Hudson Taylor's Secret

"Oh, how I love thy law!" David's  love for the Bible and its Author gave him a desire to want to know everything He said. Those who learn most from God's Word are those who have a passion to know God.  

J. Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission, was truly God's chosen servant. Yet, even he found that the hardest part of the Christian life was to maintain regular, prayerful Bible study. "Satan will always find you something to do," he would say, "when you ought to be occupied about that, if it is only arranging a window blind."

His biographers, Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor, wrote in Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret, recalling traveling  with him month after month in northern China, by cart and wheelbarrow, staying in the poorest of inns at night.  

Often with only one large room for servants and travelers alike, they would screen off a corner for their father and another for themselves with curtains, and then, after sleep had brought a measure of quiet, they would later hear a match struck and see the flicker of candlelight which told that Mr. Taylor, however, weary, was poring over his little Bible. From two to four A.M. was the time he usually gave to prayer and God's Word; it was the time he could be most sure of being undisturbed to wait upon God.

Nothing was more important to him than filling his heart, his mind, and his life with the words of Scripture and spending time in God's presence. This was the secret of his rich ministry.

Dear Lord, give me ears to hear You speak as I read Your Word.

"They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward" (Psalm 19:10-11).

"I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing" (2 Samuel 24:24).