Lessons Learned from George Muller

Below are random excerpts taken from a book "George Muller of Bristol" by Dr. Arthur T. Pierson. If any of you are not familiar with George Muller, you can read my previous note on him called "Is There Any God's "Mullers" Left Today?" There is NO intention in exalting this godly man of God. In fact, whenever one remembers George Muller, the important thing that first comes to mind perhaps is his hatred when anyone gave glory to him and not to God; when anyone looked up to him instead of God. Anyone who reads his account carefully will find that, during his Christian life, one of his many mottos was: "[God] must increase and [he] must decrease."


Here are some lessons we can learn from him:


HIS LOVE FOR GOD’S WORD AND PRAYER

Under his great Teacher [the Lord Jesus] did this pupil [George Muller], early in his spiritual history, learn that supreme lesson that to every child of God the Word of God is the bread of life , and the prayer of faith the breath of life .

The following are three Bible passages (in his early Christian life) that spoke to Muller's heart about the importance of meditating on God's Word:

Joshua 1:8 -- This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

Psalm 1: 1-3 -- Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.

James 1:25 -- But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.


HIS GROWING BOLDNESS OF FAITH

As faith was exercised it was energized, so that it became as easy and natural to ask confidently for a hundred, a thousand, or ten thousand pounds, as once it had been for a pound or a penny. After confidence in God has been strengthened through discipline, and God had been proven faithful, it required no more venture to cast himself on God for provision for two thousand children and an annual outlay of at least twenty-five thousand pounds for them than in the earlier periods of the work to look to Him to care for twenty homeless orphans at a cost of two hundred and fifty pounds a year. Only by using faith are we kept from practically losing it, and, on the contrary, to use faith is to lose the unbelief that hinders God’s mighty acts.


HIS WAITING UPON GOD

Another fact that grows more conspicuous with the perusal of every new page in [Muller’s] journal is that in things common and small, as well as uncommon and great, he took no step without first asking counsel of the oracles of God and seeking guidance from Him in believing prayer. It was his life-motto to learn the will of God before undertaking anything, and to wait till it is clear, because only so can one either be blessed in his own soul or prospered in the work of his hands. Many disciples who are comparatively bold to seek God’s help in great crisis, fail to come to Him with like boldness in matters that seem too trivial to occupy the thought of God or invite the interposition of Him who numbers the very hairs of our heads and suffers not one hair to perish. [Muller] escaped this great snare and carried even the smallest matter to the Lord.


HIS CONFIDENCE IN GOD

In a little sketch of Beate Paulus, the Frau Pastorin pleads with God in a great crisis not to forsake her, quaintly adding that she was “willing to be the second whom He might forsake,” but she was “determined not to be the first.” George Muller believed that, in all ages, there had never yet been one true and trusting believer to whom God had proven false or faithless, and he was perfectly sure that He could be safely trusted who, “if we believe not, yet abideth faithful: He cannot deny Himself.” God has not only spoken, but sworn; His word is confirmed by His oath: because He could swear by no greater He swear by Himself. And all this that we might have a strong consolation; that we might have boldness in venturing upon Him, laying hold and holding fast His promise. Unbelief makes God a liar and, worse still, a perjurer, for it accounts Him as not only false to His word, but to His oath. George Muller believed, and because he believed, prayed; and praying, expected; and expecting, received. Blessed is he that believes, for there shall be a performance of those things which are spoken of the Lord.