It should be the care of a Christian to observe what are God's ways towards him: What is God about to do with me at this time? Is God about to raise me, to comfort me? Let me accept God's goodness and bless his name; let me join with the work of God when he offers mercy to me, to take the mercy he offers.
But again, is God about to humble me? Is God about to break my heart and to bring my heart down to him? Let me join with God in this work of his: this is how a Christian should walk with God. What is it to walk with God? It is, to observe what work God is now about, and to join with God in that work of his; so that, according as God turns this way or that way, the heart should turn with God and have working suitable to the workings of God toward him.
Now I am discontented and murmuring because I am afflicted...the great design God has in afflicting you is to break and humble your heart; and will you maintain a spirit quite opposite to the work of God? For you to murmur and be discontented is to resist the work of God. God is doing you good IF YOU COULD SEE IT, and if he is pleased to sanctify your affliction to break that hard heart of yours, and humble that proud spirit of yours, it would be the greatest mercy that you ever had in all your life.
Now will you stand out against God? It is just as if you were to say, "Well, the Lord is about to break me and humble me, but HE SHALL NOT." This is the language of your murmuring and discontentedness, though you dare not say so. But though you do not say so in words, yet it is certainly the language of the temper of your spirit.
Consider what an ingratitude this is to say "I am discontented when God is about to work such a work upon me as is for my good."
--Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
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