Rare Jewel: Chapter Seven

Here are the notes from Chapter 7: The Excellence of Contentment.

1. By contentment we come to give God the worship that is due to him.
2. There is much exercise of grace in contentment.
    a. There is faith, humility, love, patience, wisdom, and hope which are tried.
    b. There is a great deal of strength found in quiet contentment.
    c. There is a great deal of beauty of grace. God's glory appears in the man living quietly in adversity.
3. By contentment, the soul is fitted with quietness to receive mercy.
4. And the soul is fitted to do service, once it has been quieted.
5. Contentment delivers us from an abundance of temptations.
6. There is an abundance of comforts in contentment.
    a. He doesn't depend on any else for comfort but God.
    b. If God raises him, he is assured it is by love.
    c. No matter storms or tempests, there will be light in his soul.
 7. God fashions our spirits to our conditions.
        a. Possessions won't bring contentment like grace in the soul.
        b. Possessions don't better my soul.
        c. Satisfied desires can be the result of self-love versus contentment which is from love to God.
        d. Acquiring one thing, we'll only desire more and more, while true contentment brings comfort in all conditions.
8. Contentment is a great blessing upon the soul.
9. God will give the comfort of the thing which we are contented to be without or something in lieu of it.
10. Through contentment, the soul comes the closest possible to God.