One of the great people of prayer that I have read about is a man called George Mueller of Bristol, England. Mueller led four influential ministries, but he is perhaps most well known today for the orphanages he ran.
During a time in England when most orphans lived in miserable workhouses or on the streets, Mueller took them in, fed them, clothed them, and educated them. He cared for as many as two thousand orphans at a time, and more than ten thousand in his lifetime. Yet he never made the needs of his ministries known to anyone except to God in prayer. Only through his annual reports were people informed of how God had provided.
Mueller had over fifty thousand specific recorded answers to prayer in his journals, thirty thousand of which he said were answered the same day or the same hour that he prayed them. Think of it: that’s five hundred definite answers to prayer each year, more than one per day, every day for sixty years! Plus God also provided the equivalent of $7,200,000.00 in answer to Mueller’s prayers.
But what made George Mueller’s prayer life so fruitful? One of the main reasons is that whenever it was laid upon George Mueller’s heart to pray for anything, he would search the bible to find if there was some promise that covered his need and request to God. Sometimes he would spend days reading and meditating on the scriptures before he presented his petition to God. And then when he found the promise, he would with his Bible open before him, and with his finger on that promise ask for what he required, and in doing so he received what he asked for. He always prayed with an open Bible before him.
Mueller’s discovery was that after spending time searching God’s promises in His word he was able to experience a powerful prayer life. “
Often we rush our requests to God, failing to build any real faith for what we are asking for. We ask, but not with the assurance we need based on God’s promises in His word. However thinking deeply on God’s promises – or meditating, is perhaps the biggest key regarding “taking in” God’s word, and having an effective prayer life.”
Today, I encourage you to seek to have a life full of answered prayers like George Mueller. Write down your requests to God, and then go to His word and find out what He has to say. What are His promises regarding your situation? When you discover the answer, bring your request to God in prayer, and petition Him according to His word, rather than your need. The whole of heaven responds to His promises, so it’s worth taking the time to find out what they are, and then bring them to God in prayer.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6)
“And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him”. (1 John 5:14-16)
Prayer: Lord I thank you for your promises, and that you are faithful to keep them. Help me to not rush in my requests to you, but to know and bring my petitions to you in faith that you will answer according to your promises. In Jesus Name Amen.