:11).
Good Jacob joined his mother in a lie to Isaac. He was not content to wait for God’s time and use God’s means, but hurried too much and stepped out of his way to obtain the blessing God intended for him. Many people do the same through the corruption of their hearts and the weakness of their faith. Because they cannot trust God and follow him fully in all things and all ways, the Lord often follows the saints with many painful temporal crosses, as we see in Jacob, even though they obtain the mercy.
Perhaps your wretched, carnal heart thinks, “I do not care how I am delivered, so long as I can get free of it.” Is this not often so in some of your hearts when a cross or affliction befalls you? Do you not experience inward workings like this: “Oh, if only I could be delivered from this affliction in any way, I would not care!” If so, your hearts are far from quiet. This sinful maneuvering is opposed to the quietness God requires in a contented spirit.
The eighth and final thing this quietness of spirit opposes is desperate uprisings of the heart against God in rebellion. That is most abominable. I hope many of you have learned contentment well enough to keep your hearts from such disorders. Yet the truth is that not only wicked people, but sometimes even the saints of God, feel the beginnings of this.
When an affliction continues for a long time, lies very heavily upon them, and strikes what might be called the master vein, they find something rising in their hearts against God. Their thoughts begin to bubble, and their affections begin to stir in opposition to God himself. This happens especially to those whose corruptions are accompanied by deep melancholy, while the devil works both upon the corruption of their hearts and the melancholy disorder of their bodies. Though much grace may lie at the bottom, some uprising against God himself may appear under affliction.
Christian quietness is opposed to all these things. When afflictions come, whatever they may be, you do not murmur, though you feel them, make your lament, desire deliverance, and seek it through every good means. You do not complain or repine. You do not fret or vex yourself. There is no tumultuousness or unsettledness in your spirit, no distracting fear in your heart, no sinking discouragement, no base maneuvering, and no rebellious uprising against God. This is quietness of spirit under affliction. This is the second part of contentment: the soul is able to bear an affliction while remaining quiet beneath it.
3. It Is a Frame of Spirit
The third thing I would explain in the description is that contentment is an inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit. Contentment is a matter of the soul. First, it is inward. Second, it is quiet. Third, it is a quiet frame of spirit.
By frame, I mean three things that must be considered when I say contentment consists in the quiet frame of a person’s spirit.
First, this grace spreads through the whole soul. It is present in the judgment. The judgment of a man’s or woman’s soul tends to quiet the heart. I am satisfied in my judgment. It is one thing to be satisfied in one’s understanding and judgment: this is the hand of God, and this is what suits my condition or is best for me. Though I do not see the reason for it, I am satisfied in my judgment concerning it.
Then contentment is present in a person’s thoughts. As my judgment is satisfied, so my thoughts are kept in order.
Then it reaches the will: my will yields and submits to it, and my affections are likewise kept in order. In this way, contentment passes through the whole soul.
Some people possess a partial contentment. It is not the frame of the whole soul, but only some part of the soul has some contentment. Many people may be satisfied in their judgment about something, yet be unable, even to save their lives, to govern their affections or thoughts. They cannot rule their thoughts, wills, or affections, though their judgment is satisfied.
I do not doubt that many of you know this by your own experience if you observe the workings of your hearts. When an affliction befalls you, can you not say, “I can bless God that I am satisfied in my judgment about it. So far as my judgment is concerned, I have nothing in the world against it. I see the hand of God, and I should be content. Yes, I am satisfied in my judgment that the condition I am in is a good condition. But I cannot, even to save my life, rule my thoughts, my will, and my affections. It seems to me that my heart is heavier, sadder, and more troubled than it should be, though my judgment is satisfied”?
This seemed to be David’s condition in Psalm 43: “O my soul why art thou disquieted?” As far as David’s judgment went, there was contentment. His judgment was satisfied with God’s work upon him. He was troubled, but he did not know why. “O my soul why art thou cast down within me?”
That is a very good psalm for those who at any time feel a fretting, discontented disorder in their hearts. They should read or sing it. David says once or twice in that psalm, “Why art thou cast down O my soul?” and, “And why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, for the help of his countenance” (Ps 43:5).
David had enough to quiet him, and what he possessed had prevailed upon his judgment. But after it had prevailed there, he could not carry it further. He could not make this grace of contentment pass through the entire frame of his soul.
Sometimes there is a great struggle merely to bring contentment into people’s judgments, that is, to satisfy their judgment about their condition. Go to many upon whom the hand of God lies, perhaps very grievously, and try to satisfy them by explaining that they have no such cause to be disquieted. The troubled spirit answers, “Oh, no such cause! Then no one ever had cause to be disquieted, for there was never an affliction like mine!” They have a hundred answers with which to put off what is said to them, so that you cannot even enter their judgments and satisfy them.
Yet there is great hope of contentment once your judgments are satisfied and you can sit down and say in your judgment, “I see cause to be content.” Even after you have come this far, however, you may have much work to do with your hearts. There is such unruliness in our thoughts and affections that our judgments cannot always govern them.
For this reason, I say that contentment is an inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit. The whole soul, judgment, thoughts, will, affections, and all, is satisfied and quiet. I suppose that merely by hearing this explained, you begin to see that this is a lesson you need to learn. It is not quickly acquired if contentment is such a thing as this.
Second, and this is very observable, spiritual contentment comes from the frame of the soul. When a man or woman is content in the right way, that contentment does not come so much from outward arguments or anything external that helps produce contentment as it comes from the disposition of the heart itself. The disposition of the heart produces this gracious contentment more than any external thing does.
I will explain myself. Suppose a child, man, or woman is upset. If you bring that person some great thing to please them, it may quiet them and make them content. But it is the thing you brought that quiets them, not the disposition of their own spirit or any good temper in their own heart. When a Christian is content in the right way, however, the quiet comes more from the inward temper and disposition of the heart than from any external argument or possession in the world.
I will explain this further with a comparison. Being content because of some external thing is like warming a person’s clothes by the fire. Being content through the inward disposition of the soul is like the warmth a person’s clothes receive from the natural heat of the body.
A healthy person may put on clothes on a cold morning and find them cold at first. After wearing them for a little while, they become warm. How did they become warm? They did not come near the fire. Their warmth came from the natural heat of the body.
But if a sick person whose natural heat has declined puts on cold clothes, they will not become warm for a long time. They must be warmed by the fire, and then they will quickly become cold again. This illustrates the difference between people’s forms of contentment.
Some people are very gracious. When an affliction first comes upon them, it may feel a little cold. But after it has been upon them for a while, the gracious temper of their hearts makes their afflictions easier and enables them to remain quiet without complaining in discontent.
Others have an affliction upon them but lack this good temper of heart. Their afflictions feel very cold and grievous. If you bring them external arguments, something from outside like the fire that warms clothes, perhaps they will be quiet for a while. But because they lack a gracious disposition within their own hearts, that warmth will not last long.
The warmth of the fire, meaning contentment that comes merely from external arguments, does not last. What does last is the contentment that comes from the gracious temper of the spirit. True contentment comes from the frame and disposition of a man’s or woman’s spirit. We will speak further about this when we explain the mystery of contentment.
Third, calling contentment a frame of spirit shows the habitual nature of this grace. Contentment is not merely one act or a flash during a good mood. Many men and women, if you encounter them in a good mood, will be very quiet. But this does not last. Their spirits do not have a constant tendency to be holy and gracious under affliction.
By a quiet frame of spirit, I mean the habitual disposition of the soul. It does not appear only at this or that time, when you happen to find people in a good mood. It is the heart’s constant tendency and temper. A Christian who has learned this lesson of contentment is content in the constant tendency and temper of the heart and behaves quietly in a consistent way. Otherwise, the apparent contentment is worth nothing, for no one is so furious in discontent that they are never quiet in some good mood or another.
First, then, contentment is a matter of the heart. Second, it is the quieting of the heart. Third, it is the frame of the heart.
4. It Is a Gracious Frame
Fourth, it is the gracious frame of the heart. True spiritual and Christian contentment is composed of all the graces. It is like certain oils made from many very precious ingredients. We will speak further about this when we explain the excellence of contentment.
For now, the gracious frame of the spirit must be distinguished from three things.
First, it is distinct from the natural stillness found in many men and women. Some people have a natural constitution that makes them more still and quiet than others. Others have a violent and hot constitution and are more impatient.
Second, it is distinct from a sturdy resolution. Through the strength of a firm resolution, some people do not appear troubled, whatever may come. At times, this sturdy determination may keep them from becoming as disquieted as others.
Third, it is distinct from the mere strength of reason. Even when reason is not fully satisfied, the strength of natural reason may quiet the heart to some extent. But a gracious frame of spirit is not merely bodily stillness arising from natural constitution and temperament, sturdiness of resolution, or the strength of reason.
You may ask, how is gracious contentment distinguished from all these? We will say more when we explain its mystery and the lessons that must be learned. For now, we may offer a brief distinction.
Consider first the natural stillness of people’s spirits. Many men and women have such a naturally still spirit and bodily constitution that you will seldom find them disquieted. But notice that these same people are very dull in anything good. They have no quickness or liveliness of spirit in what is good.
Where contentment of heart is gracious, however, the heart is quick and lively in God’s service. Indeed, the more a gracious heart brings itself into a contented disposition, the more fit it becomes for any service of God. It is active and lively in God’s service, not dull.
As a contented heart is active and energetic in God’s work, it is also active and energetic in sanctifying God’s name through the affliction that befalls it. Here the difference becomes very clear. A person with a naturally still disposition is not disquieted as others are, but neither is there any activity of spirit in sanctifying God’s name through the affliction.
A person who is graciously content is not disquieted but keeps the heart quiet from vexation and trouble. At the same time, that person is not dull or heavy, but is very active in sanctifying God’s name through the affliction. It is not enough merely to avoid murmuring, discontent, and distress. You must be active in sanctifying God’s name in the affliction.
This also distinguishes gracious contentment from sturdy resolution. A person may say, “I will not be troubled.” But though you have firmly resolved not to be troubled, do you have a conscientious desire to sanctify God’s name in your affliction? Does your quietness arise from that desire? This is the principal thing that brings quietness of heart and helps a gracious heart resist discontent.
The desire and care your soul has to sanctify God’s name in an affliction is what quiets the soul. That desire is absent from mere natural stillness or sturdy resolution.
Neither does gracious contentment come merely from reason. It is said of Socrates, though he was only a heathen, that whatever befell him, he never so much as changed his expression. He gained this power over his spirit merely through the strength of reason and morality. But gracious contentment comes from principles beyond the strength of reason. I cannot fully explain where it comes from until we discuss the mystery of spiritual contentment.
I will give you just one mark of difference between a man or woman content in a natural way and one content in a spiritual way. Those who are naturally content overcome themselves when outward afflictions befall them. They remain content. But they are just as content when they sin against God. Whether they suffer outward crosses or God is dishonored, it is all the same to them. They are equally calm when they themselves are crossed and when God is crossed.
A gracious heart, however, though content under its own affliction, rises mightily when God is dishonored.
5. It Freely Submits
The fifth element is freely submitting to and taking pleasure in God’s ordering. It is a free work of the spirit.
Four things must be explained concerning this freedom of spirit.
First, the heart is readily brought over. When someone does something freely, there is no great struggle required to bring that person to it. Many men and women, when grievously afflicted, are brought to contentment only with much difficulty. There is a great struggle before their hearts are quiet under affliction, though perhaps they are brought to it at last. But this does not happen freely.
If I ask something from another person and obtain it only with much difficulty and after a great deal of struggle, there is no freedom of spirit in the gift. But when a person acts freely, I need only mention the matter, and the person immediately agrees.
So, if you have learned this art of contentment, you will not be content only after a great struggle to quiet your heart. As soon as you recognize that something is the hand of God, your heart readily embraces it.
Second, freely means not by constraint or, as we commonly say, patience by force. Many will say, “You must be content. This is the hand of God, and there is no help for it.” This expression is too low for Christians. Yet when Christians visit one another, they say, “Friend,” or, “Neighbor, you must be content.” This is too low an expression for a Christian.
“Must be content.” No. I will be content readily and freely. It suits my heart to yield to God and be content. I find that my soul’s contentment comes of itself. When friends come and tell you that you must be content, you should answer, “No, I am willing to yield to God, and I am freely content.” That is the second thing.
Third, a free act proceeds rationally. It does not come from ignorance, because I know no better condition or do not understand what affliction is. It comes through a sanctified judgment. No creature except a rational creature can perform a free act. Freedom of action belongs only to rational creatures because true liberty acts rationally.
Rational freedom exists when I see through my judgment what is to be done, understand the matter, and then embrace what I understand in my judgment. That is freely done. But if a person does something without understanding what he does, it cannot be said that he acts freely.
If people are content only because they do not understand their affliction or know anything better, their contentment is not free. Suppose a child is born in prison and never leaves it throughout his life. The child is content because he has never known anything better, but this is not a free act of contentment.
Men and women who know better understand that their condition is afflicted and sad. Yet if, through a sanctified judgment, they can bring their hearts to contentment, that is freedom.
Fourth, this freedom is opposed to insensibility. A man or woman may be content merely for lack of feeling, but this is not freedom. A person with a dead palsy who does not feel you pinch his flesh is not freely patient. It is another matter if a person’s flesh is pinched, the person feels it, and yet is able to restrain himself freely.
So it is here. Many are content merely from insensibility. They have a dead palsy upon them. But a gracious heart has sufficient feeling and is still content. Therefore, its contentment is free.
6. It Submits to God’s Ordering
The sixth element is freely submitting to and taking pleasure in God’s ordering.
What does it mean to submit to God’s ordering? The word submit signifies sending oneself under. When someone is discontented, the heart becomes unruly and would even rise above God to the extent that discontent prevails. Then the grace of contentment comes and sends it under.
When the soul sees its own unruliness, it reasons like this: “Here is the hand of God bringing an affliction, and my heart is troubled and discontented. Will you be above God? Is this not God’s hand? Must your will be regarded more than God’s? Oh, get under! Soul, get under. Keep under. Keep low. Remain beneath God’s feet. You are beneath God’s feet, so remain there. Keep under the authority of God, the majesty of God, the sovereignty of God, and the power God has over you.”
