“Thy servant did meditate in Thy statues.” Ps. 119:23.
Prayer requires, generally speaking, a measure of strength or godly desire, and the season, therefore, when this exercise of the soul can be most effectually performed, is after the inner man has been nourished by meditation on the Word of God, where we find our Father speaking to us to encourage us.
“I hope in Thy Word.” Ps. 119:81.
Is it not precious to have the living God as a Father to go to, who is ever able and ever willing to help, as may be really needed? All believers, according to the will of God concerning them in Jesus Christ, may cast, and ought to cast, all their care upon Him who careth for them, and need not be anxiously concerned about anything.
“With my spirit within me will I seek Thee early.” Isa. 26: 9.
My heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I speak to my Father, and to my Friend, about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God.” 2 Tim. 3:16.
I believe that all the books of the Old Testament and of the New Testament are written by inspiration. My great love for the Word of God and my deep conviction of the need of its being spread far and wide, have led me to pray to God to use me as an instrument to do this.
“They are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Cor. 10:11.
Why may not all believers act in the spirit of apostolic Christians, seeing that the same blessed Spirit who dwelt in them dwells in all who believe in the Lord Jesus; and that we have the whole revealed will of God in our possession in the Holy Scriptures; and like apostolic believers are looking for the return of the Lord Jesus, with whom we shall share the glory.
“Reading in the book the words of the Lord.” Jer. 36:8.
I continue to wait upon God, and seek to encourage my heart by His Holy Word, and while He delays giving me answers, to be occupied in His service. Of this my soul has not the least doubt, that, when the Lord shall have been pleased to exercise my soul by the trial of faith and patience, He will make bare His arm and send help.
“Our God, whom we serve is able.” Dan. 3:17.
The Believer will repose upon the ability of God to help him, because he has not only learned from His Word that He is of almighty power and infinite wisdom, but he has seen instance upon instance in the Holy Scriptures in which His almighty power and infinite wisdom have been exercised in helping His people.
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.” James 1:5.
When I do not understand a passage of the Word of God, I lift up my heart to the Lord, that He would be pleased by His Holy Spirit to instruct me, and I expect to be taught, though I do not fix the time when, and the manner how, it should be. When I am going to minister in the Word, I seek help from the Lord, and believe that He for His dear Son’s sake will help me.
“Feed me with food convenient for me.” Prov. 30:8.
God has taught me this point, that the first thing the child of God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for his inner man. Now what is the food for the inner man? Considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts.
“Dig for it more than for hid treasures.” Job 3:21.
When I have been for a while making confession, or intercession, or supplication, or have given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it; but still continually keeping before me, that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation.
“Send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared.” Neh. 8:10.
Also the Lord is pleased to communicate unto me that which, very soon after, I have found become food for other believers. My heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I speak to my Father, and to my Friend about the things He has brought before me in His precious Word.
“The Spirit of Truth . . . He will guide you into all truth.” John 16:13.
The Word of God can be explained only by the Holy Spirit; He is the teacher of His people. The first evening that I shut myself into my room, to give myself to prayer and meditation over the Scriptures, I learned more in a few hours than I had done during a period of several months previously.
“Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them.” 1 Tim. 4:15.
We should meditate on what we read, so that perhaps a small portion of that which we have read, or, if we have time, the whole, may be meditated upon in the course of the day. Or a portion of a book, or an epistle, or a gospel, through which we go for meditation, may be considered every day.
“Every day a portion.” Jer. 52:34.
It is of immense importance for the understanding of the Word of God, to read every day a portion of the Old and a portion of the New Testament, going on where we previously left off. This throws light upon the connection; for a different course will make it utterly impossible ever to understand much of the Scriptures.
“Thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart.” Jer. 15:16.
If the reader understands very little of the Word of God, he ought to read it very much; for the Spirit explains the Word by the Word. And if he enjoys the reading of the Word little, that is just the reason why he should read it very much; for the frequent reading of the Scriptures creates a delight in them.
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George Mueller (1805 - 1898)
A Christian evangelist and Director of the Ashley Down orphanage in Bristol, England, cared for 10,024 orphans in his life.[2] He was well known for providing an education to the children under his care, to the point where he was accused of raising the poor above their natural station in life. He also established 117 schools which offered Christian education to over 120,000 children, many of them being orphans. Through all this, Müller never made requests for financial support, nor did he go into debt, even though the five homes cost over £100,000 to build. Many times, he received unsolicited food donations only hours before they were needed to feed the children, further strengthening his faith in God. For example, on one well-documented occasion, they gave thanks for breakfast when all the children were sitting at the table, even though there was nothing to eat in the house. As they finished praying, the baker knocked on the door with sufficient fresh bread to feed everyone, and the milkman gave them plenty of fresh milk because his cart broke down in front of the orphanage.On 26 March 1875, at the age of 70 and after the death of his first wife in 1870 and his marriage to Susannah Grace Sanger in 1871, Müller and Susannah began a 17-year period of missionary travel. Müller always expected to pay for their fares and accommodation from the unsolicited gifts given for his own use. However, if someone offered to pay his hotel bill en route, Müller recorded this amount in his accounts. He travelled over 200,000 miles, an incredible achievement for pre-aviation times. His language abilities allowed him to preach in English, French, and German, and his sermons were translated into the host languages when he was unable to use English, French or German. In 1892, he returned to England, where he died on 10 March 1898 in New Orphan House No 3.
Among the greatest monuments of what can be accomplished through simple faith in God are the great orphanages covering thirteen acres of ground on Ashley Downs, Bristol, England. When God put it into the heart of George Muller to build these orphanages, he had only two shillings (50 cents) in his pocket. Without making his wants known to any man, but to God alone, over a million, four hundred thousand pounds ($7,000,000) were sent to him for the building and maintaining of these orphan homes. Near the time of Mr. Muller's death, there were five immense buildings of solid granite, capable of accommodating two thousand orphans. In all the years since the first orphans arrived the Lord had sent food in due time, so that they had never missed a meal for want of food.
At the age of seventy, George Muller began to make great evangelistic tours. He traveled 200,000 miles, going around the world and preaching in many lands and in several different languages. He frequently spoke to as many as 4,500 or 5,000 persons. Three times he preached throughout the length and breadth of the United States. He continued his missionary or evangelistic tours until he was ninety years of age. He estimated that during these seventeen years of evangelistic work he addressed three million people. All his expenses were sent in answer to the prayer of faith.
Johann Georg Ferdinand Müller (sometimes spelled Mueller or Muller) was simply another Elijah! ... God meant that George Mueller, wherever his work was witnessed or his story is read, should be a standing rebuke, to the practical impotence of the average disciple. While men are asking whether prayer can accomplish similar wonders as of old, here is a man who answers the question by the indisputable logic of facts. Powerlessness always means prayerlessness. It is not necessary for us to be sinlessly perfect, or to be raised to a special dignity of privilege and endowment, in order to wield this wondrous weapon of power with God; but it is necessary that we be men and women of prayer-habitual, believing, importunate prayer.
George Mueller considered nothing too small to be a subject of prayer, because nothing is too small to be the subject of God's care. If He numbers our hairs, and notes a sparrow's fall, and clothes the grass in the field, nothing about His children is beneath His tender thought. In every emergency, his one resort was to carry his want to his Father. When, in 1858, a legacy of five hundred pounds was, after fourteen months in chancery, still unpaid, the Lord was besought to cause this money soon to be placed in his hands; and he prayed that legacy out of the bonds of chancery as prayer, long before, brought Peter out of prison. The money was paid contrary to all human likelihood, and with interest at four per cent. When large gifts were proffered, prayer was offered for grace to know whether to accept or decline, that no money might be greedily grasped at for its own sake; and he prayed that, if it could not be accepted without submitting to conditions which were dishonoring to God, it might be declined so graciously, lovingly, humbly, and yet firmly, that the manner of its refusal and return might show that he was acting, not in his own behalf, but as a servant under the authority of a higher Master.