Be Prepared...Be Very Prepared

"Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible." 

Corrie Ten Boom

None of us can see what will happen in the future.  While we often have an idea of what work God has called us to, we can never fully expect or predict what we will do or how we will be made ready for the task.

When a young apprentice in England was about seventeen years old, he found grace and forgiveness at the place he had for years been avoiding – the cross of Jesus Christ.  Hudson Taylor became a Christian, and he almost immediately knew what God was calling him to do.

He knew that he was called to China.

Throwing himself into the laborious business of learning Chinese, Taylor never looked back.  There were no Chinese classes or language textbooks for Taylor - China was too foreign at the time.  No, instead Taylor obtained a copy of the Gospel of Luke in the Mandarin tongue.  Painstakingly, he labored over it until he knew the Chinese language.

That's a lot of work.

But it wasn't enough for Hudson Taylor.  Going the extra mile, he found ways to increase his physical hardiness.  As a naturally frail young man, Taylor began physical activities, choosing less comforts in order to increase stamina.  He kept himself busy with ministry in his city, for he knew that he couldn't be a missionary in China if he wasn't a missionary in England.  Taylor took as many practical steps to preparation for missionary life that he could.

The modern Merriam Webster definition for "prepare" includes this description:

"to make ready beforehand for some purpose, use, or activity"

Hudson Taylor certainly made ready beforehand for his life in China.

I learned a lot while writing this.  I was going to write about how we have a duty to prepare ourselves.  And we do.  But our preparations don’t always go the way we think they will.

Take John Hyde for an example.  He had aptitude.  He had brilliance.  He had a plan.

John Hyde traveled to India as a missionary in 1892.  He had great dreams of being a great missionary, a great servant of God.  Lost in dreams of being "great," he was ready to throw himself into his studies and then into evangelizing the Indian country.

God had another plan.

The new missionary was deeply convicted that he should spend more time growing closer to God.  Deepening his relationship with God, Hyde spent hours praying and studying the Bible.  Eventually, he did become fluent in Indian dialects, as he had hoped, but his relationship with God always took first priority.

Hyde soon found himself praying more than ever before.  Passionately, he would lift the requests of a missionary up to the God who sends missionaries.  Soon, he started getting up at 4 AM or staying awake until midnight in order to meet with his God.  "In college or at parties at home I used to keep such hours," Hyde reasoned, "and can I not do as much for God and souls?"*  Soon he became known as "Praying Hyde."  Hyde had great responsibility for God, and he was up to the task, because God prepared him for it.

Definitely something to think about, isn't it?  I mean, do we prepare ourselves or does God prepare us?

Yes.

Both men prepared themselves and were prepared by God.  Hudson Taylor relied on God as he worked to prepare.  John Hyde worked to prepare as he deepened his relationship with God.

Paul wrote that we are created to do good works "which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10).  "[I]n your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you," Peter counseled (1 Peter 3:14-16).

God works in our lives to prepare us for the plans He made an eternity ago.  The Holy Spirit works in us to motivate us to work to prepare ourselves for God's plan.  As Paul explained this mystery, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me" (1 Corinthians 15:10).  Even though Paul worked hard, it was not him, but God who worked within him.


As we go about our lives, determining what God's good, perfect will is and striving to follow it, we prepare ourselves as God prepares us.  God will show us each step we need to take.  We must be ready to take it.

Are you preparing for the future God has for you?  Is your relationship with God your first priority?  Are you ready to take whatever step He calls you to take?

"I have seen many men work without praying, though I have never seen any good come out of it," Hudson Tayler mused, "but I have never seen a man pray without working."
*John Hyde quote: Ambassadors for Christ, Woodbridge (General Editor), chapter by Elaine Rhoton

Picture credit: Hudson Taylor

Picture credit: John Hyde