The year was 1847. In England, a crashed stock market (caused by a bubble in railroad stocks – my, how times have changed!) combined with poor crop harvests brought about rising food costs, higher material costs, higher inflation, and higher interest rates from the Bank of England. It would later be called the Panic of 1847. This crisis would last until 1855!
Many of those conditions may sound familiar to the times we are currently living in…but, imagine running an orphanage supporting ~300 orphans and a ministry based solely on God’s provision. Yet, during the economic severity of those days, George Muller writes on April 20,1851:
In the midst of the great depression of the times, which was so generally felt, and on account of which, humanly speaking, I also might have been exceedingly tried for want of means, I, on the contrary, at no period of the work for the seventeen years previous had a greater abundance of means. I do on purpose lay stress upon this because I desire that it may become increasingly known that there is no easier, no better, and no happier way in the end than God’s way.
Was George’s life devoid of trials and tests of faith? By no means. In fact, many times he had to wait months (and sometimes years) for God to bring about an answer to his prayers. One of the many things I appreciate from his life is that he would keep count of how long he prayed for something – literally, down to the day! How many of us are able to be steadfast in prayer for 19 months while we wait on God to act and move for His glory? And, so we come to the challenge from George for us today. He encourages us on June 11, 1850, with this note:
It is a point of great importance in the divine life not to be anxiously reckoning about the morrow, nor dealing out sparingly on account of possible future wants which may never come; but, to consider that the present moment to sever the Lord only is ours, and that the morrow may never come to us.
Dear readers…may I stress the point of great importance George highlights: How many of us succumb to ‘earthly wisdom’ and so save for retirement, save for calamity, save for whatever fears we may have…when, none of those fears may ever come to be! “But, it’s wisdom to save for retirement,” you say. Why are we like the world? Why should we spend our last days living for ourselves, bored and without fruit…when we should be considering eternity and that we will stand before the Lord and give an account. How much of our lives resembles those who are not even saved?
This is not an easy lesson; it’s probably not without reason that George decided to make this point towards the end of his autobiography (and give us a chance to read about all the ways God answered prayer prior to making this statement). May we consider eternity, consider our lives before God, consider our ‘fruit that abides’ and therefore consider how we might start living differently with our money even today? Little changes now build faith that will lead to big changes down the road. Let us be faithful with what the Lord has given us. Let us use whatever means we have to build His kingdom. And when our time on earth comes to an end, may we look back without regret knowing we gave Him all we could.
There isn’t any way to live like this without trusting the Lord. It’s scary. We take our future and place it out of our control and into God’s hands. What will come about? Surely tests of faith. But, like Peter says in his first book, faith that is tested and genuine will result in praise, glory, and honor when Christ returns (1 Peter 1:3-7). We have an inheritance that is imperishable…let’s be a people set apart, living differently, and trusting the Lord with whatever may come our way. He is good!
Bless you all abundantly.
