Hudson Taylor’s way of making God “real” in your life
Before 21-year-old Hudson Taylor left for China, he practiced relying on God for his needs, deliberately cutting himself off from sources of support, including his own father.
God provided through other means, as he did throughout the rest of Hudson’s life. In a letter to his mother, Hudson wrote, “I am indeed proving the truth of that word, ‘Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. My mind is quite as much at rest as, nay more than, it would be if I had a hundred pounds in my pocket. May he keep me ever thus, simply depending on Him for every blessing, temporal as well as spiritual.”
To his sister, he wrote, “I know he tries me only to increase my faith, and that it is all in love. Well, if He is glorified, I am content.”
Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret (1932) is a must-read for anyone in need of encouragement to trust God. It stretched my own faith and made me realize I still have so far to go.
The secret alluded to in the book’s title makes its first explicit appearance in chapter eight: “The secret of faith that is ready for emergencies is the quiet, practical dependence upon God day by day which makes Him real to the believing heart.”
What a captivating thought – making God “real” by relying on him. Another is “faith that is ready for emergencies.” I want that kind of faith!
I believe we can’t be reminded often enough to trust, trust, trust. Reading stories like Hudson Taylor’s, Scripture reading, good preaching, prayer and worship remind us of God’s trustworthiness and spur us on to greater faith.
Day by day,
Tom Harper
Founder, BiblicalLeadership.com
LinkedIn profile | My books
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