June 18, 2021 
He had to ‘learn the lesson’ just as we do!
(J.R. Miller, “The Wider Life” 1908)Ā Ā LISTEN to audio!Ā Ā Download audio
(You will find it helpful toĀ listen to the audio above, as youĀ read the text below.)
“I haveĀ learnedĀ to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I haveĀ learnedĀ the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in need.” Philippians 4:11-12
Life is a ‘school’. All itsĀ experiencesĀ are ‘lessons’.
We are all in ‘Christ’s school’–and He is always ‘educating’ us.Ā
DisciplesĀ are ‘learners’ and all true Christians are disciples.Ā
We enter theĀ lowest gradeĀ when we begin to be Christians.Ā
We have everything to learn.Ā
Each new experience, is aĀ new lessonĀ set for us by the great Teacher.
The business ofĀ noble Christian living, isĀ learning. We know nothing when we begin. Learning is not confined to what we get from reading books.Ā All of lifeĀ is a school. ‘Christ’s books’ are ever being put into our hands, and ‘lessons’ are set for us continually.
Paul tells us of one of theĀ lessonsĀ he had learned in the ‘school of experience’. “I have learned,” he said, “the secret of being content in any and every situation.” We are glad to know that Paul had toĀ learnĀ to be contented. We are apt to think that such a man as he was, did not have toĀ learn to liveĀ as we common people do; that he always knew, for instance, how to be contented. Here, however, we have the confession thatĀ he had to ‘learn the lesson’ just as we do. He did not always know ‘the secret of contentment’. He was well on in years when he said this, from which we conclude that it took him aĀ long timeĀ to learn the lesson–and that it was notĀ easyĀ for him to do it.Ā Christ’s school is not easy.
SorrowĀ is a choice lesson in Christ’s school. Sorrow is not anĀ accidentĀ breaking into our life, without meaning or purpose. God could prevent the coming of the sorrow, if He so desired. He has all power, and nothing can touch the life of any of His children–unless He is willing. Since we know that God loves us and yet permits us to suffer–we may be quite sure that there is a blessing, something good, in whatever it is that brings us pain or sorrow.
We shrink fromĀ pain. We would run away fromĀ afflictions. We would refuse to acceptĀ sorrow. But there are things worth suffering for–things dearer thanĀ easeĀ andĀ pleasure. We learn lessons in pain, which repay a thousand times the cost of our tears!
The Bible tells us that God preserves the tears of His children, putting them inĀ His tear-bottle. Tears are sacred to God, because of theĀ blessingsĀ that come through them, to His children. In Heaven, we will look back on our lives of pain and sorrow on the earth, and will find that ourĀ best lessonsĀ have come through ourĀ tears!
All theĀ Christian gracesĀ have to be learned in ‘Christ’s school’. There Paul had learned contentment. He never would have learned it, however, if he had had onlyĀ pleasureĀ andĀ easeĀ all his life. Contentment comes from learning to do without things, which we once supposed to beĀ essential to our comfort. Paul had learned contentment through finding such fullness of blessing in Christ–that he did not need the ‘secondary things’ any more.
PerhapsĀ weĀ would succeed better in learning this same grace–if we had fewer of life’s comforts, if sometimes we had experience ofĀ need. The continuity of blessings that flow like a river into our lives, gives us no opportunity toĀ learn contentment.Ā
When sufferings come into our life . . .Ā
Ā disagreeable things, instead of pleasant things;Ā
Ā hunger and poverty, instead of plenty;Ā
Ā rough ways, instead of flower-strewn paths;Ā
God is teaching us the ‘lesson of contentment’, so that we can say at length, that we haveĀ learned the secret of being content!
Ā
iChristian 
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