For many Christians, the name of George Müller brings to mind a historical living example of faith and its results. George Müller prayed, recorded his prayers, and recorded the answers in journals, which became known as A Narrative of Some of the Lord’s Dealings with George Müller, which ended up taking up several volumes and over 3000 pages. In it, Müller recorded with meticulous detail what he had needed, when he prayed, and how God answered.

The record speaks for itself.

By the time Müller died, he had pastored a church for sixty-six years, preached three times a week for 68 years – nearly 10,000 times, began an institute that distributed 282,000 Bibles and 1.5 million New Testaments, as well as 112 million religious books, scriptures, pamphlets and leaflets. He had established 117 schools which offered Christian education to over 120,000 children, many of them being orphans. At the age of 70, he became a missionary for the next 17 years, ultimately having ministered in 42 countries and having addressed more than nine million people.

What he is most known for was his work among the orphans of England. He began five orphan houses. He cared for 10,024 orphans in his life. In 1834, when he began, more than 7,000 children under eight were in prison. Muller’s work inspired others so that fifty years later, more than one hundred thousand orphans were cared for in England. He started these orphan houses without ever asking for money, appealing for funds, or otherwise soliciting help from anyone. His goal was to rely on God alone in praying, so that no one could say that it was man who had supported these orphans. It’s estimated that Muller had prayed in, what in today’s currency would be $150 million, or R2.4 billion.

The temptation in considering a life like Muller’s is to place him in the faith hall of fame, and admire him from a distance, the way we do with all super-achievers. We are thrilled by their lives, but doubt that they touch ours. This is the opposite of what George Muller Himself wanted. Muller lived the life he did, and chose the things he did precisely because he wanted ordinary Christians to step up into a life of faith – a life available to all Christians. Muller wanted the results of his faith to become a living and perpetual advertisement and testimony to what God will do for His children.

There’s no doubt his life was extraordinary in the results. But the grand lesson of his life is that simple and persistent faith becomes great faith and brings extraordinary results. It is not that Muller was some faith-giant; it is that too many of God’s people are content to be faith-midgets. Muller’s life is a startling and encouraging call for the ordinary Christian to have simple faith, which becomes a great faith, which brings great things.

Who was George Muller?

Muller was born in Germany in 1805. His father indulged him and did not train him well, and Muller was a youth given over to great wickedness. He deceived his father again and again, stealing money, cheating, and expert in thievery before he was ten. Amazingly, his father wanted him to become a clergyman, a minister. During this time of the state church, becoming a minister was a good, stable and fairly well-paid occupation, and had nothing to do with spiritual qualifications.

He was sent off to the cathedral classical school, but his wickedness didn’t stop here, ending up in jail at the age of sixteen. He was well on his way to becoming a true hireling.

In 1825, one of Muller’s partners in evil said he was going to be attending a meeting at a believer’s house, Brother Wagner. Muller went along and what he saw gripped him. This little group sang a hymn, and then one man fell on his knees to pray for a blessing over the meeting. A chapter of the Word was read, after which a printed sermon was read. Another hymn was sung, and a final prayer was said. Muller was deeply gripped by the simplicity and true spirituality of what he saw. Before the next Saturday, he had been back to that house three times to seek help. This was Muller’s turning point, and the date which he placed at the time of his own conversion to Christ.

He began to read missionary journals, and was deeply gripped by the desire to be a foreign missionary. He was rejected by the Berlin Missionary Society. He tried to preach by memorising someone else’s sermon, but saw little power. The same evening he chose to expound the Scriptures, and saw great results. Again, he was gripped by the simplicity of just explaining the Scriptures to God’s people. More and more, Muller was being taught the elegance of a simple, unadorned faith.

Muller became very interested in witnessing to the Jewish people. It was through this that he ended up in London, with the London Missionary Society, and upon arriving began studying Hebrew and other related field for twelve hours a day. He fell very sick in 1829 and was sent to Teignmouth to recuperate and, whilst there, met Henry Craik, who became his life-long friend.

It was during this time that Muller came to the first great secret of His life – the importance of nourishing his soul daily with the Word of God. Muller had formerly read many other books, but neglected the Scriptures. He came increasingly to the position that he should read far more of the Scriptures than of any other book. Muller saw it as a priority that before any meeting with others, before any ministry to others, one’s inner man should be made happy in the Lord.

“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. This has been my firm and settled condition for the last five and thirty years. For the first four years after my conversion I knew not its vast importance, but now after much experience I specially commend this point to the notice of my younger brethren and sisters in Christ: the secret of all true effectual service is joy in God, having experimental acquaintance and fellowship with God Himself.”

“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.”

“Now in brotherly love and affection I would give a few hints to my younger fellow-believers as to the way in which to keep up spiritual enjoyment. It is absolutely needful in order that happiness in the Lord may continue, that the Scriptures be regularly read. These are God’s appointed means for the nourishment of the inner man. . . .Consider it, and ponder over it. . . . Especially we should read regularly through the Scriptures, consecutively, and not pick out here and there a chapter. If we do, we remain spiritual dwarfs. I tell you so affectionately. For the first four years after my conversion I made no progress, because I neglected the Bible. But when I regularly read on through the whole with reference to my own heart and soul, I directly made progress. Then my peace and joy continued more and more. Now I have been doing this for 47 years. I have read through the whole Bible about 100 times and I always find it fresh when I begin again. Thus my peace and joy have increased more and more.”

By the time he died, Muller had read through the Bible over 200 times.

He eventually felt that he could not be dependent upon the LMS, and resigned. Craik invited him to become a minister with him in Teignmouth and he became the pastor of Ebenezer Chapel in Devon and soon after, married Mary Groves.

Muller continued to apply his attitude of simply allowing the Word to speak. On one occasion he was challenged by three believing ladies if he had considered the matter of believers baptism versus infant baptism.

They naturally asked his opinion on the subject about which they were talking, and he replied that, having been baptized as a child, he saw no need of being baptized again. Being further asked if he had ever yet prayerfully searched the word of God as to its testimony in this matter, he frankly confessed that he had not.

At once, with unmistakable plainness of speech and with rare fidelity, one of these sisters in Christ promptly said: “I entreat you, then, never again to speak any more about it till you have done so.” (A.T. Pierson, George Mueller of Bristol, and His Witness to a Prayer-Hearing God)

Muller could not resist that kind of appeal for simple faith in the Scriptures and gave himself to studying the issue, until he arrived at the position of believer’s baptism, and was promptly baptised in 1830. This is how he approached all doctrine. His insistence on a return to primitive, simple worship led him to be closest to the founders of the Brethren Movement, though he differed with Darby on the timing of the rapture.

Here is the second secret of Muller’s life: a willingness to take the Scriptures at their Word, and obey them. Muller approached the Bible with childlike faith. If God has said it, then it is to be obeyed.

In 1832, Craik moved to Bristol, and asked Muller to join him, which he did. Bethesda Chapel began with a handful of people, devoted to structure their church simply according to the Word. The church ended up rather unusual for its time: an independent, premillennial, Calvinistic Baptist church that celebrated the Lord’s Supper every week, but still allowed unbaptised people to join. If that sounds eclectic, it was. Muller was a maverick, an eccentric in so many ways. He refused to take a salary from the church, believing it might hinder his freedom in preaching, and partly because of a system of pew rentals, which existed at the time. He refused all forms of debt, and would only buy on cash. Even if you disagree with some of his applications, Muller showed that God is willing to bless childlike obedience to the Word.

The church grew from its small beginnings with over 170 saved, so that by 1837 the church had over 370 members.

Muller’s first child, Lydia, was born in 1832, and their son Elijah was born in 1834. Elijah died when less than a year old, and Lydia would be George and Mary’s only child.

Muller had years before, stayed in the original home of a man who had done much orphan work in Germany, and the idea had never left him. The first step towards this was in 1833, “when not yet twenty-eight years old. It occurred to him to gather out of the streets, at about eight o’clock each morning, the poor children, give them a bit of bread for breakfast, and then, for about an hour and a half, teach them to read or read to them the Holy Scriptures; and later on to do a like service to the adult and aged poor. He began at once to feed from thirty to forty such person.” (Pierson, George Mueller of Bristol) But several obstacles caused them to abandon the plan, though not the idea.

In 1834, he founded the Scriptural Knowledge Institution for Home and Abroad, with the goal of aiding Christian schools and missionaries; distributing the Bible and Christian tracts; and providing Day-schools, Sunday-schools and Adult-schools, all upon a Scriptural foundation. By the end of February 1835, there were five Day-schools – two for boys and three for girls. Without government support and only accepting unsolicited gifts, this organisation received and disbursed £1,381,171 (approximately $2,718,844 USD) – around £90 million in today’s terms by the time of Müller’s death, primarily using the money for supporting the orphanages and distributing about 285,407 Bibles, 1,459,506 New Testaments, and 244,351 other religious texts, which were translated into twenty other languages. The money was also used to support other “faith missionaries” around the world, such as Hudson Taylor. The work continues to this day. (Pierson, George Mueller of Bristol)

The rules they set up for receiving gifts showed how much Muller wanted this all to be a work of God.

In early 1836, Muller was reading the Psalms, and he was struck with these nine words: “OPEN THY MOUTH WIDE, AND I WILL FILL IT.”

So, after much prayer, the first orphan house was opened. Muller stated why he opened this orphan house:

• That God may be glorified, should He be pleased to furnish me with the means, in its being seen that it is not a vain thing to trust in Him; and that thus the faith of His children may be strengthened.
• The spiritual welfare of fatherless and motherless children.
• Their temporal welfare.

…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 any one being asked by me or my fellow-laborers, whereby it may be seen, that God is FAITHFUL STILL, and HEARS PRAYER STILL.

Muller’s reasons for opening an orphan house reveal the third great secret of His life: The desire to see God publicly magnified and His people edified.

Muller wanted to give God a stage, a platform for Him to show that He is a prayer-answering, sovereign God. He was utterly convinced that people do not see God work not because God is unwilling or unable, but because His children are unbelieving. Muller wanted to use orphan work as an object lesson: here are the most helpless people in the world. Here we are, His children, seeking to help the helpless, and we do not solicit help from anyone except God.

A second orphan house was opened in 1849, a third in 1862, a fourth in 1868, and a fifth in 1870. 1836 to 1875 are really the period of time in which Muller did his chief life’s work: caring for the orphans, along with his pastoral work which he never gave up. To read Muller’s Narrative, or the shortened autobiography is to read story after story of the orphans brought to the very last penny, and God providing what was needed. Never did the orphans go without, never did God fail to send the money needed, the food needed, the workers needed, the property needed at the right time.

Müller prayed about everything and expected each prayer to be answered. One example was when one of the orphan house’s boiler stopped working; Müller needed to have it fixed. Now this was a problem, because the boiler was bricked up and the weather was worsening with each day. So he prayed for two things; firstly that the workers he had hired would have a mind to work throughout the night, and secondly that the weather would let up. On the Tuesday before the work was due to commence, a bitter north wind still blew but in the morning, before the workmen arrived, a southerly wind began to blow and it was so mild that no fires were needed to heat the buildings. That evening, the foreman of the contracted company attended the site to see how he might speed things along, and instructed the men to report back first thing in the morning to make an early resumption of work. The team leader stated that they would prefer to work through the night. The job was done in 30 hours.

Severe outbreaks of smallpox, cholera, typhoid and scarlet fever occurred in Bristol. Much prayer went up. In all that time, not one of the orphans contracted these diseases.

It wasn’t only large amounts that were answers to prayer, but small amounts too:

On one occasion a poor woman gave two pence, adding, “It is but a trifle, but I must give it to you.” Yet so opportune was the gift of these “two mites” that one of these two pence was just what was at that time needed to make up the sum required to buy bread for immediate use. At another time eight pence more being necessary to provide for the next meal, but seven pence were in hand; but on opening one of the boxes, one penny only was found deposited, and thus a single penny was traced to the Father’s care. (Pierson, George Muller)

Muller’s prayers for the orphan houses represent the fourth great secret of his life: a childlike holding of God to His Word in prayer.

“By the help of God, this shall be my argument before Him, respecting the orphans, in the hour of need. He is a Father, and therefore has pledged Himself, as it were, to provide for them; and I have only to remind Him of the need of these poor children in order to have it supplied.”

When people wondered at how he could have any peace with so many orphans to care for, he said:

“By the grace of God, this is no cause of anxiety to me. These children I have years ago cast upon the Lord. The whole work is His, and it becomes me to be without carefulness. In whatever points I am lacking, in this point I am able by the grace of God to roll the burden upon my heavenly Father.”

He called it holy argument, reminding God of what He Himself had pledged to be and do for His children. He felt that to not take God at His Word would make Him a liar. Furthermore, he kept on asking, as God has said we should.

For Muller, this was not the gift of faith, but the grace of faith that is available to every believer. He wrote:

My dear Christian reader, will you not try this way? Will you not know for yourself . . . the preciousness and the happiness of this way of casting all your cares and burdens and necessities upon God? This way is as open to you as to me. . . . 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.

God never failed to supply, and the orphans were well-taken care of. The children were dressed well and educated – Müller even employed a schools inspector to maintain high standards. To use Mr. Müller’s own words:

“We aim at this: that, if any of them do not turn out well, temporally or spiritually, and do not become useful members of society, it shall not at least be our fault.”

In fact, many claimed that nearby factories and mines were unable to obtain enough workers because of his efforts in securing apprenticeships, professional training, and domestic service positions for the children old enough to leave the orphanage.

Muller would publish the reports of the orphan houses and the societies, but he walked a fine line. On the one hand, he did not want to ask people for help and appear to be begging. On the other hand, he wanted the work of God to be known so that God would be glorified and the saints would be edified.

In 1866, his dear friend and co-labourer Henry Craik died.

Someone said to him, “What are you going to do, now that Mr. Craik is dead, to hold the people and prevent their scattering?”

“My beloved brother,” was the calm reply, “we shall do what we have always done, look only to the Lord.”

Four years later, his wife Mary died. He preached her funeral. He said something there that reveals the fifth great secret of his life: a deep submission to the good purposes of a sovereign God.

The last portion of scripture which I read to my precious wife was this: “The Lord God is a sun and shield, the Lord will give grace and glory, no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.” Now, if we have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have received grace, we are partakers of grace, and to all such he will give glory also. I said to myself, with regard to the latter part, “no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly”—I am in myself a poor worthless sinner, but I have been saved by the blood of Christ; and I do not live in sin, I walk uprightly before God. Therefore, if it is really good for me, my darling wife will be raised up again; sick as she is. God will restore her again. But if she is not restored again, then it would not be a good thing for me. And so my heart was at rest. I was satisfied with God. And all this springs, as I have often said before, from taking God at his word, believing what he says.

Muller’s prayers, His faith, lived on the back of a childlike faith in God’s Word, a God He held to be full of love for His people. He could be trusted, and He would not lie.

Muller remarried in 1871, marrying Susannah Sanger. In 1875, he began travelling to many other countries, fulfilling his lifelong dream of foreign missions. Take note – he began this travelling when he was 70 years old. Apparently, Muller did not believe that his best years were past. He conducted eleven preaching tours across the world. He travelled over 320,000 km, and this before the invention of the aeroplane.

He outlived his daughter Lydia, who died in 1890 at the age of 58. His second wife died in 1895, and he conducted her service as well.

He continued to pastor the church at Bristol, and preached the Sunday before he died, and led the Wednesday night meeting the night before.

On Thursday morning, March 10th, 1898 at about seven o’clock, the usual cup of tea was taken to his room. To the knock at the door there was no response save an ominous silence. Muller had died, aged 92.

The funeral, which took place on the Monday following, was a popular tribute of affection, such as is seldom seen. Tens of thousands of people reverently stood along the route of the simple procession; men left their workshops and offices, women left their elegant homes or humble kitchens, all seeking to pay a last token of respect. Bristol had never before witnessed any such scene.

The procession silently formed. Among those who followed the casket were four who had been occupants of that first orphan home in Wilson Street. The children’s grief melted the hearts of spectators, and eyes unused to weeping were moistened that day.

A great life.

And yet the greatness of it is all about the simplicity of it. Muller was not a gifted speaker, which only some are. He was not a gifted writer or scholar, which only some are. He was not a celebrity preacher, or a pioneer missionary. He was in all respects, an ordinary Christian. But he took his simple, ordinary faith to where others stop short. He applied five simple secrets to his life, which opened the floodgates of God’s power through him.

• the importance of nourishing His soul daily with the Word of God.
• a willingness to take the Scriptures at their Word, and obey them.
• the desire to see God publicly magnified and His people edified.
• a childlike holding of God to His Word in prayer.
• a deep submission to the good purposes of a sovereign God.