Unwindings.org

As a kid I heard the story of Hudson Taylor – the famed missionary to China who played a key role in the establishment of the China Inland Mission. For years his efforts and strivings for the Lord were enormous and had a profound effect on Chinese people with many coming to know the Lord. For me, I always knew this story to be an example of what all Christians should aspire to do. After all, look at what his efforts produced. But the most important part of Hudson Taylor’s story was curiously missing  from the early versions I was taught. It wasn’t until many years later long into my adult years that I learned something about Taylor that dramatically changed my understanding of his story and subsequently began changing me.

Taylor, whose life impacted so many also left the man tired and eventually broken under the load of endless service for Christ. He desired so greatly to be an imitator of Christ and did all that he could to achieve that goal. Praying, fasting, preaching, serving… doing all that he could to please God and find favor with Him instead of knowing Him.

But in a moment of utter helplessness, Taylor saw something like never before. Something so simple, so radical that he was left a changed man forever… thus causing him to pen the following:

I strove for faith, but it would not come; I tried to exercise it, but in vain. Seeing more and more the wondrous supply of grace laid up in Jesus, the fullness of our precious Savior, my guilt and helplessness seemed to increase. Sins committed appeared but as trifles compared with the sin of unbelief which was their cause, which could not or would not take God at His word… I prayed for faith, but it came not. What was I to do?
When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed to me the truth of ouroneness with Jesus as I had never known it before.
“But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One.”
As I read, I saw it all! “If we believe not, he abideth faithful.” I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed)! That He had said, “I will never leave thee.”
“Ah, there is rest!” I thought. “I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I’ll strive no more. For has not He promised to abide with me — never to leave me, never to fail me?” And… He never will.

Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret

With us having been given wonderful minds and bodies, we have the power to do things in this earthly life our way or look to God for all of the direction. Sure we could likely produce a lot of good looking achievements and accomplishments but when setting our minds upon Him then all of what we do simply becomes an afterthought (Gal.2:20). The process of breaking down our control is God’s wonderful way of giving us an opportunity step out from the endless routine and experience His life in us. The life He intends for us will never be passive because we were “created for good works” (Eph.2:10). But those truly righteous works will only come about in us if we surrender our control as a living sacrifices and rest in Christ’s finished work (Rom.12:1,2).

Striving Hard for Jesus, 10.0 out of 10 based on 2 ratings