Jeremiah Burroughs was a Puritan pastor who lived from 1599-1646. In his later years he was called the Prince of Preachers. His sermon series from Philippians 4:11 “I have learned in whatsoever state I am, to be content” became the foundation for his book, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment.

The follow up to these sermons were a call to be content in times of prosperity, and were compiled to form our book, Contentment, Prosperity, and God’s Glory.

Burroughs, like Paul, experienced both time of need and times of abundance. He insightfully observed that the lesson of finding contentment in a prosperous condition was more difficult that learning contentment while in need. “You think it’s hard for poor people to know how to be content in want”, he once said, “but the truth is it’s harder of the two to know how to be full.”

Phil 4:11-12 “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity, in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.”   

The truth is that times of prosperity and abundance can provide some of the strongest temptations to pull our hearts away from God. It is often difficult for someone in a prosperous condition to truly live as if Christ is enough.

Some of the chapters in the book:

• What learning to be full means
• The difficulty of learning to be full
• The necessity of learning to be full
• Lessons for learning to be full
• Increasing the guilt of sins of abundance
• Applications for improving prosperous conditions

Burroughs concludes with saying, “Grace helps a man to react consistently in any condition. Put a gracious heart into any condition, full or empty, and grace will help him lie evenly whatever his condition.”

With the heart of a man, if there is grace within, grace will keep the heart steadfast. Let the conditions be as various as possible, whether tossed up or down, this way or that way, the heart will stay the same. The gracious man will still respond consistently before God.

I commend this book to you and the lessons that it teaches to delight and be steadfast in whatever condition God puts you in. Burroughs says contentment is learned and I believe this book will guide you down that path to seek a gracious heart.