George Muller had one great passion in life - God's glory.
Close behind was his love of orphans.
He believed God loved the orphans more than he did. And he believed that God would be glorified when the Lord did the impossible - provide for thousands of orphans without any public appeal for money.
Prayer was the key to Muller's life. He sought God's will through prayer - patiently. He did not act on the great issues of his life until he was sure of God's will for him.
When Muller became a believer as a young man in 1825, he was fully committed to whatever God wanted him to do.
Through prayer and meditating on God's word, he was guided to a ministry to orphans in Britain. In the 1800s, many orphans wound up in poor houses where they were abused.
In his book George Muller of Bristol and His Witness to a Prayer-Hearing God, A. T. Pierson gives an example of Muller's approach to prayer - the construction of five new buildings for orphans between 1845 and 1870.
In 1845, Muller prayed and believed the Lord was leading him to build new housing for the orphans. People around the four rented buildings were complaining about the noise of the children and there was a rapidly growing demand to house more orphans. The need was great.
But there were major obstacles, money being one of the major issues. Muller himself had no money - all he earned went into the orphanages and his other Christian work.
After weighing the pros and cons, he was convinced God wanted him to go ahead with construction of a new building. So he prayed with the confidence that the money would come and all obstacles removed.
He took this approach to prayer for the orphanages:
Over the months to come, money came in - some of it in small amounts, some in large. Along with it, an architect offered his services for free to design the first building. And he got the first piece of land for a bargain.Close behind was his love of orphans.
He believed God loved the orphans more than he did. And he believed that God would be glorified when the Lord did the impossible - provide for thousands of orphans without any public appeal for money.
Prayer was the key to Muller's life. He sought God's will through prayer - patiently. He did not act on the great issues of his life until he was sure of God's will for him.
When Muller became a believer as a young man in 1825, he was fully committed to whatever God wanted him to do.
Through prayer and meditating on God's word, he was guided to a ministry to orphans in Britain. In the 1800s, many orphans wound up in poor houses where they were abused.
In his book George Muller of Bristol and His Witness to a Prayer-Hearing God, A. T. Pierson gives an example of Muller's approach to prayer - the construction of five new buildings for orphans between 1845 and 1870.
In 1845, Muller prayed and believed the Lord was leading him to build new housing for the orphans. People around the four rented buildings were complaining about the noise of the children and there was a rapidly growing demand to house more orphans. The need was great.
But there were major obstacles, money being one of the major issues. Muller himself had no money - all he earned went into the orphanages and his other Christian work.
After weighing the pros and cons, he was convinced God wanted him to go ahead with construction of a new building. So he prayed with the confidence that the money would come and all obstacles removed.
He took this approach to prayer for the orphanages:
- He brought the need to God - in detail - and prayed until he was certain the new buildings were what God wanted;
- He wanted all the glory to go to God so he did nothing to publicize the orphanage project;
- He believed his job was to "wait on God in faith and patience";
- He meditated on scripture and believed God was speaking to him through what he read; and
- He constantly praised God for what he was doing - even when things were going badly.
The new building was filled with the 300 children from the rented quarters, so Muller prayed for more land and more buildings. Another house for 400 more orphans opened in 1857. Another two buildings were put up by 1870, caring for more than 2,000 orphans altogether.
Muller's secret was to seek God's will and his glory in what he did.
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