Hudson Taylor and Resting in Christ

I want to commend to you the book, Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret.  We assigned it again this summer for our interns.  As we began to our discussion last week I was again struck by the truth of the sufficiency of Jesus Christ alone and my need not to strive but simply to restfully trust.  Here are a few quotes I sent to my brother in the Lord, Jonathan, as he serves in Ethiopia:

I prayed, agonized, fasted, strove, made resolutions, read the Word more diligently, sought more time for meditation - but all without avail. Every day, almost every hour, the consciousness of sin oppressed me.


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, dearie, He never will.


And since Christ has thus dwelt in my heart by faith how happy I have been! I wish I could tell you about it, instead of writing. I am no better than before. In a sense, I do not wish to be, nor am I striving to be. But I am dead and buried with Christ - aye and risen too! And now Christ lives in me, and "the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me."

Oh, to live in that conscious reality. The supremacy and sufficiency of Christ alone. I hope and pray that we expereince this type of rest and joy in the reality of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Looking to Him,

~Ryan