George Muller

One of my favorite Christian authors and "mentors" is George Muller, who lived in the late 1800's. He ran orphanages in England and his ministry was marked by his desire to NOT ask for support from anyone but God. He didn't speak of his needs to people specifically, but told them what the ministry was doing. He found that his heavenly Father provided everything he needed - usually exactly when it was needed and exactly how much was needed. Pretty amazing.

We played against Wheaton College recently (home of the Billy Graham Center) and they sent us a couple copies of "Faith in Action" - which is excerpts from George's autobiography (really, journal entries that he made over a course of years). I paged through it and one of the parts that is my favorite from the autobiography is included and caught my eye. I've reproduced it here. These excerpts are from: Faith In Action, George Muller, pp 23-25; The Institute of Evangelism (Billy Graham Center).

ENJOY!

"From my inmost soul I do ascribe it to God that he alone has enabled me to trust in Him, and that he has not suffered my confidence in Him to fail...By the grace of God I desire that my faith in God should extend towards EVERY thing, the smallest of my own temporal and spiritual concerns, and the smallest of the temporal and spiritual concerns of my family...And lastly, once more, let not Satan deceive you in making you think that you could not have the same faith, but that it is only for persons who are situated as I am. When I lose such a thing as a key, I ask the Lord to direct me to it, and I look for an answer to my prayer; when a person with whom I have made an appointment does not come at the fixed time, and I begin to be inconvenienced by it, I ask the Lord to be pleased to hasten him to me, and I look for an answer; when I do not understand a passage from the Word of God, I lift up my heart to the Lord that He would be pleased by His Holy Spirit, to instruct me, and I expect to be taught, though I do not fix the time when, and the manner in how it should be.... And thus in other of my temporal or spiritual concerns I pray to the Lord, and expect an answer to my requests; and may not you do the same, dear believing reader?"

And on that same note (trusting God) I have a quote from Elisabeth Elliot:
"Our prayers for guidance (or anything else) really begin here: I trust him.... "I trust him. Let him give me or withhold from me what he chooses"

May you trust more in God today in both the large and small things. And may I trust him more as well, in the large and small.

Its pretty incredible that the GOD of creation, who breathed the universe into being would care for us individually, each. And yet the bible not only SAYS that he does, but it illustrates it in the lives of countless individuals about whom is tells us. And the same God who caused the first blade of grass to grow and who numbers the stars, still counts the hairs on our head today and knows every day of our lives (in advance!) and has them written in his book.

It does my heart good to remember His loving care. May your heart be done well, too.

Love, Tiff