Hudson Taylor was a missionary to China around the turn of the 20th century.
He was from a wealthy family in London, England yet in preparation for life in China he moved into the ghetto and lived with poor people on the streets of London. He also learned to speak and write Mandarin, a main dialect in China.
Once in China, rather than living on the hilltop with other English missionaries and having “tea” at 4pm and dressing in culturally acceptable clothes (that is acceptable to other Englishmen), Hudson lived with the Chinese people, grew a ponytail, dressed in culturally acceptable Chinese clothing and ate what they ate.
After 7 years ministering to the Chinese to the best of his ability, he, by his own admission, in his autobiography, could not claim one convert to Christianity; no one, not even one had come to know Christ as their personal Savior!
Burned out, disillusioned and frustrated through lack of fruitfulness, Hudson Taylor penned these words as though God had spoken them directly to him at the very moment he cried out to God that he couldn’t do it anymore:
“The work is Mine and Mine alone, Thy work is to rest in Me.”
This “revelation” from God opened his eyes to the secret of living the Christian life and being fruitful in service for God. The awesome stories of what began to happen are recorded in his autobiography. He tells of how Chinese people came walking down the dirt road to his house asking him how they could be forgiven and saved from their sins; literally, asking him to tell them about this person called Jesus Christ. They took him to their villages, called the elders and tribal leaders together and begged him to tell them all about the person and work of Jesus Christ. Hundreds, then thousands came to faith in Christ. Hundreds of missionaries joined Hudson, who proceeded to train them in the secret of fruitfulness God had revealed to him. The China Inland Mission was born and established. Through The China Inland Mission, to this day, millions of Chinese people have now come to know Christ who now make up the majority of the Christian Church in China.
Let this simple statement penetrate your heart and awaken you to the moment-by-moment REST available in Christ and see God produce incredible fruit for His glory through your availability to Him!