Flash Back to Moody Bible Institute - Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret

Genesis 18:27 (NIV)

Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes.

One of the first classes I took at Moody Bible Institute was a mission’s class. In the class we were to read “Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret” and write a short paper on what we learned from it. Below are some of the lessons I gleaned from it.  It was many years ago now but the lessons are still as good today as the day it was written.

In 1853, J. Hudson Taylor arrived in Shangai as a young twenty-one year old missionary. Twelve years later, he founded the China Inland Mission and became the first Protestant missionary to go into inland China. Taylor led the China Inland Mission for the next 40 years and at the time of his death in 1905, the mission had 205 stations, 849 missionaries, and 125,000 Chinese Christians. Taylor also translated the New Testament into the Ningpo dialect.

Near the end of his life, two ladies in Shanghai once began talking about him, wondering if he was ever tempted to be proud. One of the ladies went and asked Mrs. Taylor. She did not know. But Mrs. Taylor went and asked Hudson.

He was surprised and inquired, "Proud about what?"

Mrs. Taylor replied, "Why, about the things you have done."

Then immediately Hudson replied with the beautiful answer, "I never knew I had done anything."

He was right. Hudson Taylor never had done anything, for it was God who had worked in and through him.

Is pride stopping you from becoming great in the Lord's eyes?

Dear Lord, we want to confess any sin of pride that we have today. We want to be humble in all our ways so that we may bring honor to Your name in all that we do. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.