ROLLING EVERYTHING OVER ONTO THE LORD
When life’s problems overwhelm us
If you were to ask me what kind of books I prefer reading I would probably say biographies and autobiographies. I always learn something when reading the life stories of other people. And when those people are Christians I learn a great deal about the living of the Christian life.
Recently I have read four books about Hudson Taylor, one of the greatest missionaries,
I believe, in the history of the Christian Church. He was born in Barnsley in Yorkshire in 1832. Brought up in a Methodist home he had a sense in his spirit, ever since he was a boy, that God was calling him to be a missionary in China.
In 1853 he was able to respond to that call, beginning his missionary work with the Chinese Evangelisation Society. But after a few years he found their way of running things far too restrictive. Too many decisions had to be referred back to London, and it could take up to a year to get a response. So in 1865 Taylor founded the China Inland Mission. Some 35 years later, he had 750 missionaries working with him in China. He must have been an inspirational character to attract so many people, most of them from the British Isles. The journey to China in those days was arduous, in a wooden sailing ship, and it took between four and six months, depending on the weather. Yet people still volunteered.
Faith-based
What made Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission different? The fact that they lived by faith, trusting God to provide everything. That included finances. Taylor had a very strict policy that they would not allow the China Inland Mission to make an appeal for funds, nor would they allow a special collection to be taken. There was an occasion when Taylor, back in England on furlough, was preaching one Sunday evening on the work of the Mission. The church warden, a retired Army colonel, was so impressed that he called for a special collection. Taylor immediately stepped in and said ‘no’. He explained that they trusted God to provide everything. He couldn’t allow a special collection.
Taylor was staying that night with the colonel. When they got home the colonel said, ‘Mr. Taylor, I think you made a mistake this evening. I believe you should have allowed that special collection.’ Taylor again explained their policy on trusting God alone for funding. They agreed to disagree, and went to bed. Next morning when they came down for breakfast the colonel said, ‘Mr. Taylor, last night I said that you made a mistake. This morning I acknowledge that you were right. Last night I was going to put £50 in the collection. This morning I am going to donate £5,000.’ As Taylor himself said, ‘God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.’
Something happened in 1874 which was to change and inspire Hudson Taylor’s whole spiritual life. While working in China he fell from a ladder and was paralysed. He had to go home to England to recuperate. Doctors said he would never be fit to walk again, let alone go back to China. But Taylor was a man of faith, and he was surrounded by people of faith. They prayed in faith, and miraculously he was healed and did go back to China. His fellow missionaries noticed that a change had come over him. Before he left to go back to England he had worried a great deal about the work of the Mission. At times he became very anxious. But now Taylor appeared to be very relaxed. He did not worry any more. He explained the reason. He had learnt to roll burdens and anxieties over onto the Lord, and eventually he learnt how to roll everything onto Him. Whether it was going to meet a friend, a medical appointment, going to visit a relative, writing an important letter, or an event coming up that he wanted to go well. Whatever it was Hudson Taylor rolled it over onto the Lord. He made this a way of life. Once he had rolled something over he then trusted, had confidence that the Lord would look after the person or situation. To express this trust he went about singing or whistling a favourite hymn, ‘O Jesus, I am resting, resting in the joy of whom Thou art…’
Following the example
♦ Hudson Taylor
I had to learn this lesson in difficult circumstances a number of years ago. It was a problem that came out of the blue and caused me great anxiety. I had to learn how to practise Psalm 55:22. ‘Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you. He will never let the righteous perish.’ Every morning in my prayer time I had to take time to let go of my anxiety. If that was difficult I asked the Lord to help me. I did not move on in my prayers until I had let go. If later on Satan tried to put the burden back on my shoulders again I simply said, ‘No Lord, I have given that to you. I refuse to take it back. I trust you to deal with it and to bring a good solution.’
I continued to pray in this way throughout the day. I had to keep it going for about two or three months. What that did was to give me a peace and a strength that I could have found in no other way. And, crucially, the ultimate solution was far better than if at the beginning the Lord had given me a blank sheet of paper and asked me to write down my ideal solution. Over the past year reading about how effective this way of praying was for Hudson Taylor I have gone back to not just casting my burdens onto the Lord, but rolling everything over onto Him.
Just recently a typical week went like this: I was preparing to conduct a Quiet Day on the Saturday, so I rolled that over onto the Lord. On Thursday I had an appointment with a physiotherapist for a back injury. On the Friday I conducted a healing service in St. Anne’s cathedral. On Friday evening there was a fairly large family gathering. These were big things. But I also rolled apparently smaller things onto the Lord. Three days in a row I was having a cup of coffee with a different friend each day. These were all good relationships. But I wanted the Lord to protect them and deepen them. So I rolled them over onto Him. Then I expressed trust that the Lord was bringing a good spirit into my time with each of these friends. Needless to say all of the bigger events, and the smaller ones also, went very well.
Being able to pray with faith and trust depends largely on our belief that our God is a faithful God. When we know that we can trust Him then we can pray with confidence. As the great hymn says, ‘All I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.’
Let me give you an illustration from the world of boxing. In the 1950s, 60s and 70s there was a great British boxing champion called Henry Cooper. In the early 1960s he had a fight in London against an American boxer, Zora Foley, who was the number two heavyweight in the world. Cooper had the reputation for getting cut eyes. Indeed he’d lost some fights because his eyes had been badly cut. In the second round, true to form, Cooper’s eye was cut. It didn’t look good, but his corner managed to get him patched up. Cooper boxed on and actually won the fight. In the post-fight interview a journalist was asking Henry was he worried when he got a cut in the second round. ‘No,’ Henry said, ‘mee manager said it was all right, so I didn’t worry about it.’
‘But,’ said the journalist, ‘you have lost fights before on cut eyes. Surely you must have been worried?’
‘No,’ Henry said, ‘mee manager told me it was all right, so I didn’t worry about it.’
The journalist pressed him, but Henry simply repeated that because his manager told him that it was all right he didn’t worry.
I was impressed by the trust Henry Cooper put in another human being. And I have felt many times since that if we could trust God in the same way, how much better life would be. Towards the end of his life Hudson Taylor said that once he had learned how to roll things over onto the Lord never again did he worry about anything.
As for myself I am constantly amazed at how well most things go when I give them to the Lord, and trust Him to take care of them.