Jeremiah Burroughs: Great Benefits

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4

“Consider all the experience that you have had of God’s doing good to you in the want of many comforts. When God crosses you, have you never had experience of abundance of good in afflictions? It is true, when ministers only tell men that God will work good out of their afflictions, they hear them speak, and think they speak like good men, but they feel little or no good; they feel nothing but pain. But when we cannot only say to you that God has said He will work good out of your afflictions, but we can say to you, that you yourselves have found it so by experience, that God has made former afflictions to be great benefits to you, and that you would not have been without them, or without the good that came by them for a world, such experiences will exceedingly quiet the heart and bring it to contentment.”

Jeremiah Burroughs (1600-1646) in The Rare Jewel Of Christian Contentment (Preach the Word) 131.

I am thankful for the goodness and generosity that comes to us from God both in our afflictions and out of afflictions. These gifts quiet our hearts and bring our hearts to contentment.

As I rest this weekend I give thanks for “God’s doing good” to me “in the want of many comforts.” In other words, in His goodness, He does not always relieve my pain or answer because He wants me to grow in different areas.

For example, I learn patience. I grow in faith. I find joy. And all this experience forms in me perseverance so I mature and am not lacking in anything I need in my service to God. Think about it.

That’s generosity: God not giving us what we want when we want it but allowing us to suffer to quiet our hearts and bring them to maturity and contentment. Thanks God. You are so good.

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. Matthew 16:25

“Submission a free gift to God. Every soul is called to enjoy the infinite benefits contained in this state.

Therefore do I preach abandonment, and not any particular state. Every state in which souls are placed by Your grace is the same to me. I teach a general method by which all can attain the state which You have marked out for them. I do not exact more than the will to abandon themselves to Your guidance. You will make them arrive infallibly at the state which is best for them.

It is faith that I preach; abandonment, confidence, and faith; the will to be subject to, and to be the tool of the divine action, and to believe that at every moment this action is working in every circumstance, provided that the soul has more or less good-will. This is the faith that I preach. It is not a special kind of faith, nor of charity, but a general state by which all souls can find God under the different conditions which He assumes; and can take that form which divine grace has marked out for them.

I have spoken to souls in trouble, and now I am speaking to all kinds of souls. It is the genuine instinct of my heart to care for all, to announce the saving secret far and wide, and to make myself all to all. In this happy disposition I make it a duty which I fulfill without difficulty, to weep with those who weep, to rejoice with those who rejoice, to speak foolishly with the foolish, and with the learned to make use of more learned and more scholastic terms. I wish to make all understand that although they cannot aspire to the same distinct favors, they can attain to the same love, the same abnegation, the same God and His work, and thence it follows naturally, to the highest sanctity.

Those graces which are called extraordinary and are given as privileges to certain souls, are only so called because there are so few sufficiently faithful to become worthy of receiving them. This will be made manifest at the day of judgment. Alas! it will then be seen that instead of these divine favors having been withheld by God, it has been entirely by their own fault that these souls have been deprived of them. What untold blessings they would have received through the complete submission of a steadfast goodwill.

It is the same with regard to Jesus as with the divine action. If those who have no confidence in Him, nor respect for Him, do not receive any of the favors He offers to all, they have only their own bad disposition to thank for it. It is true that all cannot aspire to the same sublime states, to the same gifts, to the same degree of perfection; yet, if faithful to grace, they corresponded to it, each according to his degree, they would all be satisfied because they would all attain that degree of grace and of perfection which would fully satisfy their desires. They would be happy according to nature, and according to grace, because nature and grace share equally in the ardent desire for this priceless advantage.”

Jean-Pierre de Caussade in Abandonment to Divine Providence (Grand Rapids: CCEL, 1751) 55.

As I rest this weekend, I find refreshment in abandonment.

We get weary when we strive thinking it is our job to sort life’s challenges. Or at least I do! Alternatively, Jean-Pierre points the way to infinite benefits and priceless advantage.

It’s the pathway Jesus marked out for us: lose your life for His sake and find it.

I appreciate the connection Jean-Pierre makes between “abandonment, confidence, and faith” for the Christian. When we choose abandonment, we experience His benefits in exchange for what our own efforts can muster.

We gain confidence and grow in faith, and we receive favors as gifts of mercy and grace in the process.

So, what’s the lesson for those who want to grow in generosity? Realize that letting go is the way to life. Submit to abandonment. Experience infinite benefits, not for selfish gain but for empowered service.

Allow God to shape you on the way of perfection and grasp untold grace on the way.

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. But many who saw them leaving recognized them and ran on foot from all the towns and got there ahead of them. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. Mark 6:30-34

“It seems to me that during Thanksgiving one of the big ambiguities has resolved itself out. The fact is, I do not want purely and simply to “be a hermit” or to lead a life purely and ideally contemplative. At the same time I want to break with all the fictions and pretenses, all the facade and latent hypocrisy of the community in which I live. Yet, I truly seek a very solitary, simple and primitive life with no special labels attached. However, there must be love in it, and not an abstract love but a real love for real people.

The conclusion then that God is calling me to a kind of missionary solitude – an isolated life in some distant, primitive, place among primitive and simple people, to whose spiritual needs I would attend. Not a missionary life pure and simple, nor a solitary life pure and simple, but a combination of both. No nonsense about asking permission to live as a hermit here–and raising all the futile questions and pretenses this would involve. It would get me into a whole network of lies for the sake of one grain of truth.”

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) in A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk’s Life, edited by Lawrence S. Cunningham (New York: HarperCollins, 1996) excerpt dated 14 June 1959. IV Sunday After Pentecost.

Thanksgiving in America, hopefully is a time to step away from work and rest. Like responding to the invitation of Jesus to the disciples, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

To get away alone is to locate solitude. But I like how Merton describes it. The goal is not simply to be a hermit and make solitude the end. The balance he finds in the middle he labels as “missionary solitude.”

While today has been marked with “materialistic shopping” let’s pursue “missionary solitude” instead. Let’s “break with all the fictions and pretenses, all the facade and latent hypocrisy” around us.

And let’s cultivate our souls in solitude so we can go love and serve people generously. This is what happened with Jesus. After their time of rest came their richest ministry. May it be so with all of us.

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people. 1 Timothy 2:1

“And we cannot possibly doubt that this division was not idly made by the Apostle. And to begin with we must investigate what is meant by supplication, by prayer, by intercession, and by thanksgiving…

Of Supplications.
“I exhort therefore first of all that supplications be made.” Supplication is an imploring or petition concerning sins, in which one who is sorry for his present or past deeds asks for pardon.

Of Prayer.
Prayers are those by which we offer or vow something to God… We pray, when we renounce this world and promise that being dead to all worldly actions and the life of this world we will serve the Lord with full purpose of heart…

Of Intercession.
In the third place stand intercessions, which we are wont to offer up for others also, while we are filled with fervour of spirit, making request either for those dear to us or for the peace of the whole world…

Of Thanksgiving.
Then in the fourth place there stand thanksgivings which the mind in ineffable transports offers up to God, either when it recalls God’s past benefits or when it contemplates His present ones, or when it looks forward to those great ones in the future which God has prepared for them that love Him.

And with this purpose too sometimes we are wont to pour forth richer prayers, while, as we gaze with pure eyes on those rewards of the saints which are laid up in store hereafter, our spirit is stimulated to offer up unspeakable thanks to God with boundless joy.”

John Cassian (c. 360-435) monk and theologian in The Conferences of John Cassian.

Consider with Cassian four kinds of prayer on this day of Thanksgiving in USA. If you read this elsewhere in the world, join in giving thanks today with intentionality.

Father in heaven, forgive us our sins, both the things we have done wrong and the good that we have left undone. Guide us in the way of righteousness. Hear our supplication in your mercy.

Regardless of what others around us do, help us live, give, serve, and love generously. Make it so by the power of your Spirit at work in us. Hear our prayer in your grace.

Heal the sick. Bind up the brokenhearted. Give hope to the war-torn. Comfort the sad. Strengthen those who minister. Bring peace to the whole earth. Hear our intercession in your love.

Remind us of your benefits in days past and of the benefits that await us in eternal glory. Help us persevere with gratitude in our hearts. Hear our thanksgiving in your goodness.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:17

“God does well in giving the grace of consolation, but man does evil in not returning everything gratefully to God. Thus, the gifts of grace cannot flow in us when we are ungrateful to the Giver, when we do not return them to the Fountainhead. Grace is always given to him who is duly grateful, and what is wont to be given the humble will be taken away from the proud.”

Thomas à Kempis in “Appreciating God’s Grace,” chapter 10 of The Imitation of Christ.

I am so excited by the reception to the GTP video Palmful of Maize, which celebrates what God is doing in a nation where the children have been taught to “give God what you have.”

It mirrors precisely what Thomas describes as “returning them to the Fountainhead.” When we give God’s gifts back to God amazing things happen. He pours out grace on the humble and grateful.

They always have enough because the Fountainhead flows abundantly. If you have not watched the video watch it, and click here to learn more and to make a gift to GTP today to help spread the vision.

What you see is the impact of the vision in 12 of 28 districts in Malawi. Now, we are mapping the strategy and praying for funds to reach the other 16 districts and to spread it to Zambia and Zimbabwe in 2023.

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Colossians 4:2

“Recollection begins, she says, in the deliberate and regular practice of meditation; a perfectly natural form of mental exercise, though at first a hard one. Now meditation is a half-way house between thinking and contemplating: and as a discipline, it derives its chief value from this transitional character. The real mystical life, which is the truly practical life, begins at the beginning; not with supernatural acts and ecstatic apprehensions, but with the normal faculties of the normal man. “I do not require of you,” says Teresa to her pupils in meditation, “to form great and curious considerations in your understanding: I require of you no more than to look.”

Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) in Practical Mysticism (Project Gutenberg, 1915) 26.

I am wrapping up a bunch of GTP work today and then taking the rest of the week off to rest, to devote myself to prayer, and to be watchful and thankful. But I don’t want to just eat Thanksgiving turkey and make it a time of self-indulgence. I want this to be a time of recollection.

In short, I want to “look” or or as my wife, who is a spiritual director says, to “notice” how God is at work around me. I think this is what it means to be watchful as a basis for growing in gratitude which births greater generosity. I need to slow down and look or notice God.

If you too are taking time off this Thanksgiving week, join me in this. Devote yourself to prayer, and look or notice God in your situation and give thanks. Then, from what you have recollected, I am confident you too will go forth to live, give, serve, and love more generously.

Open the eyes of our hearts, Lord, to look, to notice, to see You. To discern how you are at work. To celebrate Your gracious generosity, Your abundant provision, Your matchless goodness. Help us by your Holy Spirit to be watchful and thankful. Amen.

Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man. Proverbs 6:6-11

“I wish to give a short similitude to those who live and fare in the tempest, so that they may valiantly and obediently persist in this manner of living, and attain to high virtue.

There is a little beast called the ant. She is strong and wise and hard to kill. And she loves to live in the company of her fellows in a hot, dry land. And she works in the summer and gathers up food and corn against the winter; and she splits each grain in two, so that it cannot germinate and spoil, but so that the ants can benefit from it when there is no other food to be had. And each ant does not make a separate path, but they all follow the same path. And when the season comes that she has been willing to wait for, then she is able to fly.

Thus these men ought to do: they should be strong in awaiting the coming of Christ, wise against the revelations and suggestions of the devil. They must not wish for death, but always for the honor of God and to win for themselves fresh virtue. They must live in the company of their heart and all their powers, and be obedient to the demands and the compulsion of divine unity. They must live in a hot, dry land, which is in the violent tempest of love and in great impatience, and they must work in their lives summer, and gather the fruits of virtue against eternity, and split them in two.

The one portion is that they must evermore desire the high and delectable unity: the other is that they must restrain themselves by means of reason, so far as they may, and await the time that God has ordained: so the fruit of virtues is preserved to all eternity. And they must not make separate paths or peculiar manners for themselves, but they must follow the path of love through all the storms on the way that love leads them. And while man awaits his time, and furnishes himself with all virtues, he is able to contemplate, and to flee into God’s secret refuge.”

Jan van Ruysbroek (1293-1381) in The Spiritual Espousals (London: Faber and Faber, 1952) 110-111.

This similitude aims to inspire every reader to press on and grow in generosity while we await the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to fare valiantly and obediently.

Thanksgiving week in the USA brings tremendous focus on things, materialism, shopping, and spending on self.

But we must rise above this. We must maintain our focus and divine unity that all times. This means we gather like ants, not for self but for the colony. It means generosity must remain in focus. This is true whether you live in USA or not.

For that to happen, we must focus on thanksgiving and gratitude. All we possess came from God to us for a purpose: to enjoy and share.

Do this, for out of thanksgiving and gratitude flows unity and generosity. Unity because we restrain our selfish motives in receiving every good and perfect gift from God. Generosity follows as we use those gifts rightly.

No wondering off the path. Stay on the way of love, thanksgiving, gratitude, and generosity!

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Galatians 6:10

“My friends can give aid to three kinds of people. First, to the damned; second, to sinners, that is, to those who fall into sins and get up again; third, to the good who stand firm. But you may ask: ‘How can a person give aid to the damned, seeing that they are unworthy of grace and it is impossible for them to return to grace?’ Let me answer you by way of a simile.

It is as though there were countless holes at the bottom of a certain precipice and anyone falling into them would necessarily sink to the depths. However, if someone were to block up one of the holes, the person falling would not sink down as deeply as if no hole had been blocked up. This is what happens to the damned. Although by reason of my justice and their own hardened malice they have to be condemned at a definite and foreknown time, still their punishment will be lighter if they are held back by others from doing certain evils and instead urged to do something good. That is how I am merciful even toward the damned. Although mercy pleads for leniency, justice and their own wickedness countermand it.

In the second place, they can give aid to those who fall down but get back up again by teaching them how to get up, by making them take care not to fall, and by instructing them how to improve and to resist their passions.

In the third place, they can be of benefit to the righteous and perfect. Do not they themselves fall as well? Of course they do, but it is for their greater glory and the devil’s shame. Just as a soldier lightly wounded in battle gets all the more stirred up because of his wound and becomes that much keener for battle, so too the diabolical temptation of adversity stirs up my chosen ones all the more for the spiritual struggle and for humility, and they make all the more fervent progress toward winning the crown of glory.”

Bridget of Sweden (1303-1373) in The Prophecies and Revelations of Saint Bridget (Birgitta) of Sweden, 2:14.

In this classic work from Bridget, she gives us insightful guidance on our giving to three kinds of people.

First, she encouraged giving to the damned, she uses the word picture of blocking up a hole so people don’t sink to the depths. It’s merciful giving. Trying to save people from destruction.

Second, she advised giving to those who fall down in order to teach them how to get back up again. This again requires grace and mercy and kindness to help orient the disoriented.

Third, she urges giving to those that are on the right and mature path. This brings into view people in ministry that may be making a difference in the large spiritual battle of life.

So as you think about your giving, how would it rate? Do you support work that stops up holes so the damned don’t sink to the depths? Do you support sinners to get back up, and the good who stand firm.

If we look in the mirror, we realize that we were once in group one, then maybe moved to group two, and hopefully we have all transitioned to group three. Regardless, give to others as you would have them give to you.

“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. John 15:5-8

“The branch of the vine does not worry, and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine; and at the right time, and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it. Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus.”

Hudson Taylor as recounted by David George in The Daily Thought Shaker (Bloomington: WestBow Press, 2014) reading for 8 July.

My 14-day GTP trip to Brazil, Chile, and Panama has been unfathomably fruitful.

I had plenty of opportunities to worry and most of the time, found peace in abiding in Christ and watching the Spirit work for the glory of the Father in heaven. And God answered prayer and produced fruit that I could have never imagined.

If you want a copy of my trip report, reply and I will gladly share it.

For example, on the last day we took the group (37 from 14 countries: Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, and USA) to the Panama Canal.

We only had 90 minutes there and got to watch a ship go through the Miraflores Locks. It’s pictured above setting out to the Pacific. This offers an image of the fruits on the trip.

We will launch new peer accountability groups (like ECFA in USA) in Brazil and Panama in the next 6 months. Four others want visits to help get groups going. By convening in Panama, we accelerated the process of their formation.

Getting people together helped speed up the process, just like passage through the Panama Canal cuts days off a trip around South America. Anyway, I praise God for the fruits.

And yet GTP has real needs so I am thankful today’s Scripture reminds me to ask and trust. Join me in praise and prayer today. Let’s abide and rest in the goodness of God.

For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. He proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ—with all boldness and without hindrance! Acts 28:30-31

“We should not shrink from opportunities where our faith may be tried. The more I am in a position to be tried in faith, the more I will have the opportunity of seeing God’s help and deliverance. Every fresh instance in which He helps and delivers me will increase my faith. The believer should not shrink from situations, positions, or circumstances in which his faith may be tried, but he should cheerfully embrace them as opportunities to see the hand of God stretched out in help and deliverance. Thus his faith will be strengthened.”

George Mueller in A narrative of some of the Lord’s dealings with George Müller: Written by himself (London: Nisbet, 1855) 460.

I am thankful for this quote from Mueller today about help and deliverance.

Despite house arrest in Rome, today’s Scripture notes that the Apostle Paul continued to serve with all boldness and without hindrance. We must follow suit.

The Latin America regional event has exceeded all expectations. Reply if you want a copy of the trip report. We will complete it today with God’s help before returning to our countries tonight.

Thanks for your prayers. Participants have been empowered to replicate trainings to grow stewards and to help ministries follow standards across Latin America. God has worked powerfully.

Moments this week were a faith-stretching week for all of us. For example, the opposition from the evil one is real. One person flew to Panama from Ecuador and was not let in for odd reasons and deported.

But the victory of Jesus has already been won so for everything we need, we pray. Right now I am praying for about $200,000 for GTP by 31 December 2022. Pray please, let’s exchange shrinking for supplication.