Reliance

A couple of months ago a friend loaned me a short book of excerpts from the journals of George Mueller, a nineteenth century evangelist and orphanage founder/director. As things go, I had several other books half finished, leading to this little book languishing in my bag until this past weekend.

Note for the future: Almost weeping while reading in Borders' coffee shop is not recommended.

Why the tears? Mueller's single minded crusade to show that God is faithful and answers prayer.

The goals he had when establishing the orphanages, in his words:

The three chief reasons for establishing an Orphan-House are: 1. That God may be glorified, should He be pleased to furnish me with the means, in its being seen that it is not a vain thing to trust in Him; and that thus the faith of His children may be strengthened. 2. The spiritual welfare of fatherless and motherless children. 3. Their temporal welfare.

Note the order - the chief goal wasn't to provide homes for the kids (that would be number three), but to allow God to be glorified by relying solely on Him for the provisions for the work. Mueller's explanation:

The first and primary object of the work was, (and still is) that God might be magnified by the fact, that the orphans under my care are provided, with all they need, only by prayer and faith, without any one being asked by me or my fellow-laborers, whereby it may be seen, that God is FAITHFUL STILL, and HEARS PRAYER STILL.

That's just what he did; when they were in need, which was almost constant, they prayed, and God provided. Sometimes that provision came just barely in the nick of time, but it came. Over the course of time, the houses served over ten thousand orphans. Yet that wasn't Mueller's sole ministry at that time; then at the age of seventy he became a travelling missionary.

The particular book I'm reading is at home on the desk, but some of Mueller's works are available on-line through Project Gutenberg, the wiki is here and the text of an excellent lecture by John Piper on Mueller at a 2004 pastors' conference is here.

All of this, naturally, leads to some self-searching questions. How much do I truly rely on God to meet my needs - all my needs? How am I stealing glory from God by making my own arrangements, scrambling to do things myself rather than expecting God to provide (and accepting His provision as what is best for me at the time)? Is there one area in my life I can fully give over to His provision right now, giving Him the glory and enlarging my faith?

Things to ponder.