Burroughs on The One Thing Necessary

"[Christ] teaches [a Christian] to understand what is the one thing that is necessary, which he never understood before. 

"You know what he said to Martha: 'O Martha, thou cumberest thyself about many things, but there is one thing necessary.' 

"Before, the soul sought after this and that, but now it says, I see that it is not necessary for me to be rich, but it is necessary for me to make my peace with God; it is not necessary that I should live a pleasurable life in this world, but it is absolutely necessary that I should have pardon of my sin; it is not necessary that I should have honour and preferment, but it is necessary that I should have God as my portion, and have my part in Jesus Christ, it is necessary that my soul should be saved in the day of Jesus Christ. 

"The other things are pretty fine indeed, and I should be glad if God would give me them, a fine house, and income, and clothes, and advancement for my wife and children: these are comfortable things, but they are not the necessary things; I may have these and yet perish forever, but the other is absolutely necessary. 

"No matter how poor I am, I may have what is absolutely necessary: thus Christ instructs the soul." 

Excerpt from The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment by Jeremiah Burroughs.