The Art of Divine Contentment Quotes

“It is our work to cast care, and it is God's work to take care.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

“We pray, 'lead us not into temptation'. Do we then lead ourselves into temptation?”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

“It is easy to catch a disease from another, but not to catch health. The bad will sooner corrupt the good, than the good will convert the bad.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

“A Christian is a military person, he fights the Lord's battles, he is Christ's ensignbearer. Now, what though he endures hard fate, and the bullets fly about? He fights for a crown!”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

“Neither deficiencies nor disappointments, losses nor crosses, can cause disquieting discontents in that bosom where faith is commander in chief.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

“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. O implore this blessed Spirit! It is God's prerogative-royal to teach: "I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to profit." Is. 48. 17. Ministers may tell us our lesson, God only can teach us; we have lost both our hearing and eye-sight, therefore are very unfit to learn. Ever since Eve listened to the serpent, we have been deaf; and since she looked on the tree of knowledge we have been blind; but when God comes to teach, he removes these impediments.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

“A contented Christian does not seek to choose his cross but leaves God to choose for him. He is content with both for the kind and the duration. A contented spirit says, 'let God apply what medicine he pleases and let it remain as long as it will, I know that when it has done it's cure and eaten the venom of sin out of my heart, God will take it off again.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

“In a word a contented Christian, being sweetly captivated under the authority of the Word, desires to be wholly at God's disposal and is willing to live in that sphere and climate where God has set him.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

“Keep a clear conscience. Contentment is the manna that is laid up in the ark of a good conscience: O take heed of indulging any sin! it is as natural for guilt to breed disquiet, as for putrid matter to breed vermin. Sin lies as Jonah in the ship, it raiseth a tempest. If dust or motes be gotten into the eye, they make the eye water, and cause a soreness in it; if the eye be clear, then it is free from that soreness; if sin be gotten into the conscience, which is as the eye of the soul, then grief and disquiet breed there; but keep the eye of conscience clear, and all is well. What Solomon saith of a good stomach, I may say of a good conscience, "to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet:"Pr. 27. 7 so to a good conscience every bitter thing is sweet; it can pick contentment out of the cross. A good conscience turns the waters of Marah into wine. Would you have a quiet heart? Get a smiling conscience. I wonder not to hear Paul say he was in every state content, when he could make that triumph, "I have lived in all good conscience to this day." When once a man's reckonings are clear, it must needs let in abundance of contentment into the heart. Good conscience can suck contentment out of the bitterest drug, under slanders; "our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience."2 Cor. 1. 12 In case of imprisonment, Paul had his prison songs, and could play the sweet lessons of contentment, when his feet were in the stocks.Ac. 16. 25 Augustine calls it "the paradise of a good conscience;" and if it be so, then in prison we may be in paradise. When the times are troublesome, a good conscience makes a calm. If conscience be clear, what though the days be cloudy? is it not a contentment to have a friend always by to speak a good word for us? Such a friend is conscience. A good conscience, as David's harp, drives away the evil spirit of discontent. When thoughts begin to arise, and the heart is disquieted, conscience saith to a man, as the king did to Nehemiah, "why is thy countenance sad?" so saith conscience, hast not thou the seed of God in thee? art not thou an heir of the promise? hast not thou a treasure that thou canst never be plundered of? why is thy countenance sad? O keep conscience clear, and you shall never want contentment! For a man to keep the pipes of his body, the veins and arteries, free from colds and obstructions, is the best way to maintain health: so, to keep conscience clear, and to preserve it from the obstructions of guilt, is the best way to maintain contentment. First, conscience is pure, and then peaceable.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

“Many Christians are like sieves. Put a sieve into the water, and it is full; but take it out of the water, and it all runs out. So, while they are hearing the sermon, they remember something of value. But, like the sieve, as soon as they have left the church, all is forgotten.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment: In Modern English

“Oh, Christian, if you are overspread with this fretting leprosy, you carry the man of sin about you, for you set yourself above God and act as if you were wiser than He, and would sassily prescribe to Him what condition is best for you.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

“I am pursued by malice, but better is persecuted godliness than prosperous wickedness.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment: In Modern English

“Discontentment with your condition is a sin that does not go alone but is like the first link of the chain, which draws all the other links along with it.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment: In Modern English

“They that seek the Lord shall not want [lack] any good thing (Psalm 34:10). If the thing we desire is good for us, we will have it; if it is not good, then the not having is good for us.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment: An Exposition of Philippians 4:11 [Updated and Annotated]

“Discontent makes a breach in the soul, and, usually at this breach, the devil enters by a temptation and storms the soul.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment: An Exposition of Philippians 4:11 [Updated and Annotated]

“The eunuch could read, but he could not understand until Philip joined him in his chariot.19 God’s Spirit must join our chariot; He must teach us, or we cannot learn.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment: In Modern English

“It is an easy thing to be wicked, and hell will be taken without a siege, but matters of faith must be learned.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment: In Modern English

“And how much have you heard against rash anger—that it is a temporary madness, a drunkenness that resides in the heart of fools! But on the slightest provocation, does your spirit begin to ignite?”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment: In Modern English

“Let these words sink into your ears,”2 says Christ. In the original it is, put these sayings into your ears, like a man who wants to hide a jewel from a thief and locks it up safe in his chest. Let these words sink; the word must not only fall as the dew that wets the leaves, but as rain which soaks to the roots of the tree, causing it to bear fruit.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment: In Modern English

“Cyrus could remember the name of every soldier in his huge army. And us? We remember how we have been injured by others. This is to fill a precious cabinet with dung.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment: In Modern English

“Christians hear a lot, but I fear they learn little. In the parable of the sower,1 there were four types of soil but only one good soil, and in the same way, there are many hearers but few learners.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment: In Modern English

“Excessive care takes the heart away from better things. And usually while we are thinking how we can live, we forget how to die. Worry is a spiritual cancer that wastes and demoralizes. Our worry is more likely to add a mile to our grief than a yard to our comfort”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment: In Modern English

“Discontent is to the soul, as a disease is to the body; it puts it out of sorts and hinders its regular movements toward heaven. Discontent is hereditary, and it is no doubt made worse by the many sad changes that have recently taken place in our nation. But this disease is not to be excused just because it is natural; it should be resisted, because it is sinful.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment: In Modern English

“Contentment is the true philosopher’s stone, which turns everything to gold. It is the mysterious enamel and embroidery of the heart, which makes the Church, the bride of Christ, “all glorious in her chamber.”1 Every Christian should long to wear such a sparkling diamond!”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment: In Modern English

“First, it concerns rich men. You would not think that it would be necessary to tell rich men to be content, whom God has blessed with great possessions, but, instead, persuade them to be humble and thankful.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

“The ship which lies at anchor may sometimes be a little shaken—but never sinks; flesh and blood may have its fears and disquiets—but grace keeps them afloat. A Christian, having cast anchor in heaven, his heart never sinks.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

“never complain as long as Christ is thy friend; he is an enriching pearl, a sparkling diamond; the infinite lustre of his merits makes us shine in God's eyes. (Ep. 1. 7)”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment

“God’s providence, which is nothing but the fulfillment of His decree, should be a guarantee and an opposing force against discontent. In His wisdom, God has set us in our current station.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment: In Modern English

“The main proposition I insist on is this: that a gracious spirit is a contented spirit. The doctrine of contentment is very important; for until we have learned this, we have not learned to be Christians.”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment: In Modern English

“Worry that is either untrusting or distracting is very dishonorable to God. It”
― Thomas Watson, The Art of Divine Contentment: In Modern English