Lessons in Contentment from Streams in the Desert:
"I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content" (Phil. 4:11).
"Paul, denied of every comfort, wrote the above words in his dungeon. A
story is told of a king who went into his garden one morning, and found
everything withered and dying. He asked the oak that stood near the
gate what the trouble was. He found it was sick of life and determined
to die because it was not tall and beautiful like the pine. The pine was
all out of heart because it could not bear grapes, like the vine. The
vine was going to throw its life away because it could not stand erect
and have as fine fruit as the peach tree. The geranium was fretting
because it was not tall and fragrant like the lilac; and so on all
through the garden. Coming to a heart's-ease, he found its bright face
lifted as cheery as ever. "Well, heart's-ease, I'm glad, amidst all this
discouragement, to find one brave little flower. You do not seem to be
the least disheartened." "No, I am not of much account, but I thought
that if you wanted an oak, or a pine, or a peach tree, or a lilac, you
would have planted one; but as I knew you wanted a heart's-ease, I am
determined to be the best little heart's-ease that I can."
"Others may do a greater work,
But you have your part to do;
And no one in all God's heritage
Can do it so well as you."
They who are God's without reserve, are in every state content; for
they will only what He wills, and desire to do for Him whatever He
desires them to do; they strip themselves of everything, and in this
nakedness find all things restored an hundredfold."
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