Friday, March 9, 2007 · no responses · comments closed

I’m continuing to read George Müller’s Answers to Prayer, and I find myself encouraged and challenged at every turn. I’m encouraged because Müller’s story is such an incredible testimony of God’s faithfulness, not once or twice but over decades. And I’m challenged because I realize how far I have to go in learning to pray and trust as Müller did.

Müller tells how, in the 1860s, he needed workers for his third new orphan home that he had built. He had already been praying daily for several years, while the home was built, that God would provide the right people to serve in all the various positions required to run the home. That’s lesson number 1: Müller didn’t wait until the need was at crisis level to pray; as soon as he recognized the need, he brought it before God, and he continued to bring it before God every day. Yet, as the opening approached, and he considered the applicants, he came up short. He writes:

This was no small trial of faith; for day by day, for years, had I asked God to help me in this particular, even as He had done in the case of the New Orphan-House No. 2; I had also expected help, confidently expected help, and yet now, when help seemed needed, it was wanting. What was now to be done, dear Reader? Would it have been right to charge God with unfaithfulness? Would it have been right to distrust Him?… By no means.

I love Müller’s response; he says, “This, on the contrary, I did; I thanked God.” And not just a half-hearted thanks. No, he thanked God for helping with the buildings; he thanked God for helping him past all the difficulties that had arisen in the process; he thanked God for the workers that had already come to the existing homes. He thanked God consistently and persistently and thoroughly for all that he could see that God had already done. And that’s lesson number two: thank God for the answers he has already given to prayer.

But that didn’t address the immediate need for more workers, and so Müller took one more step: “I resolved, that, instead of praying once a day with my dear wife about this matter, as we had been doing day by day for years, we should now meet daily three times, to bring this before God.” He also requested the prayers of all his staff. Amazing! Lesson three: channel potential discouragement into more frequent, persistent prayer.

He concludes with the results of his increased prayer:

Thus I have now continued for about four months longer in prayer, day by day calling upon God three times on account of this need, and the result has been, that one helper after the other has been given, without the help coming too late, or the work getting into confusion… and I am fully assured, that the few who are yet needed will also be found, when they are really required.

Müller saw God answer his prayers in God’s time, and Müller let go of his time line to receive as God provided — -lesson four. And he recognized that God’s provision and timing were sufficient for the need. I think of my own experiences in praying for finances at the end of February. I would have liked to see God provide a single, large sum to deal with all of the bills at once, and certainly, God could have done that. But what He did provide was sufficient for the moment, and we are continuing to see His faithful provision this month.

I’m encouraged and challenged to go deeper in my prayer and to persist in seeking God about the needs in my life. I’ve seen God answer prayer many times, and I have not prayed nearly so much as Müller. I’m excited to think what more God can do as I put these principles to work.