Encouraging Words

As part of our weekend ritual, my wife and I sip coffee Saturday mornings at a favorite establishment of ours while reading, pondering, and discussing. Today was no exception (although she did bring her own tea bag and asked for hot water) and I received great encouragement from the work that I have promised will be completed before January 10, 2006. Mentioned before in the "What's In The Backpack?" article , The Autobiography of George Muller has really challenged my faith in prayer. Truly, I have the opportunity to communicate with the Creator of the universe and I am told to come boldly before His throne with confidence (Hebrews 4:16), yet how often do I come with great confidence? Muller knew what confidence was. He knew Who his confidence was in.

In response to some of the Lord's workers who discouraged that many more of the children under their care were not coming to the Lord and they were about to give up: "On the contrary, we should give the Lord no rest until we see fruit. Therefore, in persevering yet submissive prayer, we should make our requests known to God. I am now looking for many more children to be converted." (132-133)

On getting his priorities right: "May 7 [1841]. The primary business I must attend to every day is to fellowship with the Lord. The first concern is not how much I might serve the Lord, but how my inner man might be nourished. I may share the truth with the unconverted; I may try to encourage believers; I may relieve the distressed; or I may, in other ways, seek to behave as a child of God; yet, not being happy in the Lord and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, may result in this work being done in a wrong spirit." (138-139)

In regards to his poverty: "Truly, it is worth being poor and greatly tried in faith for the sake of having such precious, daily proof of the loving interest which our kind Father takes in everything that concerns us [...] If the hearts of the children of God are comforted and their faith strengthened, it is worth being poor and greatly tried in faith. Those who do not know God may read or hear of His dealings with us and see that faith in God is more than mere notion. There is indeed reality in Christianity." (151)


There is, indeed, reality in Christianity. It is not something that is resigned to the false notion of the fact/value dichotomy that many wish to ascribe to matters of faith. Christ is real and thus Christianity is real. Well said, Mr. Muller.

(The above quotations were taken from The Autobiography of George Muller by George Muller. New Kinsington, PA: Whitaker House, 1984. )