GEORGE MUELLER (1805-1898)   www.christianadoption.com/goals/mueller.htm   www.unityinchrist.com/prayer/mueller.htm      www.wholesomewords.org/biography/biorpmueller.html  

If we were to list only a few men of God that have had the most influence upon the Christian Adoption ministry, the life and example of George Mueller would have to appear in that list.

Of course--our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the perfect example for us to follow and to imitate.

George Mueller was a man of faith and miracles. Certainly he was one of the greatest prayer warriors of the past century. His ministry was prospered because he trusted fully in God and he started a work that was born in his heart. During his ministry of 63 years, he supported missionaries, established the Scriptural Knowledge Institute in England, taught Sunday schools as well as day schools where teachers were Christian, distributed Bibles and religious tracts, and cared for orphans. He was directly involved in the Christian instruction of 121,683 pupils. He distributed 281,652 Bibles, 1,448,662 New Testaments, 21,343 copies of the Book of Psalms, and 222,196 other portions of the Holy Scriptures. He financially supported missionary operations in 26 different countries. He distributed 111,489,067 tracts/booklets/pamphlets, and was directly involved in the conversion of 2,813 orphans. He mastered 6 languages: French, German, Hebrew, Latin, Greek, and English.

Mr. Mueller was a native of Prussia, born in Kroppenstaedt, on September 27, 1805. He looked, after the shadow of God's glory rested upon him, beyond time and saw God. He realized that God alone was able, and in that realization the puny supplies of man dwarfed beside the reservoirs of God's grace which he tapped by faith. He learned the secret of getting things from God, the simple expedient of boldly coming to the throne to receive. He practiced this daily for 73 years, and in coming he never found the throne vacant nor the supplies exhausted. He learned not to bind God by the limits of his own faith. He asked, knowing that God, Who heard, was able.

Near the end of his life he affirmed that he had read the Bible through approximately 200 times, 100 of which was on his knees. He found God's promises in the Bible and experienced the truth of them in his everyday life. He learned to believe what he read and to act accordingly. He learned to tell not man but God his needs and to believe God would supply them. Mueller had mastered the lesson of outlooks--for he lived by the heavenly uplook, and not the earthly outlook!

"The Lord pours in, while we seek to pour out." This was always his plan of operation. He sought God to pour in the supplies, and he diligently furnished sources through which they might be distributed. As long as Mueller saw to the careful distribution of money and supplies, God never failed in pouring in the needed materials.

Mr. Mueller testified that in his lifetime 50,000 specific prayers were answered. Years before he died, about the middle of his career, he affirmed that up to that time 5000 of his definite prayers had been answered on the day of asking. He made it a habit to keep a notebook with 2-page entries. On one page he gave the petition and the date, and on the opposite page he entered the date of the answer. In this manner he was able to keep record of definite petitions, and their specific answers. He recommended this form to believers who desired specific results to their prayers. Thus there is no guesswork as to when God answers prayers.

"…I live in the spirit of prayer. I pray as I walk about, when I lie down and when I rise up. And the answers are always coming. Thousands and tens of thousands of times have my prayers been answered. When once I am persuaded that a thing is right and for the glory of God, I go on praying for it until the answer comes. George Mueller never gives up!"

"Let not Satan deceive you, " writes Mr. Mueller during those faith-wrenching days, "in making you think you could not have the same faith, but that is only for persons 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 an appointment does not come…I ask the Lord to be pleased to hasten him to me, and I look for an answer…Thus in all my temporal and spiritual concerns I pray to the Lord and expect an answer to my request; and may not you do the same dear believing reader?"

In giving advice gained through daily trials of his faith, this father of the orphans laid down rules for a Christian to follow by which they might also strengthen their faith. These rules are:

1. Read the Bible and meditate upon it. God has become known to us through prayer and meditation upon His own Word.

2. Seek to maintain an upright heart and a good conscience.

3. If we desire our faith to be strengthened, we should not shrink from opportunities where our faith may be tried, and therefore, through trial, be strengthened.

The last important point for the strengthening of our faith is that we let God work for us, when the hour of trial of our faith comes, and do not work a deliverance of our own. Would the believer therefore have his faith strengthened, he must give God time to work.

There was no detail too insignificant to take to the Lord in prayer. He lived literally according to the passage, "In all things by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God." "Real trust in God is above circumstances and appearances," he affirmed.

…the Mueller's set off for the United States in August 1877 aboard the Sardian…Off Newfoundland the weather turned cold and the ship's progress was seriously retarded by fog. The captain had been on the bridge for 24 hours when something happened which was to revolutionize his life. George Mueller appeared on the bridge.

"Captain, I have come to tell you I must be in Quebec by Saturday afternoon."

"It is impossible," said the captain.

"Very well, " said Mueller, "if your ship cannot take me, God will find some other way--I have never broken an engagement for 52 years. Let us go down into the chart-room and pray."

The Captain wondered which lunatic asylum Mueller had come from.

"Mr. Mueller," he said, "do you know how dense this fog is?"

"No, my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God, who controls every circumstance of my life."

Mueller then knelt down and prayed simply. When he had finished the captain was about to pray, but Mueller put his hand on his shoulder, and told him not to.

"First, you do not believe He will' and second, I believe He has, and there is no need whatever for you to pray about it."

The captain looked at Mueller in amazement.

"Captain," he continued, I have known my Lord for 52 years, and there has never been a single day that I have failed to get an audience with the King. Get up, captain, and open the door, and you will find the fog is gone."

The captain walked across to the door and opened it. The fog had lifted. It was the captain himself, who later told the story of this incident, and who was subsequently described by a well known evangelist as "one of the most devoted men I ever knew."

It was prayer that swept his soul free of doubt, distemper, and the after-effects of a trial by the incoming tide of peace. For this reason he could make such remarks as this entry on March 9, 1847, "The greater the difficulties, the easier for faith." And a later one, "The greater the trial, the sweeter the victory."

His victories came through prayer, trust in the Lord's unfailing promises and a faith that God's truth would not fail.

"It is not enough to begin to pray," he advises us, "nor to pray aright; nor is it enough to continue for a time to pray; but we must patiently, believingly continue in prayer, until we obtain an answer; and further, we have not only to continue in prayer unto the end, but we have also to believe that God does hear us and will answer our prayers. Most frequently we fail in not continuing in prayer until the blessing is obtained, and in not expecting the blessing."

During the last year of Mr. Mueller's life, among the gifts (for the feeding of the orphans) recorded were 7, 203 loaves of bread; 5,222 buns; 20 boxes of soap; 9 tons of coal; 26 haunches of venison; 112 rabbits; 312 pheasants; 5 bags of oatmeal; 26 cases of oranges; 5 boxes of dates and 4,013 pounds of meat along with hundreds of other items. Additionally he had prayed for the financial needs of the orphan houses and had during the course of his lifetime received over 2 1/2 million dollars--always making his requests known only to God. All of these gifts were needed to help care for and feed the thousands of orphans under his careful wing.

George Mueller was a living demonstration of the reality of the Scripture,

But my God shall supply all our need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19