George Muller's Incredible Trust

By Fran Lee Strickland @FranLStrickland

A few years ago I read a book that forever changed how I view money and God’s ability to provide for those who trust in Him. It is the true life story of a man who petitioned God through prayer to meet his every financial need. Before he became a Christian he attended seminary at the behest of his biological father because preaching was one of the best ways to make a good living in nineteenth century Prussia. Neither he nor his father believed in Christ so it was purely a decision to insure his future earning potential.

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

Mr. Müller documents his raucous youth and disregard for the heart of God even as he attended seminary. Eventually he realizes he at least needs to act as a Christian if he’s going to be a preacher. After all, it just wouldn’t look right to the congregation if he didn’t outwardly walk the talk. He writes of his many attempts to turn his life around through his own resolutions and the sheer futility of that struggle. After multiple tries  to be “the real deal”, he pretty much gave up on the idea. Soon afterwards he was introduced to a man whom he claimed was the first person he had ever seen pray on his knees. This humble act of submission and the man’s genuine commitment opened his eyes and heart to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and it became the turning point in his life. 

When George Müller began preaching in 1832 at Bethesda Chapel in Bristol, England, he was by then a committed Christian. To make a long beautiful story short, he determined not to ask any human being for financial sustenance, He would depend wholly only God. As a result, he decided to move the tithing box away from the front of his podium so he would be unable to see what each parishioner tithed. He did this because he did not want to bias his sermons toward those who gave more to the church than others. In addition, he instructed his deacons to pray each week about what his salary should be. He would be content with what the Holy Spirit led them to pay him.

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The book, The Autobiography of George Müller, is his daily journal of financial struggle and how God met every need. It is an amazing story of how Mr. Müller not only trusted God for his and his wife’s needs as they ministered to others, but how God prompted him to build orphanages for the children whose parents had died in the war. Before all was said and done, Mr. Müller built several orphanages and clothed, fed, and educated thousands of children without ever asking anyone for financial help and without going into debt. His only requests were in the forms of prayers. The donations whether they were money, food, clothing or other items sometimes came from acquaintances and sometimes from strangers, but they came—often just in the nick of time. He recorded daily each of the needs he encountered and how each one was met.


One of my favorite stories that he chronicles is about a sweet woman who contributed much of her inheritance to the church and orphanages. When she told Mr. Müller what she intended to do he sat her down and had a long conversation with her to ensure she had “counted the cost” of giving away funds she might need later to survive her twilight years. She responded that she would give five shillings more as proof of her decision to give cheerfully to the Lord. Meanwhile she sewed clothing to earn money for her daily needs. As a result of giving so much to the church she did indeed end up penniless when she was elderly having given up her luxuries and retirement fund so others could have food and shelter. When she became so feeble that she could no longer sew to make a living, she recounted God’s provision to her that was provided in the form of other people who stepped forward willingly and selflessly to take care of her without her ever having to ask for help. Her story, observed by Mr. Müller,  was a faith builder for a man who was trusting his own daily needs to Christ.

George Müller’s life has been an inspiration to many. Even today his legacy lives on through the George Müller Charitable Trust. The trust exists today to advance evangelical Christianity and to aid any disadvantaged persons including orphans. The trust receives donations by check or electronic donations online but never solicits or participates in fund raising activities remaining true to its founder's belief in prayer. I encourage you to learn more about Mr. Müller through his own autobiography, his other writings, and the links below.

Müllers                  georgemuller.org              Wikipedia - George Müller

I would love to hear who has inspired you with his or her unshakeable faith!

The End of the Rope

All of us have reached a point in our lives when we feel like we are at the end of the rope. In fact, I would say this probably happens several times over the course of one’s life. The past couple of months have been one of those times for me. It has not been any one thing that has caused me all the distress, but several relentless events that converged together at the same time with enough persistence to catapult me into despair. Grains of sand, Jentezen Franklin called them in one of his sermons, little grains of sand that alone would be considered inconveniences or irritants but several grains banded together in your shoes can wear the skin off your feet over an extended period of time.

And so, after a couple of months of lonely holidays as a divorcee, excruciating deadlines at my day job with long hours, the beginnings of a head cold, writing frustrations, and monetary shortages, I had a meltdown. Any one or two of these things would have been manageable, but all of them together left me exhausted, feeling hopeless, and lacking direction.

I am an accountant by day and a writer by night. This past Saturday I had to work extra hours on my day job because of a looming accounting deadline. Already burned out from the long hours for the past sixty days, I literally had to force myself to get dressed and move forward. I wanted to curl up in a warm place and sleep through the rest of the winter, but I pushed those thoughts aside and dressed for work.

Around lunch time a writing friend and mentor called to check on me. I didn’t mean to unload my burdens on her, but she phoned right when I felt like letting go of the end of the rope. She said, “Well, let’s just pray about this right now.”

She asked God to give me wisdom in my work and for my hectic schedule, specifically praying that I gain wisdom to see the big picture rather than wallow in the details. Definitely something I needed since I was buried deep in the details. I felt like a dog chasing his tail, stuck in an endless cycle that was going no where, frustration building to a frenzy.

My friend’s prayer was effective. By the end of the day I had a clear vision of how to handle the situation in which I now found myself. As I stood in the doorway of my office and surveyed the mess of papers strung out all over my desk and the floor, I asked God for his long range wisdom for my situation. Once I stepped aside and allowed God to infuse me with His wisdom, He revealed to me that pride clouded my ability to think clearly. Pride had kept me from seeking professional help in an area that I was supposed to be quite capable. I didn’t want to admit that I couldn’t figure out the problem myself, but once I realized pride kept me in this cycle of frustration, I began to formulate a viable long range plan for dealing with the time consuming problems that kept me in over my head. If I had sought wisdom earlier, I could have been spared much of the extra work and frustration.

Why do we always wait until we are at the end of our rope to cry out? It doesn't make sense, but as humans with short sighted mentalities, we hang onto that slippery cord as long as we possibly can. We stare downward into the abyss over which we dangle precariously in despair of what lies beneath before something causes us to look upward and send that signal for help.

Have you ever had a situation in which a prayer for wisdom helped you understand what was compounding your frustration? If so, please share!

 

 

Divine Moments

The dream in my heart has always been to write fiction novels that entertain, encourage and inspire, and for the past four years I have pursued that goal by putting one word after another onto the pages until sentences became paragraphs and eventually those paragraphs grew into a few chapters. And, yet, that project is still unfinished.

I look forward to the day when it is completed. The process has certainly given me a whole new appreciation for the meaning of perseverance, but in the meantime, God has steered me in a different direction, one in which I am writing more nonfiction than fiction. And, that's okay, because only He knows why and for what He designed me. I'm just the tool in His shed.

Earlier this year I was honored and so excited to be part of a project entitled Divine Moments, a compilation of true stories about God's amazing presence in our lives. The project was spearheaded by Yvonne Lehman and includes fifty stories written by thirty seven different authors. The book is a project of love and exhibits the passion each writer has for sharing the amazing power of God with the world. All author royalties will be donated to Samaritan's Purse, a Christian organization that provides spiritual and physical aid to hurting people around the world.

And it is with equal excitement that I am looking forward to the release of the next book in this series entitled Christmas Moments that will be out in time for the holiday season. Like the original, all author royalties will be donated to Samaritan's Purse.

These stories weave a common thread which suggests that perhaps the only explanation is that God had a hand in it.

Do you remember a time in your own life when you felt God's divine intervention? I look forward to hearing your story.

Discipline and Destiny

After watching this lesson by Dr. Charles Stanley on the importance of developing discipline, I realize how important it is for us to practice discipline in all areas of our lives. As a writer, I am aware of how lack of discipline affects productivity. I hope you will be blessed by Dr. Stanley's words.


Discipline Determines Destiny

The Answer

The following seven minute lesson from Joseph Prince really spoke to me this morning. I am learning how important it is to set my focus on Jesus and I believe it creates the firm foundation for each day.

Why Jesus is the Answer

New Beginnings

Today is the beginning of a new journey for me. I am entering the blogging world and by doing so I am leaving the old me behind while the new me is emerging from behind my veil of privacy. My passion for words has led me down incredible paths that I would not otherwise have travelled. Thirty-five years ago when I discovered what it is that gives me purpose I did not imagine and could not have imagined all the avenues that would be available to writers in this era. Although I am dismayed at the seemingly negative changes in the publishing industry, I am encouraged by new opportunities. Gone are the days of million dollar contracts for new authors with promise, but here are the days of blogs and e-books that have the potential of reaching the whole world. It is exciting to know that one's words can "go out among the nations" just by pressing the "publish" key. On the flip side of that coin is the realization that once those words are out there it will be extremely difficult to retract them once read. So, herein lies the blessing and the curse of opportunity. I must realize the impact that my words will have on my readers, and I must be cognizant that every word that proceeds out from my fingertips must be pleasing to God. As an aspiring writer I seek to share information with others who love playing with words and rearranging them into sentences and stories but because I, like all others, tend to have more than just one interest, I will also include posts and pages that incorporate my fascination for creativity with food, my eccentric tastes in music and my affection (that's probably not a strong enough description) for reading. Here I also hope to provide encouragement and resources for those seeking a more in depth understanding of faith in God. I look forward to sharing my journey with you and pray that you will find something here that adds to the growth of the seeds planted in your life.