PLOD FOR GOD
The Life Of William Carey
I shared last month that I had just finished writing a series of radio talks entitled “Heroes of faith” and one of them was about William Carey. Although I mention this great 18th century Baptist missionary to India in my Church History lectures, I must confess that until I did some research on Carey I did not really know much more about him than that.
When I did look into his life story I really came up with some surprises. For instance, in his youth he was just a poor shoemaker/mender, but after his conversion he began to teach himself New Testament Greek and then Hebrew. He established a missionary society with the help of others and it was at the inauguration of his society in 1792, that he came up with his most famous and often quoted statement:
“Expect great things from God – attempt great things for God.”
That is easy to say, not so easy to do – but he did it! He then made preparations to travel to India with his family.
When he finally arrived in India things certainly were not easy – he personally contracted malaria, one of his sons died of dysentery which caused his wife to become mentally ill and insane, to the point of being raving mad, but he kept her with him until she died in 1807.
Carey was a self-confessed plodder – someone who just kept on going steadily towards his goal. He said, “I can plod - I can persevere.” Without this quality he would have given up and no one would blame him, but in all of this William plodded on, enduring great hardships all through his life.
Over the next 28 years he translated the Bible into all the major languages of India and although he could count only 700 converts out of all the millions of India, he truly attempted – and achieved great things for God.
By God’s grace Carey’s work paved the way for others, he has been described as “the father of modern missions” and has inspired many Christian workers and missionaries to this day.
The greatest achievers are those who keep going to the end. Whatever the obstacles, whatever the opposition from the devil, it’s a sign of great character not to give up when the going gets tough. “By their fruits you shall know them.”
It always takes time to produce fruit. The process cannot be speeded up. That’s where endurance, patience and steadfastness comes in.
William Carey had those qualities – his plodding may not have been exciting for others to observe while he was doing it, but in the end, it enabled him to achieve great things for God! What a hero of faith!
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