Three Tips to Answered Prayer from George Mueller

One of the mightiest men of prayer from the 19th Century was George Mueller. (See his story in my previous post.) In the last sixty years of his life (he lived to be 92 or 93), he received through prayer alone the English equivalent of $7,200,000.00 by the 1924 value of the dollar.

George Mueller  (1805-1898)

That money enabled him to build an orphanage of five large buildings that cared for and educated more than 10,000 children, establish 117 schools which offered Christian education to more than 120,000 children, sail around the world on a missionary evangelistic tour, and support Hudson Taylor, missionary to China, and other faith missionaries.

Here are three of his prayer practices that brought such phenomenal results:

1.  He searched the Scriptures for a promise that covered the situation. 

Before Mueller prayed for anything, he first searched the Bible for a promise that covered his need. According to R. A. Torrey in The Power of Prayer, sometimes Mueller searched for days before he presented his petition to God. When he found the promise, he'd place his finger upon it, and begin to plead that promise. He always prayed with an open Bible in front of him.

As James 4:3 says, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures" (NKJV). But when you pray the will of God, you receive what you ask. That is why Mueller always received what he asked for--because he would pray the will of God as expressed in God's promises.

2. He always meditated on Scriptures before prayer.

Mueller discovered that after meditating on Scripture, he experienced a more meaningful prayer time.
He experienced the truth of what William Bridge, a Puritan writer, said: "Reading without meditation is unfruitful; meditation without reading is hurtful; to meditate and to read without prayer upon both is without blessing."

According to Donald S. Whitney in Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, Christian meditation, that is, thinking deeply on Scripture, is "the missing link between Bible intake and prayer." He believed that the secret to George Mueller's prayer life was his discovery of the connection between meditation and prayer. After meditating on Scripture, he was more able to experience a meaningful prayer time.

3. He never gave up until the answer came.

Mueller prayed for two years before God sent him enough money to build the first home to house 300 children. He prayed for seven more years for enough money to construct the next two homes. The Apostle Paul wrote, "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17). Mueller did, and he never gave up!