Charles Spurgeon and Money

I came across this while gathering stuff for my second book (Christ Centered Contentment).  It is classic Spurgeon: “You will see at once from reading the text [Phil. 4:11: "I have learned to be content"], upon the very surface, that contentment in all states is not a natural propensity of man. Ill weeds grow apace; covetousness, discontent, and murmuring, are as natural to man as thorns are to the soil. You have no need to sow thistles and brambles; they come up naturally enough, because they are indigenous to earth, upon which rests the curse; so you have no need to teach men to complain, they complain fast enough without any education. But the precious things of the earth must be cultivated. If we would have wheat, we must plough and sow; if we want flowers, there must be the garden, and all the gardener’s care. Now, contentment is one of the flowers of heaven, and if we would have it, it must be cultivated. It will not grow in us by nature; it is the new nature alone that can produce it, and even then we must be specially careful and watchful that we maintain and cultivate the grace which God has sown in it.” - Charles Spurgeon.  This quote is from a Devotional from Morning and Evening: A New Edition of the Classic Devotional Based on The Holy Bible, English Standard Version .  Spurgeon might be one of the best Christian writers of all time.  His use of language and metaphor matches his spiritual insight.  Here we see the importance of Christ’s redemption to teach us to be content.  We cannot arrive at the green pastures of true contentment without the “new nature.”  I pray we all begin to cultivate seeds of Christ Centered Contentment.