While I was considering what a life that fully trusted God would look like I thought of George Mueller. If you have never read of the life of George Mueller, or if it has been a long time since you have, I recommend his story to encourage you in your faith and trust in God.
I found a web sight about George Mueller:
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/george-muellers-strategy-for-showing-god
that tells about him and includes some quotes that have encouraged me as I consider what it means to trust in the Lord with ALL my heart.
I thought I would share some notes and quotes with you…
“The orphan houses exist to display that God can be trusted and to encourage believers to take him at his word. This was a deep sense of calling with Mueller. He said that God had given him the mercy in “being able to take God by His word and to rely upon it.” He was grieved that “so many believers . . . were harassed and distressed in mind, or brought guilt on their consciences, on account of not trusting in the Lord.” This grace that he had to trust God’s promises, and this grief that so many believers didn’t trust his promises, shaped Mueller’s entire life. This was his supreme passion: to display with open proofs that God could be trusted with the practical affairs of life. This was the higher aim of building the orphan houses and supporting them by asking God, not people, for money.”
I’m fascinated how the grace that caused George to trust God alone created within him a grief for those who didn’t have that same grace. Instead of just living in that grace and wondering why others didn’t trust as he did, or judging others for their doubt and unbelief, he had a desire to live a lifestyle that demonstrated that God is indeed trustworthy. He was motivated to open orphanages and care for thousands of children. This ministry was an opportunity to display to others the faithfulness of God as he trusted in Him alone for every need and every penny required to care for the thousands of children that came to his orphanages.
The most important thing…fellowship with God Himself!
“According to my judgement the most important point to be attended to is this: above all things see to it that your souls are happy in the Lord. Other things may press upon you, the Lord’s work may even have urgent claims upon your attention, but I deliberately repeat, it is of supreme and paramount importance that you should seek above all things to have your souls truly happy in God Himself! Day by day seek to make this the most important business of your life. … the secret of all true effectual service is joy in God, having experimental acquaintance and fellowship with God Himself.”
George learned that a life that trusts God completely comes from a joyful soul. This reminds me of my 2017 verse… “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers.” 3 John 1:2 When we choose to put all else aside so that we are alone with God there comes upon us a love, peace, and a joy that nothing else can ever produce.
Good, Better, Best!
“Self-denial is not so much an impoverishment as a postponement: we make a sacrifice of a present good for the sake of a future and greater good.” Therefore, happiness in God is of “supreme importance” because it is the key to love that sacrifices and takes risks. “Whatever be done . . . in the way of giving up, or self-denial, or deadness to the world, should result from the joy we have in God.”
Every day we are faced with the good, better, and best. Which will we choose? Will we choose what our flesh wants. Will we choose what makes sense to us? Or will we choose to look beyond the desires of the flesh, push past our own understanding, and choose instead to look to God and trust in what He says is best? Self-denial will only be accomplished in the absence of fear. Perfect love is what overcomes fear. When we deny ourselves and choose God’s best we find His perfect love makes us brave and courageous to do things we could never have done on our own. We are willing to take risks that will show the faithfulness, the goodness, and the beauty of God!
Knowing God is the key!
“This happiness is to be obtained through the study of the Holy Scriptures. God has therein revealed Himself unto us in the face of Jesus Christ. Happiness in God comes from seeing God revealed to us in the face of Jesus Christ through the Scriptures. “In them . . . we become acquainted with the character of God. Our eyes are divinely opened to see what a lovely Being God is! And this good, gracious, loving, heavenly Father is ours, our portion for time and for eternity.” Knowing God is the key to being happy in God.”
God wants us to know Him, that is why He created us and why He has preserved His word for thousands of years! The God who spoke and everything that exists came into being. The words that spoke life into nothingness still speak life into every soul that studies, meditates, and applies them. When we learn of God’s character, how good, gracious, loving, and powerful He is, and we study the living and active words of God our thoughts, attitudes, perspectives… everything about us is changed from the inside out. Our bodies, souls, and Spirits become aligned to His truth!
The word of God…food for the inner man!
“I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the word of God, and to meditation on it. . . . What is the food of the inner man? Not prayer, but the word of God; and . . . not the simple reading of the word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts.”
Jesus told the tempter in the wilderness, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’”Matthew 4:4 God’s word is as food for us. Just as we need daily food to sustain our physical bodies, we need the food of God’s word to sustain our spiritual bodies!
How foolish it would be to say “I’m too busy to eat today.” “I just can’t fit eating into my busy life right now.” “I really don’t benefit from eating so why bother?”
We may get away with these excuses for a few days, but you can be sure you would soon find the time to eat, and you would soon realize the benefit from food.
So why do we think we can get away with using these excuses for our spiritual eating? So often we aren’t tuned into the subtle affects of not eating the words of God. But, though they are subtle, there are consequences that not only affect our spiritual life, but also our physical life.
Choose a lifestyle that puts the beauty of God on display!
“By this deep satisfaction in God George Mueller was set free from the fears and lusts of the world. And in this freedom of love he chose a strategy of ministry and style of life that put the reality and trustworthiness and beauty of God on display. To use his own words, his life became a “visible proof to the unchangeable faithfulness of the Lord.”
Satisfaction in God is the only thing that sets us free. No self-help book, counselor, or positive thinking can bring true freedom from the things that hold us back from living the destiny we were created for. The freedom God brings strips away all fear, all insecurities, all fleshly desires and replaces them with His love. Filled with His love we become brave and courageous to step out into the ministry, the work, and the purposes that truly fulfill and satisfy us and bring glory to God!
God invites us to trust in Him with ALL our heart!
“Every one is invited and commanded to trust in the Lord, to trust in Him with all his heart, and to cast his burden upon Him, and to call upon Him in the day of trouble. Will you not do this, my dear brethren in Christ? I long that you may do so. I desire that you may taste the sweetness of that state of heart, in which, while surrounded by difficulties and necessities, you can yet be at peace, because you know that the living God, your Father in heaven, cares for you.”
I’m thankful for these notes and quotes from the life of George Mueller. They remind me of the simplicity of trust.
Trust isn’t complicated, but it requires intention…
The intention to make time alone with God first priority in my life.
The intention to choose what is best over what is good, and even what is better.
To intentionally get to know God through reading, meditating, and applying His word in my life.
To intentionally feed on God’s word everyday, recognizing the significance it has in my body, soul, and spirit.
And to intentionally choose a lifestyle that puts God’s beauty on display so others can taste and see that God is good…
All because I know that the Living God, my Father in Heaven, cares for me!