George Müller: Great Faith in a Great God
With hard headlines around us, I thought it an appropriate time to be reminded of the great faith of George Müller—who served an even greater God. The faith of this man certainly encourages me to rest fully on the Lord in tough times. I hope his story will inspire you, too!
You won’t find George Müller (1805-1898) in most encyclopedias. He wasn’t one of those guys who “made history.” However, by his strong faith in Christ, George Müller influenced hundreds of thousands. In the 1830s, he improved the harsh living conditions of orphans in England, whom by faith he loved and housed and fed. The miracle of his story is that George Müller never asked anyone to give money to his ministry, never took out a loan or went into debt but he prayed for the funds he needed—and watched God faithfully provide. Müller would say it was his duty, and his honor, to live by such faith and demonstrate God’s gracious ability to answer prayer.
George Müller was born the son of a tax collector in the kingdom of Prussia. By his own admission, George was a thieving child who stole money from his father, as well as from his friends. As a teenager, he fell into drunkenness, gambling, immorality, and lying. George’s deviance caught up with him eventually, and for a time he was put in jail.
Life would change for George, however, when at age 20 he met a group of praying Christians who invited him to join a Bible study. With singing and fellowship, George had never been around people of such faith. Their radiant lives blew him away. George was quickly brought to his knees, praying to know the Christ that he saw in those believers. In a short time, George was filled with the desire to be a full-time missionary. With an unusual interest in the Hebrew language, he believed the Lord was leading him to become a minister to Jews in mainland Europe. As a missionary candidate, he was required to move to London, England, for six months for an in-depth study of Hebrew.
But something happened in London that George did not expect. As he stood on the streets passing out Christian tracts to Jews, he noticed the non-Jews who passed him by, burdened with everyday struggles in their busy lives. In compassion, it made George wonder why he was training to specifically reach the Jews in Europe when there were lost souls all around him. George felt the Lord impressing him to stay right there in England and preach. On New Year’s Day in 1830, he resigned from Hebrew school as a missionary candidate. Though he had no job and very little money, he felt free—free to trust God for whatever ministry might come his way.
Within a few months, George Müller was called to be the pastor of a small church in Devon, England. Within a few more months, he met and married Mary Groves. Though a devoted Christian woman, Mary had no idea of the unusual life she was about to enter as the bride of George Müller! You see, one of George Müller’s convictions, early on, was that he could fully trust God to provide for his needs. If you remember, when he was young, he struggled a great deal with gambling and stealing. In coming to Christ, it meant everything to him to put his faith in Christ for provision, rather than on a roll of the dice or a monetary scam.
The idea of trusting God consumed George Müller so much that he and his wife decided not to draw a salary from the small church that supported him. He asked instead that church members drop money in a box as they felt led. There were times when George and his wife had not a dime for a loaf of bread, but they would inevitably find their needs met, as someone would send money or provision as God laid it on the hearts of others. This couldn’t have been an easy way to live, but for George Müller, it was a joyful way to live. He delighted in seeing the Lord show up at just the right time.
He wrote in his autobiography:
God blessed us abundantly as He taught us to trust in Him alone. When we were
down to our last few shillings, we told Him about our needs and depended on Him
to provide. He never failed us.
In 1832, George Müller and his wife felt called to lead a small congregation in the port city of Bristol, England. As far as “nice places to live,” Bristol didn’t rank very high. It was a dirty village with high crime and desperate poverty. To George, it was the perfect mission field, ripe for harvest. But with its poor sanitation and crowded living quarters, it was also ripe for the spread of disease. A cholera epidemic soon broke out after the Müllers made it their home. Mary Müller was in constant fear of losing her husband, who was always holding hands to pray with someone infected with cholera. But the Lord sustained his faithful servant and though George had bouts of illness, he never got cholera, and he lived to see the epidemic pass.
George Müller’s Trust in God—An Example to Us All
There was, however, an interesting side effect to the cholera epidemic. It left Bristol with countless numbers of orphans.
One day, a little girl in tattered clothes, just 5 or 6 years old, approached George Müller on the street. She was piggybacking her little brother, who was fighting a bad case of the sniffles. The girl asked George for money, saying her mother had died of cholera and her father was missing. George gave her the money she asked for but couldn’t get her off his mind. As the little orphan girl wandered away, he wondered where she would sleep and what would become of her little brother if she too were to become ill. It burdened George that not enough was being done for the poor and parentless children of Bristol.
Though he was still entertaining the idea of leaving England for a foreign mission post, God laid it on his heart to stay right there and offer hope to the destitute. He had to trust in God. Now, there have been many fine souls who have started agencies and ministries to care for the poor and homeless. But few were shaped like George Müller. From the very beginning, he decided never to ask anyone to fund his vision to care for orphans! He believed that if it were of God that he feed, clothe, and educate these children, then the supplies and staff would come. (As you will learn, they did!)
George’s Trust in God is Rewarded!
George started with a daily Breakfast Club where he opened up his own home to hungry children. He offered them warm water to clean their little faces and hot oatmeal to fill their empty stomachs. Then, to nourish their souls, he read Scripture and acted out Bible stories. The Breakfast Club was a great success and the experience of it led George to expand his ministry.
By faith, in 1834 (when he was 28), George Müller created the Scriptural Knowledge Institution for Home and Abroad, because he was disillusioned with the post-millennialism, the liberalism, and the worldly strategies (like going into debt) of existing mission organizations. He formed this organization for four purposes: to teach the Gospel, to provide education to destitute children, to give Bibles to the poor, and to support foreign missionaries. It was an enormous plan that skeptical church members scoffed at but George had trust in God! It was probably the scoffing and lack of faith from some of George’s own church members that inspired him all the more toward prayer. He so wanted the faith of his congregation to grow. He so wanted them to learn to trust God with prayer and provision.
Without asking others for funding, George Müller opened numerous orphanages in Bristol. He and his wife delighted in seeing the Lord answer their prayers for provision. Therefore, George continued with the Scriptural Institution and indeed saw hundreds attend the schools he opened or helped. Did he ever once go into debt? No. God supplied everything that was needed.
Soon after founding the Scriptural Institution, George Müller made the life-changing decision to expand it by adding a fifth purpose. He decided to trust God to build, staff, and supply the needs of an orphanage designed to house girls from 7 to12 years old. He opened his first orphanage in 1836, and it filled up quickly, so George opened another orphanage, and then another, and then another. Did he have the money to do it? No, not on paper, but this fact never stopped George Müller. He faithfully held prayer meetings with his staff, day after day, praying for the Lord to provide as they needed.
George Müller filled his entire autobiography with example after example of God’s sweet answers to prayer. He wrote:
Two pounds seven shillings was needed for the orphans, but we had nothing. I had no idea how to obtain the means for dinner and for our other needs. My heart was perfectly at peace and sure of help. That afternoon I received a letter from India, written in May, with fifty pounds for the orphans.
Another example:
One morning, all the plates and cups and bowls on the table were empty. There was no food in the larder and no money to buy food. The children were standing, waiting for their morning meal, when Müller said, “Children, you know we must be in time for school.” Then lifting up his hands he prayed, “Dear Father, we thank Thee for what Thou art going to give us to eat.”
There was a knock at the door. The baker stood there, and said, “Mr. Müller, I couldn’t sleep last night. Somehow I felt you didn’t have bread for breakfast, and the Lord wanted me to send you some. So I got up at 2 a.m. and baked some fresh bread, and have brought it.”
Mr. Müller thanked the baker, and no sooner had he left, when there was a second knock at the door. It was the milkman. He announced that his milk cart had broken down right in front of the orphanage, and he would like to give the children his cans of fresh milk so he could empty his wagon and repair it.
On another occasion, George wrote:
Because so little has come in during the last days, at least three pounds was required to supply the needs of today. Not one penny, however, was in hand when the day began. In the afternoon, all of us met for prayer. . . Now observe how our kind Father helped us! This evening a sister who sells some things for us brought two pounds ten shillings sixpence. Though she did not feel well, she said she had come because it was on her heart, and she could not stay away.
It is evident to me in reading George Müller’s autobiography that God’s provision wasn’t meant to encourage only George Müller. I think it was meant to touch the lives of those who felt God tug on their hearts to give. George thought this, too. He said,
“The chief end for which the institution was established is that the Church would see the hand of God stretched out on our behalf in answer to prayer.”
I could go on and on about the faith of George Müller. After 35 years of caring for over 10,000 orphans in Bristol, George handed the ministry over to his son-in-law in order to fulfill an old calling to the mission field abroad. George Müller spent the next 17 years traveling about the globe, teaching and preaching the Gospel until he was 87. He traveled to 42 countries, preaching on average of once a day, and addressing some three million people. His favorite stories to tell were those of God’s provision for the orphans. Because George had once been a gambler and a thief, his testimony was especially powerful.
Do you think George Müller was ever discouraged by his tough assignment? I think he was at times. But I’ll end this story with his glowing testimony of God’s faithfulness:
Many years have passed since I made my boast in God by publishing reports of this ministry. Satan unquestionably is waiting for me to fall. If I was left to myself, I would fall prey to him at once. Pride, unbelief, or other sins would be my ruin and lead me to bring disgrace upon the name of Jesus. No one should admire me, be astonished at my faith, or think of me as if I were an amazing person. No, I am as weak as ever. . . . Nevertheless, I do not find that this work leads to a trying life but a very happy one. It is impossible to describe the abundance of peace and heavenly joy that often flows into my soul because of the answers I obtain from God after waiting on Him for help and blessing.
Sources:
https://vancechristie.com/2022/08/15/trusting-god-in-faith-stretching-circumstances-george-muller/
