The Sufficiency of Christ

“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” John 15:7-11

His friend’s letter reached Hudson Taylor in Chinkiang on September 4, 1869. The Spirit of God moved powerfully in his heart as he read it at the mission station. Hudson Taylor recounted the dramatic change in his life in a letter to his sister in England:

“As to work, mine was never so plentiful, so responsible, or so difficult; but the weight and the strain are all gone. When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes...” That sentence read: “But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the faithful One.”

Taylor continued in his letter: “as I read, I saw it all...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?’ As I thought of the vine and the branches...how great seemed my mistake in having wished to get the sap...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 sweetest part...is the rest which full identification with Christ brings. I am no longer anxious about anything as I realize this; for He I know is able to carry out His will...”