Too often we attempt to work for God to the limit of our incompetency, rather than to the limit of God's omnipotency.
Interpretation
We often overestimate our own abilities while underestimating the power of God.
This quote by Hudson Taylor suggests that people frequently push themselves to the brink of their own limitations when trying to serve or work for God, rather than relying on God's infinite strength and capability. It encourages individuals to recognize that their efforts, when aligned with divine power, can lead to far greater outcomes than solely depending on their own competency.
In practice
In a sermon about faith and reliance on God.
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!
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?
Brother, if you would enter that Province, you must go forward on your knees.
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 grew up in a very religious family and it is the motivating force to every thing I do. I am fortunate to have had adults all around me who really lived their faith, in helping other people and doing the best you can do.
Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees, And looks to God alone; Laughs at impossibilities, And cries it shall be done.
Our obedience is God's pleasure when it proves that God is our treasure. This is good news, because it means very simply that the command to obey is the command to be happy in God. The commandments of God are only as hard to obey as the promises of God are hard to believe. The Word of God is only as hard to obey as the beauty of God is hard to cherish.
When I know that Christ is the one real sacrifice for my sins, that His work on my behalf has been accepted by God, that He is my heavenly Intercessor - then His blood is the antidote to the poison in the voices that echo in my conscience, condemning me for my many failures. Indeed, Christ's shed blood chokes them into silence!
God does not demand that I be successful. God demands that I be faithful. When facing God, results are not important. Faithfulness is what is important.
When I was abandoned by everybody, in my greatest weakness, trembling and afraid of death, when I was persecuted by this wicked world, then I often felt most surely the divine power in this name, Jesus Christ... So, by God's grace, I will live and die for that name.
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