18. Putting Prayer to Work
We live in a world in which prayers are answered in amazing ways every day of the year, yet the degree to which prayer is answered in the lives of some Christians is a lesson to us all. Many faithful believers could be held up as examples of this fact, but few would better demonstrate God's willingness to hear our requests that are grounded in his will than George Müller (1805-1898).
Born Johann Georg Ferdinand Müller (often spelled Mueller) in a small village near Halberstadt in what is now Germany, Müller's early life was marked by his complete absence of faith. It is said that he stole from his father, and that at age fourteen, while his mother was dying, he spent the time drinking and playing cards with his friends.
But while studying at the University of Halle, Müller began to seriously read the Bible and was converted. He began preaching regularly in churches in and around Halle, and in 1829 Müller travelled to London and worked there in a number of churchrelated positions, including serving as a minister. In 1830, however, Müller renounced his salary for that position and began what would be a lifetime of trusting God for his needs and the needs of his phenomenally productive work. The Work of a Lifetime Müller founded the "Scriptural Knowledge Institution for Home and Abroad" to assist Christian schools and missionaries. Through this institution he successfully distributed over 285,000 Bibles, one and a half million New Testaments and almost a quarter of a million tracts. He also established a number of Christian schools and orphanages.
Beginning in 1836 Müller and his wife organized their own rented home to care for orphaned girls, and then began to add more homes as dedicated orphanages for boys and girls. Eventually he ran five orphans' homes which cared for over ten thousand orphans during his lifetime. Müller also established 117 Christian schools which taught over 120,000 children, many of whom were orphans. Müller's work with orphaned children had a vast impact that spread beyond what he could do himself. When he began his work with them in 1834, only 3,600 orphans were being cared for in the whole country. Fifty years later, while his work was still ongoing, at least 100,000 orphans were being cared for in England, and his influence in this regard had spread to other countries where many other homes for orphans were established.
But it is not Müller's accomplishments – great as they were – that are the most significant thing about his life. It is how all these accomplishments were made possible. He received no church or government support for his many projects and never asked anyone for financial help. Despite frequent needs he never borrowed money or went into debt, but continually asked God in faith, day by day, for what was needed for the work he was doing.
On one occasion, for example, a well-to-do woman visited Müller to discuss a possible gift to his institution. Although the woman seemed willing to help, he did not ask her for money, and she gave none. But after she left Müller asked God to help her realize her opportunity for true wealth in Christ and that she might be blessed in serving others. After this prayer asking not just for what he and his institute needed, but for the needs and happiness of the woman herself, it is perhaps not surprising that Müller records the woman sent five hundred pounds – a very large amount at that time – to help in the work he was doing.
It is known that many times unsolicited gifts of food and other supplies for the orphanages would arrive right at the time they were needed. On one documented occasion, Müller gave thanks for breakfast with all the orphan children sitting at the tables, although he had no food to give them. As he finished praying, the local baker came to the door with a gift of sufficient bread to feed everyone, and a local milkman also arrived with a large amount of fresh milk because his cart had broken down right outside the orphanage.
These and every other gift accepted by Müller – down to the smallest quarter penny – were carefully noted down, and the records of what was received and spent were made available for public scrutiny. So we know that during his lifetime his organization received and used well over one million pounds (around 90 million pounds – or some 117 million US dollars – today) acquired purely through prayer grounded in the needs of others.
also accomplished a great deal of missionary work in over thirty countries – as widely scattered as Egypt, China, Australia and the United States. He worked faithfully in God's service till the end of his life. On the evening of Wednesday, March 9, 1898, he led a prayer meeting and the next morning he was found dead on the floor beside his bed where he had probably been praying.
A Lifetime of Prayer From his conversion till his death, Müller's life was characterized by his prayer and by the answers he was graciously given to so many of his requests. In fact, it seems that few of his requests were denied. Müller learned an important lesson about praying in faith that we can apply ourselves. When people talked about his "gift of faith," Müller argued that he had little or no such gift. He stressed that there was a difference between the "gift" of faith and what he called the "grace" of faith. The difference, he said, is that the gift of faith applies to things for which we have no direct promise from God, whereas the "grace" of faith that he utilized daily was simply the act of claiming the promises God has made clear in his word.
In this way, Müller brings praying in faith down from the pinnacle of the efforts of great saints into the lives of all of us. Müller's life work was proof that we can all pray in faith by claiming the promises God gives us. He stressed this in his book, A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealing with George Müller:
For instance, the gift of faith would be needed to believe that a sick person should be restored again though there is no human probability: for there is no promise to that effect; the grace of faith is needed to believe that the Lord will give me the necessaries of life, if I first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness: for there is a promise to that effect… Müller's life was full of an endless string of what C. S. Lewis and others have called the "coincidences" (in the eyes of others) that occur when we pray and what we ask for comes to pass. When he was asked how much time he spent in prayer, he replied: "Hours every day. But I live in the spirit of prayer. I pray as I walk and when I lie down and when I arise. And the answers are always coming."
But Müller did not take answered prayer for granted, and he knew that prayer is something we have to persist in if we are to prevail. It is said that one day Müller began praying for the conversion of five of his friends. After a number of months, one of them was converted. Ten years later, two others were converted, and after 25 years the fourth man was converted also. For over 50 years, until he himself died, Müller persevered in prayer on behalf of the final friend and although he did not see the conversion of that remaining individual, soon after Müller's funeral the final friend was, in fact, converted. Müller trusted in the reality of answered prayer to such an extent that he was willing to persist over such a long time, and that fact indicates he probably never doubted his final friend would come to conversion eventually.
George Müller's efforts in prayer remain an inspiration to anyone who is willing to look at the good he was able to achieve with virtually nothing but trust in the God who answers prayer. Perhaps even more important, his accomplishments challenge us to ask ourselves what we might accomplish in our own lives through prayer.
APPENDIX:
EXPANDING THE LORD'S PRAYER We can effectively use the Lord's Prayer as a framework for our own prayers by expanding each point. 1. Seek God's Person: "Our Father in heaven": The first section of the prayer outline establishes our relationship with God as our Father and prepares our mindset for an audience with him. It gives us opportunity to expand the thought as we: • Acknowledge God as Creator of heaven and earth and Father of our human family (Genesis 1:1; 1 Corinthians 8:6) • Thank God for the privilege we have of praying to him as ruler of all there is (Psalm 150:1; John 4:23) • Thank God for the personal son/daughter relationship we have with him (Romans 8:14-16; 1 John 3:2) 2. Seek to Praise God: "Hallowed [Honored] be your name": The second section of the prayer offers respect and praise to God – for everything he is and has done – and reminds us to honor his name. • Praise for what God is – Creator, Ruler, Sustainer, as well as Love, Righteousness, Mercy and Truth (Psalm 100:3-5; Psalm 145:8-17) • Praise for all he has done and continues to do – the results of his compassion, patience, sacrifice and salvation (Psalm 146:1-10; John 3:16) • Ask God's help to honor his name, never misuse it, and always use it with respect (Exodus 20:7; Psalm 86:12) 3. Seek God's Will: "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven": The third section of the prayer outline focuses on the establishment of God's kingdom and will in our lives and eventually throughout the world. • Pray for help to know and accept God's will and that his kingdom grows in our lives and the lives of all believers (Matthew 13:31-33; Romans 12:2) • Pray for God's help in bringing his truth to many more people, to continually enlarge his kingdom (Luke 10:2; Matthew 28:19-20) • Pray for the eventual full establishment of God's kingdom on earth (Psalms 145:11-13; Revelation 12:10) 4. Seek God's Help: "Give us this day our daily bread": The fourth section of the prayer outline gives us opportunity to ask for our physical and spiritual needs – both for ourselves and for others. • Give thanks, ask for our own physical needs and those of other people (Philippians 4:6; Matthew 7:7-11) • Pray for the spiritual needs of God's people and the support and guidance of his Church (Ephesians 6:18; 2 Thessalonians 3:1) • Pray for leaders and those helping others that good may be done wherever possible (Jeremiah 29:7; 1 Timothy 2:1-2) 5. Seek God's Forgiveness: "And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors": The fifth section of the prayer outline shows that we should ask forgiveness for our sins and the sins of others – as well as for help to forgive others. • Ask forgiveness for our sins, and give thanks for the sacrifice of Christ and God's grace in applying it to us (Psalm 51:1-2; 1 John 1:9) • Ask for help in forgiving others fully as God forgives us and in letting go of anger and bitterness (Ephesians 4:31-32; Matthew 6:14-15) • Pray for those that sin against us that God be merciful to them as he is to us (Luke 23:34; Acts 7:60)
6. Seek God's Guidance: "And lead us not into temptation": The sixth section of the prayer outline requests God's help, for ourselves and for others, to avoid unnecessary trials and to overcome things that tempt us to sin. • Ask for help in overcoming temptations and sins identified in our own lives (Luke 22:40; Hebrews 2:18) • Ask for help for all those fighting weaknesses, addictions, sins (Hebrews 4:16; 1 Corinthians 10:13) • Pray that those who have escaped sin will have the strength not to return to it (2 Peter 2:20; Galatians 6:1) 7. Seek God's Protection: "Deliver us from evil": The seventh section of the prayer outline asks for protection from physical and spiritual evil, and help for all those fighting against evil or held in its sway. • Pray for physical and spiritual protection for all who look to God for help, especially those suffering persecution (2 Samuel 22:2-4; John 17:15) • Pray for all who are working to suppress evils that are harming people (Hebrews 13:17; Romans 13:3) • Ask that the eyes of those persecuting the people of God be opened (Matthew 5:44, Romans 12:14) 8. Seek God's Glory: ["For Yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever. Amen"]: These final words that appear in some translations were not in the earliest Bible manuscripts, but they reflect Christian traditions which remind us to: • End prayer as we began, with praise and thanks (Psalm 9:1-2; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) • Ask everything in Jesus' name (John 14:6-14; John 16:23-24) • End with "Amen!" which means "May it be so!" (Psalm 89:52; Revelation 7:12)
AFTERWORD This book is distributed without charge by the publisher. Its material is copyright, but sections may be reproduced in fair-use quotation, and the book may be freely distributed as long as it is given without charge. "Freely you have received; freely give" (Matthew 10:8).
You can find more free Christian e-books on the publisher's websites at TacticalChristianity.org and LivingWithFaith.org. New books are added periodically. If you do not have access to a Bible to read the additional verses given in each chapter of this book, to continue your study, or for Bible study at any time, we recommend the BibleGateway.com website which gives free access to many translations of the Bible in over 70 languages.