George Muller

I mentioned a while ago that I am reading a book about the life and works of George Muller, a man of incredible faith who saw God's provision in breath taking ways. I just want to share with you a little extract of what I read this morning that brought tears to my eyes at God's faithfulness. (I hope this is not illegal!)

At the end of November 1857, a serious leak was noticed coming from the boiler in one of the children's homes Muller had built. They knew it would take several weeks for a new boiler to be installed, and Muller was particularly concerned that none of the children should suffer the cold of winter. The quickest solution was to get the boiler repaired which required the brickwork around the boiler to be dismantled. The day after the boiler broke, a cold North wind set in...

'Muller knelt to pray:

'Lord, You know that I cannot put the repairs off. Dear Father, I ask for two things. Would you please change the North wind to a South wind; and will you give the workmen a "mind to work" as you did when Nehemiah rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem in fifty-two days because "the people had a mind to work"?'

On the Tuesday evening before the workmen were due to arrive, the north wind blew still; but on the Wednesday, the south wind blew, exactly as he had prayed. The weather was so mild that no fire was needed. The workmen arrived on cue, removed the brickwork, found the leak in the boiler and began to repair it.
At about half past eight on the Wednesday evening when Muller was going home, he was stopped at the lodge at the entrance to the Ashley Down homes.
'The head of the firm', the porter told him, 'which manufactured the boiler has arrived to see how the work is going and if he can do anything to speed things up.'
Muller returned at once to No.1 and went down to the basement to meet the boss and see how the work was going.
'The men will work late this evening' said the boss, ' and come very early again tomorrow.'
'We would rather, sir, work through the night!' said the foreman.
Muller remembered the second part of his prayer. God had certainly given the men a 'mind to work'!
In the morning the men completed the repairs, stopped the leak...and within about thirty hours had rebuilt the brickwork. Finally they re-lit the fire in the boiler.
And all the time the South wind blew.'

(To give you a bit more of a perspective, by this point, Muller had received £113,000 in donations that he had prayed in, over the course of 22 years. This was in the nineteenth century, so £113,000 was a far more spectacular amount of money then than it is now. In his lifetime, he never once made people aware of the needs of the children of the homes, or the financial needs he faced in order to build the children's homes, he simply prayed and saw his prayers answered.)