In his journals alone, Mueller recorded over 50,000 specific answers to prayer in his lifetime ( A. T. Pierson's George Mueller of Bristol: His Life of Prayer and Faith,1889; reprint, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel, 1999, 4) (click to open). Given that example, we now want to investigate further to see what it was about George Mueller’s faithful prayer life that we need to remember.
J. Hudson Taylor has said that the spiritual maturation of a Christian is just the opposite of the physical maturation of humanity. Physically, we move from the cradle to independence. Spiritually, we move from independence to the cradle. Of George Mueller, A.T. Pierson wrote, “George Mueller was never so really, truly, fully a little child in all his relations to his Father, as when in the ninety-third year of his age” (Ibid., 43).
Biographer A.T. Pierson writes concerning Mueller’s life, “For months, if not years, together and at several periods in the work, supplies were furnished only from month to month, week to week, day to day, hour to hour! Faith was thus kept in lively exercise and under perpetual training” (Ibid., 5).
Mueller’s Total Dependence on God Through Prayer
Being an educated man from a well-off family, Mueller brought many material possessions with him as he entered the ministry. However, it was early on in his days in school at Halle that he became acquainted with a well-off dentist named Mr. Groves who gave up his job to move his family to Persia to be a missionary, trusting only in God for their provision. Groves's example impacted Mueller greatly and challenged him to also live a life of similar faith (Ibid., 2). As he entered into marriage, Mueller and his wife sold all their earthly possessions except the clothes on their back so that they would have to be totally dependent upon God for all their needs (Ibid., 3). The Muellers did not stop there, however, as they also liquidated their entire savings and gave it to the poor. By removing all the resources at their disposal, the Muellers became fully dependent upon His resources, and that drove them to their knees to pray. Of this dependence, Mueller wrote in his journal, “If we formerly had no certain income, so now have we none. We have to look to God for everything in connection with the work, of which often, however, the pecuniary necessities are the smallest matter; but to Him, we are enabled to look and therefore it is, that we are not disappointed” (Ibid., 4).
Mueller wrote in his journal concerning the orphan houses that “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 anyone being asked by me or my fellow laborers whereby it may be seen, that God is faithful still, and hears prayers still” (Ibid., 6). The very nature of orphan work thus appealed to Mueller because it would put him in a situation of great need . . . trusting God for all things.
Mueller’s Humanly Impossible Needs
Pierson writes, “The cost of the houses built on Ashely Down (the orphan houses that Mueller built) might have staggered a man of large capital, but his poor man only cried and the Lord helped him” (Ibid., 7).
On one occasion in September 1838, Mueller wrote of his need and prayers, “Though for about seven years, our funds have been so exhausted that it has been comparatively a rare case that there have been means in hand to meet the necessities of the orphans for three days together, yet I have been only once tried in spirit, and that was on September 18, 1838, when for the first time the Lord seemed not to regard our prayer. But when He did not send help at that time, and I saw that it was only for the trial of our faith, and not because He had forsaken the work, that we were brought so low, my soul was strengthened and encouraged” (Ibid., 10). It seems that to Mueller, even the slow response of God was merely a magnifying glass to reveal more need that led to more prayer! The material needs that Mueller had, became even more intense as his ministry at the orphanage grew, and the greater the needs, the greater the need to pray (Ibid., 11). Mueller began to even welcome times of difficulty as invitations to pray as Pierson writes, “Fluctuations in income and apparent prosperity did not take George Mueller by surprise. He expected them, for if there were no crises and critical emergencies how could there be critical deliverances?” (Ibid., 12).
Some might have wondered why Mueller did not pray for disease and difficulty to never enter into their lives, however, that would be to deny the very things that lead us to pray. Mueller wrote in his journal that the trials of life were but intersections to turn our hearts to God.
Mueller recorded more than 50 particular requests that he would bring before the Lord each day in prayer (Ibid., 15).
On one occasion, a visitor to the orphanage after observing the obviously large financial demands of their work asked which bank handled their finances. Mueller responded, “Our funds are deposited in a bank which cannot break,” even though at that time, they had no money on hand for the next day’s expenses! (Ibid., 1). His faith in God caused him to see provision even in scarcity. A. T. Pierson writes, “In November 1839, when the needs were again great and the supplies very small, he (George Mueller) was kept in peace: ‘I was not,’ he says, ‘looking at the little in hand, but at the fullness of God’” (Ibid., 2). It was faith that gave Mueller the eyes to see God at work, even before his provision began because the issue was not what the provision would be, but who the provision would come from. Mueller wrote in his journal in 1874, “I commit the whole work to Him, and He will provide me with what I need, in future also, though I know not whence the means are to come” (Ibid., 3). This faith led George Mueller to pray and ask God for needs that were far greater than he could provide for. Again, Mueller wrote, “When I was asking the petition, I was fully aware what I was doing, that I was asking for something which I had no natural prospect of obtaining from the brethren whom I know, but which was not too much for the Lord to grant” (Ibid., 4).
Mueller’s Five Conditions for Prayer
The first condition of prevailing prayer for Mueller was total dependence upon Jesus Christ.
The second condition of prevailing prayer was forsaking all known sins in one’s life. As previously stated, Mueller felt that God would be compromised if He answered the prayers of those who were not walking in fellowship with Him.
The third condition of prevailing prayer for Mueller was the exercise of faith in the promises of God’s Word. We have previously looked at Mueller’s perspective on this in detail.
The fourth condition of prevailing prayer was asking things according to God’s will, not selfish motives. For Mueller, people should never make requests of God for only their desires. Instead, we should make requests of God only as they work according to His glorious plan.
Finally, Mueller believed that prevailing prayer must be a prayer that perseveres. God will answer prayer according to His will, but it will be according to His timetable. In these five conditions, the conditions were laid out by Mueller and supported by Scripture (Ibid., 2) so that people everywhere might experience the same blessings in answered prayer that Mueller himself lived through each day.
One Specific Example of Answered Prayer
Still, on another occasion, the orphanage was without any money or food one morning and did not know where the food was going to come from for the breakfast the children needed to eat. Mueller was not fazed but brought this before God in prayer (Ibid., 16). With the children lined up to receive their breakfast, as they did every morning, Mueller prayed and thanked God for the food they were about to eat, though nothing was in the cupboards or in the serving bins for the children to eat! Upon finishing his prayer, there was a knock at the door and the local baker was standing on the other side. It seems the baker had a dream the night before where God told him to give the orphan house a bunch of bread, so the baker was there to deliver enough bread for the orphanage for the rest of the week. Further, the milk truck had just broken down in front of the orphanage, and the milkman was forced to give all his supply so that it would not spoil before he could get his truck fixed. Therefore, God answered Mueller’s prayer in a mighty way, and the children indeed did have breakfast that morning!
Though that request showed God answering Mueller’s prayer very quickly, that was not always the way it was with all the prayers Muller prayed. Early in his life, Muller felt that God wanted him to be a missionary. He committed this to prayer, but for a variety of reasons, this never became a reality in Mueller’s life. However, late in life, when Mueller was in his sixties, seventies, and eighties, after decades of prayer about being a missionary, God finally granted Muller this wish and allowed him to speak in over 40 countries in the twilight of his life. When it came to being a missionary, God’s answer was not “no,” just “not yet.”[Ibid., 17]
Most of this post is taken from notes taken while reading A. T. Pierson's George Mueller of Bristol: His Life of Prayer and Faith (1889; reprint, Grand Rapids, Mich.: Kregel, 1999). Another great source on the life of Mueller is John Piper’s lecture entitled George Mueller: A Strategy for Showing God and Satisfaction with God (click to open).