If in the sight of God you cannot say you are sure that you have a special call to stay at home, why are you disobeying the Saviour's plain command to go?
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of following one's calling and the duty to act in accordance with spiritual responsibilities.
Hudson Taylor's quote reflects the tension between comfort and duty, urging individuals to pursue their true purpose rather than remain in a place of complacency. It challenges the reader to reconsider their commitment to their beliefs and the extent to which they are willing to act upon them, especially when it comes to serving others and fulfilling a spiritual mission.
In practice
In a sermon discussing missionary work, this quote can inspire attendees to consider their personal call to service.
We are not only to renounce evil, but to manifest the truth. We tell people the world is vain; let our lives manifest that it is so. We tell them that our home is above and that all these things are transitory. Does our dwelling look like it? O to live consistent lives!
Brother, if you would enter that Province, you must go forward on your knees.
Too often we attempt to work for God to the limit of our incompetency, rather than to the limit of God's omnipotency.
When I get to China, I will have no claim on any one for anything. My claim will be alone in God and I must learn before I leave England to move men through God by prayer alone.
The prayer power has never been tried to its full capacity...if we want to see mighty wonders of divine power and grace wrought in the place of weakness, failure and disappointment, let us answer God's standing challenge, "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not."
I have seen many men work without praying, though I have never seen any good come out of it; but I have never seen a man pray without working.
I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day.
What's so amazing in today's society is people look up to football players. And as a football player, you have a platform. And it's so much more important than any touchdown or trophy or anything you could win with football. Its taking that platform and be able to influence people.
If you give it to God, He transforms your test into a testimony, your mess into a message, and your misery into a ministry.
Every human being has inside them something more important than him or herself - his or her Gift.
I'm profoundly changed. There's a bittersweet emotion that I feel from playing this role. . . . I want the world to be different because I was here. However lofty or crazy or delusional that may sound, I want people's lives to be better because I was here.
You are invited to the festival of this world and your life is blessed.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.