Editor’s Note: SOLA Network is excited to present a 4-part series focused on missionaries in the past who can inspire us in the present. We hope you are encouraged by these stories to remember the Great Commission and proclaim the kingdom of Christ to the world.
How does one man care for ten thousand orphans and raise millions of dollars (in today’s currency) without asking for a single donation or ever going into debt? By taking God seriously on His word in Matthew 7:7—ask and it will be given to you.
George Muller built five orphan houses and cared for 10,024 orphans during his lifetime. When children became old enough to be independent, Muller prayed with each individually, placing a Bible in their right hand and money in their left. He explained to children that if they held onto what was in their right hand, God would always make sure something was in their left.
Every child graduated with a job lined up, and some outsiders accused Muller of raising the poor above their “natural station” in British life. After Muller died, his orphanages supported over 100,000 orphans with food, clothing, and a home.
But before Muller ever called upon God to care for others, he had to learn to trust God with his own life. When Muller first told his father he wanted to become a missionary, his father cut off funding for his college tuition. Though he felt a bit “silly,” Muller fell onto his knees and asked God to support him. A professor knocked on his door within an hour, offering Muller a paid tutoring job.
This stranger convinced Muller that he no longer needed to be anxious about any of his temporal needs. “As long as I really sought to serve the Lord,” Muller professed, “as long as I sought the kingdom of God and His righteousness, these my temporal wants would be added unto me.”
Muller memorized and clung to Scripture:
- “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:13-14)
- “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6:25-26).
After Muller graduated from missionary school, he was devastated by the orphans he encountered on the streets of England. At the time, thousands of homeless orphans either starved and froze to death or were forced into abusive labor in workhouses. Muller felt God calling him to open an orphanage. Though Muller only had two shillings (fifty cents) in his pocket, he was sure that God would provide for each specific need. And over the years, England witnessed God provide buildings, people to oversee them, furniture, food, clothing, and money.
One morning, Muller awoke to the news that the orphanage, which housed 300 children, had no food. Muller instructed the housemother to seat all the children in the dining room. He thanked God for food, and they waited for God to provide, as He always did. Within minutes, a baker knocked at the door.
“Mr. Muller,” he confessed, “last night, I could not sleep. Somehow, I knew that you would need bread this morning. I got up and baked three batches for you. I will bring it in.”
The next knock revealed a milkman whose cart had broken down in front of the orphanage. The milk would spoil by the time the cart was fixed, the milkman explained, so would the children like some free milk?
As the orphanages grew, God provided heat, medicine, warm clothes, and always more bread for over one hundred thousand children. One could say George Muller had a landline to Heaven. While Muller’s life may seem extraordinary, the same God who showed up every day at Muller’s door invites us to boldly go to Him with our daily needs.
Matthew 6:25-34 is famously quoted as the “Do Not Worry” passage. Jesus reassures us that as God’s children, we do not need to worry about anything as our Heavenly Father knows our needs and will provide for us. Perhaps one of the overlooked parts of this passage is Jesus’s acknowledgment of our needs. Jesus does not urge us not to worry because our needs are minor or unimportant—on the contrary, He stresses that God knows we need certain things. Because of that, Jesus encourages us to seek God’s kingdom instead, as our Heavenly Father not only can but will provide for us.
Christian philosopher, Dallas Willard, writes, “God is not worried He is going to run out of something. It is so important to remember this when we are fretting over a perceived need. At such a time, we may be tempted to think that maybe God is as stingy and small as we are. He is not. God loves to give. God loves to forgive.”
When fears begin to stockpile, it becomes increasingly tempting to suppress, ignore, or anxiously strive to figure out solutions. I have experienced this continuously in my own life. A cancer diagnosis. Unending work demands. Pressure from family relying on you for support. But recently, God has gently reassured me that He will be faithful, and all I must do is sit back and watch. If He does not answer in the way I suspect, as He at times did not with Muller, He will comfort and provide.
In Philippians 4, Paul writes that he has learned the secret of being content—his contentment derives not from having every life detail coordinated according to his plans. Rather, his peace is rooted in the restful assurance that God recognizes his needs and will take care of him according to His plans, which are greater than ours and for our good. Like Paul, we can be content because the Lord is our Shepherd, and everything we need can be found in Him.
Our Father calls us to bring each conceivable concern, anxiety, and fear to Him, as it pleases Him greatly to give His little children the kingdom (Luke 12:32). What amazes me is that Jesus never hedges His commands not to worry with disclaimers. Trust in God, but make sure you hold up your end of the deal. Ask God for help, but if He fails, you must be responsible. Perhaps Jesus knows we tend to sway too far towards overworking and anxiety, and God’s grace was designed to capture the areas in which we fall short. If we fail, He does not (1 Timothy 2:13). And we can trust Him not only because He is all-powerful but because He loves us deeply. Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross was living evidence that He is faithful to His promises to provide for us even if it costs Him His life.
We love Him in return by trusting Him and by loving His sheep. Perhaps Matthew 6:25-34 was given to us not simply for our own comfort but as a motivation to look beyond ourselves to the needs of those around us. Reality San Francisco pastor Dave Lomas asks, “Why aren’t we generous? Because we think it’s going to run out. God does not ever have that worry—he’s able to do more than we could ask or imagine. Not just with monetary stuff…it actually goes way deeper than that.”
Muller’s story of God providing bread for 300 may seem familiar, as it echoes Jesus’s provision of bread and fish for more than 5000 (Matthew 14:13-21). In a display of faith, Jesus and Muller thanked God for the food before He provided it. While Muller may not have known how God intended to provide, he took seriously Jesus’s promise to ask Him for anything. And the same God who graciously answered Muller’s prayers beckons us to ask the same.
Check out these resources for further information on George Muller’s life:
- George Muller, Orphanages Built by Prayer by Christianity.com.
- He Fed Ten Thousand Orphans with Prayer by John Piper
- George Müller on Wikipedia
- George Muller: Man of Faith and Miracles by B. Miller