"How do we have our faith increased? Only by thinking of all that Jesus is, and all He is for us: His life, His death, His work, He Himself revealed to us in the Word, to be the subject of our constant thoughts. Not striving to have faith, or to increase our faith, but a looking off to the Faithful One seems all we need.
Here I feel is the secret: not asking how I am to get sap out of the vine into myself, but remembering that Jesus is the Vine- the root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit, all indeed. Aye, far more than that. He is the soil and the sunshine, air and rain- more than we can ask, think, or desire. Let us not then want to get anything out of Him, but rejoice in being ourselves in Him-one with Him- and consequently, with all His fullness. Not seeking for faith to bring holiness, but rejoicing in the fact of perfect holiness in Christ, let us realize that- inseparably one with Him- this holiness is ours, and accepting the fact, find it so indeed." Hudson Taylor.
This, for Hudson Taylor, was a life changing realization and many who knew him previously said that from this time on he was a completely different man. Hard to imagine that he was as godly as he was up to this point and that his life really changed so much that others said this about him later.
May this be said of us as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment