Have you ever had a “melting season?”
When Hudson Taylor was young and in love, his heart was broken by the woman of his dreams. She didn’t want to go to China and live with him on the mission field.
The young missionary had hoped and waited for two long years that she would say “yes” to a life together, but it wasn’t to be.
In Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret (1932), his journal reveals his sadness during this time: “I had a melting season. I was thoroughly softened and humble….”
This surely wasn’t the encouragement he’d prayed for before heading out to the field. The young man suffered deep discouragement. The blow to his dream was significant.
Have you ever been “melted” in some way?
There is a redemptive side to this early setback for the venerable missionary. In his journal entry, he goes on to write, “… and had a wonderful manifestation of the love of God. ‘A broken and contrite heart’ He did not despise, but answered my cry for blessing….”
Now, that is how I want to react to discouragement! Don’t you?
Let’s let the rest of his writing that day encourage us:
“Yes, He has humbled me and shown me what I am, revealing Himself as a present, a very present help in time of trouble. And though He does not deprive me of feeling in my trial, He enables me to sing, “Yet will I rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
“Now I am happy in my Saviour’s love. I can thank Him for all, even the most painful experiences of the past, and trust Him without fear for all that is to come.”
Amen. May this be true of us, too!
Encouraged,
Tom Harper
Founder, BiblicalLeadership.com
LinkedIn profile | My books
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