After a period of spiritual struggle while serving and leading in China, Hudson Taylor discovered the truth of abiding in Christ from John 15.[1] In a letter to his sister, Taylor described his experience with this truth from God’s Word:

I’ll Strive No More

“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 you.’ ‘Ah, there is rest!’ I thought. I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I’ll strive no more. For has He not promised to abide with me—never to leave me, never to fail me?’ And, dearie, He never will! But this was not all He showed me, nor one half.

Oh, the Joy of Seeing this Truth!

“As I thought of the Vine and the branches, what light the blessed Spirit poured direct into my soul! How great seemed my mistake in having wished to get the sap, the fulness out of Him. I saw not only that Jesus would never leave me, but that I was a member of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. The vine now I see, is not the root merely, but all—root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit: and Jesus is not only that: He is soil and sunshine, air and showers, and ten thousand times more than we have ever dreamed, wished for, or needed. Oh, the joy of seeing this truth! I do pray that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened, that you may know and enjoy the riches freely given us in Christ.”[2]

The Sweetest Part is the Rest

“…The sweetest part, if one may speak of one part being sweeter than another, is the rest which full identification with Christ brings…I am no better than before (may I not say, 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 ascended; and now Christ lives in me, and ‘the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.’ I now believe I am dead to sin. God reckons me so, and tells me to reckon myself so. He knows best. All my past experience may have shown that it was not so; but I dare not say it is not now, when He says it is. I feel and know that old things have passed away. I am as capable of sinning as ever, but Christ is realised as present as never before.”[3]

Let Us So Abide

Later Taylor wrote, “The branch of the vine does not worry, and toil, and rush here to seek for sunshine, and there to find rain. No; it rests in union and communion with the vine; and at the right time, and in the right way, is the right fruit found on it. Let us so abide in the Lord Jesus.”[4]

[1] Read more of the background of these quotes in my missions devotional, Daring Devotion: A 31-Day Journey with those who Lived God’s Promises. See Day 23, p. 139–144.

[2] Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor, Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission: The Growth of a Work of God (Singapore: OMF International, 1918), 173–177.

[3] Ibid., 177.

[4] Hudson Taylor, China’s Millions, Vol. 1, London: Morgan & Scott, 41

Grape Vine Photo Credit: Zbynek Burival on Unsplash