Extremes

Dec 11, 2009 by desiringvirtue

My latest reading endeavor? Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secrets. I can’t tell you how much biographies have and continue to play a part in my spiritual formation. Reading accounts of people who chose to live for a better Kingdom by sacrificing ALL for a better King stirs in my soul an appetite for higher, loftier things. What is it about these people that makes them so unique? How do they manage to do such glorious works for the Lord and usher so many others closer to his throne? I believe that one of the greatest character qualities that they posses is their willingness to go to extremes for the sake of the Kingdom. It is their total abandon to God and passion for him and him alone.

When Mr. Taylor began to prepare for his calling to China he purposefully lived in a way that would prepare both his spirit and his body. Rice and Oatmeal became his ritual meals, he slept on a hard mat rather than a feather bed, he moved from a comfortable home to a shack among the poor. He knew that the Lord would require him to live upon His provision alone while in China and wanted to begin testing himself before he even left his home country. He prayed persistently and with great faith for all of his needs.

“At Hull my kind employer wished me to remind him whenever my salary became due. This I determined not to do directly, but to ask that God would bring the fact to his recollection, and thus encourage me by answering prayer.”

He wanted to test his faith in the Lord’s ability to answer his prayers. And so week after week he would pray that his employer would be prompted to pay his tiny wage and when he didn’t, he trusted that the Lord would provide all that he needed in the meantime.

I think that I would be much more likely to see this to be an unnecessary exercise of faith, after all there were times when he was close to starvation! Rather than give up the luxuries of home prematurely I think I would be tempted to gorge myself on Chick-fil-A and Pappasito’s minutes before my departure!

These exercises of faith were not necessary, but they were profitable. In my opinion, this is the difference between people who do amazing things for God and those who don’t. Normally we tend to do what we must, rather than what we could do. What if, instead of spending hundreds and even thousands of dollars on Christmas gifts we gave that money to the hungry people who live just miles down the road from us and shared the love of Christ (the one we are celebrating by the way) with them? We don’t have to but we could. What if we chose to live on much less than we make so that we could give more to the missionaries who are carrying the message of salvation to people who are on the road to Hell? We don’t have to, but we could. What if a boyfriend and girlfriend gave up kissing or even touching because they realized that the temptation was simply too great and they would rather do nothing physical than invite sin into their relationship? They don’t have to, but they could. What if a family purposefully moved to a lower income neighborhood even though they could afford much more just to be able to reach out to those families and relate to them in a way that would be impossible while living in the suburbs? They don’t have to, but they could. What if instead of filling our minds with the entertainment of this world every night we chose to fill it with the Word of God? We don’t have to but we could.

There are so many obvious choices that we make every day that are either sinful or not, but then there are other choices that we rarely think about. Choices that require discipline, denial, and sacrifice. They don’t come to mind very quickly, but they may make the difference between living the status quo and doing miraculous things.

If this is your first time to visit Desiring Virtue you may want to join our growing community of passionate homemakers by "liking" DV on Facebook, following DV on Twitter, or subscribing to DV's email delivery via Feedburner.