I want to give a follow-up word on the word I shared the last time from Psalm 73. We were talking about those times in our spiritual life when, because of the intensity of the battle, our hearts fail. There is a great verse in 2Timothy 2:13, that says even if we believe not, He abides faithful.
One of the most influential Christians of the last 500 years was a British missionary named Hudson Taylor. He died in 1905, and founded the China inland missions. He served in China for 51 years and created over 300 mission stations throughout China during his service there. During the last part of the 19th century he was probably the most powerful and respected Christian in the world. One writer after his death, stated that no one since the apostle Paul had a greater vision for the spread of the gospel than Hudson Taylor. As great an impact that he had on the Christians of the later 19th-century, he even had a greater impact on Christians around the world in the 20th century after his death. He was simply one of the most important Christians in the 2000 year history of the church. That missionary organization still exist today under the name Overseas Missionary Fellowship.
His greatest impact, was not necessarily his missionary work but was the testimony of his own spiritual life. One 0f the great books ever written about walking with the Lord was an account of his spiritual life called Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret. If you’ve never read it you need to, it will change your life. It tells of a time in Hudson’s Taylor’s life when he was burnt out and his spiritual heart had failed. During that time Hudson Taylor discovered the wonders of drawing from the very life of Christ within him and living by faith. His life message became one of spiritual rest and living by faith.
Whenever he would travel outside of China to speak, people would travel great distances to hear him. Again, he was by far the most famous christian of his day. People by the thousands would come to hear him talk about faith. Just a few years before he died, he came to the U.S. to speak in several places, one of them being a very large Church in the Northeast. The place was packed as people came to hear the great man of God speak about faith. He opened his sermon by saying, “Sometimes I find myself unable to believe.” The people were stunned to hear that admission from this great man, until he finished his statement; “When I find myself in that place, I just rest in His faithfulness.” He then quoted the verse in 2Timothy. Even great men and women of God find themselves in moments when all seems dark and they just can’t believe. Take Hudson Taylor’s council, in those moments just rest in His faithfulness. After all, isn’t that faith?