Powerful Faith.

One morning the plates and cups and bowls on the table were empty. There was no food in the larder, and no money to buy food. The children were standing waiting for their morning meal, when Mr. Mueller said, "Children, you know we must be in time for school." Lifting his hand he said, "Dear Father, we thank Thee for what Thou art going to give us to eat." There was a knock on the door. The baker stood there, and said, "Mr. Mueller, I couldn't sleep last night. Somehow I felt you didn't have bread for breakfast and the Lord wanted me to send you some. So I got up at 2 a.m. and baked some fresh bread, and have brought it." Mueller thanked the man. No sooner had this transpired when there was a second knock at the door. It was the milkman. He announced that his milk cart had broken down right in front of the Orphanage, and he would like to give the children his cans of fresh milk so he could empty his wagon and repair it. No wonder, years later, when Mueller was to travel the world as an evangelist, he would be heralded as "the man who gets things from God!"


George Muller has always been one my favorite men of faith. Imagine having so certain a belief that God will provide your needs that he could look at all those orphans and bless the food that hadn't arrived yet. It's certainly not very difficult for me to pray and ask God for something, but I'm too scared of looking foolish to say anything to anyone about it. I'm guilty of the kind of faith where I'll just wait til after God does it to proclaim that I believed He would. Envision yourself looking around at a sea of children's faces and blessing invisible food. What would happen if God didn't come through?

I think it's interesting that God didn't provide the food until after Mr. Muller prayed. It wasn't out of God's power to provide the food before the children came to breakfast. I believe one of the reasons he waited was to increase the children's faith as well. Not only that, but if Mr. Muller hadn't thanked God for the food He was sending, how many of those children do you think would have just believed that it came from the baker and the milkman?

I believe God does provide things that people ask for but don't openly believe until they receive. But God is more glorified by an open, praising faith, that believes even if it's set up to look stupid and thanks God for what hasn't been given yet. And if you believe Him strongly enough to say, "Hey, I believe God's going to give me what I've asked for!" I bet He'll come through better than you thought possible.

But what if you aren't sure God wants you to have what you've asked for? This is probably my biggest area of doubt. I don't know how to answer that question. That's what I've been wondering all spring as I've been praying that the Christian Community Summer pool will be able to open this year. It's a Christian pool, encouraging modesty and Christian behavior and is the highlight of every summer (or rather, it's my entire life during the summer). Is it possible God doesn't want it to open?

Perhaps it's worth looking foolish to openly believe God for something and have Him say no. I think I'll try it. I'm believing that God will provide the necessary funds to open the pool this summer. I'll let you know how it turns out.