Müller

THE LIVING GOD

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George Müller (1805-1898) applied Daniel 6:20 (“The Living God”) in a wonderful and very applicable way. His devotional thought goes like this:

“How many times we find this expression in the Scriptures, and yet it is just this very thing that we are so prone to lose sight of! We know it is written ‘The living God’; but in our daily life, there is scarcely anything we practically so much lose sight of like the fact that God is the LIVING GOD; that He is now whatever He was three or four thousand years since; that He has the same sovereign power, the same saving love toward those who love and serve Him as ever He had, and that He will do for them now what He did for others two, three, four thousand years ago, simply because He is the living God, the unchanging One. Oh, how therefore we should confide in Him, and in our darkest moments never lose sight of the fact that He is still and ever will be the LIVING GOD.”

GROWNUPS GOD USES

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From their earliest days, all three of our kids absolutely believed in Jesus. They grew up with Him! They prayed, they talked about Him, they assumed the Bible stories to be true. For years we used “The Bible In Pictures For Little Eyes” at dinner time, taking a Bible story each evening. Not once did we hear Larissa say, “Get real Dad!”

You know, as I ponder the lives of saints used significantly of God, the “grown-ups” that He seems to use in awesome ways have often been those of child-like faith! In fact, Charles Spurgeon once heard George Müller (who ministered to the poor orphaned children of Bristol, England) “preach.” He said it was nothing more than a simple Sunday School lesson in its format and delivery — yet Spurgeon declared it to be the greatest sermon he’d ever heard!

That’s not to say Müller was a simpleton! On the contrary: He mastered six languages — Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German, French, and English. He both read and understood Dutch and three Oriental languages! Nevertheless, his entire library consisted of a Hebrew Bible, three Greek Testaments, a Greek concordance and lexicon, with a half dozen different versions of the Bible along with copies of the most readable translations in different languages. That was it!

Müller’s autobiography is quite an inspiring read for it shows how God simply honors simple faith! While I personally value education, that’s not a requirement for usefulness in God’s Kingdom-work!

When asked what the most profound thought was he’d ever entertained, a very brilliant (and universally known) theologian responded with “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so!” As another “well-known” recently put it: “Success [in God’s economy] is measured not in accomplishments but in faithfulness.”

This is something we all can be, young or old.

Müller, George

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George Müller (1805-1898) was an English preacher and renowned advocate of the power of prayer. Müller was born in Germany but later became a naturalized British subject. Educated in Germany, he went to London in 1828 to seek a commission from a missionary organization. In 1830, however, he gave up the idea of missionary work and became the minister of a small congregation in Devonshire. He believed that the temporal, as well as the spiritual needs of life, could be supplied entirely by prayer, and on this principle, he refused to take a fixed salary. After two years here, Müller moved to Bristol where he spent the rest of his life. He devoted himself particularly to the care of orphan children. He began by taking a few into his care, but soon their number increased to over 2,000. He built five large houses at Ashley Down, near Bristol. The money required for building and maintaining the orphanage was voluntarily contributed. When he was over seventy he and his wife started on a preaching mission that lasted nearly 17 years and included Europe, America, India, Australia, and China. Together they traveled over two hundred thousand miles and preached to more than three million people. When Müller died his possessions were valued at less than a thousand pounds although he had handled millions during his lifetime – all secured solely through faith and prayer. His triumphant life, recounted in his widely circulated book The Narration of Some of the Lord’s Dealings with George Müller, was a testimony to the power of prayer and inspired many Christians to undertake great causes on faith alone.