[Contentment] is the quiet of the heart All is sedate and still there…. [Contentment is not opposed to] a due sense of affliction. God gives his people leave to be sensible of what they suffer. Christ does not say, ‘Do not count as a cross what is a cross’: he says, ‘Take up your cross daily’. It is like physical health: if you take medicine and cannot hold it, but immediately vomit it up, or if you feel nothing and it does not move you—in either case the medicine does no good, but suggests that you are greatly disordered and will hardly be cured. So it is with the spirits of men under afflictions: if they cannot bear God’s potions and bring them up again, or if they are insensitive to them and no more affected by them than the body is by a drought of small beer, it is a sad symptom that their souls are in a dangerous and almost incurable condition. So this inward quietness is not in opposition to a sense of afflictions, for, indeed, there would be no true contentment if you were not apprehensive and sensible of your afflictions, when God is angry.

​~Excerpts from The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
by Jeremiah Burroughs (1599-1646)
 

 Christian contentment is that sweet, inward, quiet, gracious frame of spirit which freely submits to and delights in God’s wise and fatherly disposal in every condition.

​[Contentment] is the inward submission of the heart…. Not only must the tongue hold its peace; the soul must be silent. Many may sit silently, refraining from discontented expressions, yet inwardly they are bursting with discontent. This shows a complicated disorder and great perversity in their hearts. And notwithstanding their outward silence, God hears the peevish, fretful language of their souls. A shoe may be smooth and neat outside, while inside it pinches the flesh. Outwardly there may be great calmness and stillness, yet within amazing confusion, bitterness, disturbance and vexation….

​If the attainment of true contentment were as easy as keeping quiet outwardly, it would not need much learning.
~Excerpts from The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
By Jeremiah Burroughs

What does it mean to desire the office? Is it merely enough to wish or want the office?
​
​Desire is marked by sacrifice. Someone who desires to be an athlete makes significant sacrifices to his diet and daily routine. There is no short cuts. The same is true for the one who desires the office of pastor. He must make significant sacrifices. He must study when others sit idle. He must pray when others daydream. He must care for others when his soul aches. If a man desires the office; the sacrifices will match the desire. Someone who is unwilling to sacrificially give himself to the study of the Word is unfit for the office.

​The one who desires the office will not be tempted with anything else. He will serve as a pastor because he can do nothing else. There is no other job that captures his attention. There is no greater calling that he could imagine. A great inheritance will not turn his attention away from the ministry. He serves because there is nothing he would rather do. He serves as a pastor because he desires the office.

​Paul warns Timothy not to ordain elders hastily.