Over the past few weeks, as a topic for our meetings at the Salvation Army in Ayr, we have been looking at the first few chapters of the book of Hosea and have been discovering together that what God requires of us is faithfulness.
It brought back to my mind a story I had read about Hudson Taylor. He was born on 21 May 1832 and died 3 June 1905. He was a British missionary to China, and founder of the China Inland Mission. Taylor spent 51 years in China and the society that he began was responsible for bringing over 800 missionaries to the country, founding 125 schools and directly resulting in 18,000 Christian conversions.
The story goes that on one stormy night; Hudson was due to preach in a school in the city of Birmingham, England. The organiser of the evening insisted that nobody would attend on such a stormy night, but Taylor insisted on going. "I must go even if there is no one but the doorkeeper."
Apparently, fewer than a dozen people showed up, but the meeting was marked with unusual spiritual power. Half of those present either became missionaries or gave their children as missionaries; and the rest were faithful supporters of the China Inland Mission for years to come. Taylor was faithful and God rewarded him.
This story challenged me that human wisdom often fails us – too often we approach things from the eyes of logic, rather than the eyes of our God. Logically, Hudson should not have bothered that evening – on a cold, wet and windy evening in Birmingham, Hudson should have stayed in the house, in front of the fire!
He faithfully carried out God’s work for him and God used his efforts. His faithfulness was useful to God.
I once read a ‘thought for today’ in the Daily Record, of all places! These words have stuck with me. “When your faith seems small – stick to being faithful.”
God requires and uses our faithfulness.
May God bless you greatly as you remain faithful to Him.
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus – but to trust and obey.
Graeme Parkhill
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