George Müller
1805 to 1898
George Müller was a German-born preacher who settled in Bristol and gave his life to caring for orphans. He took in more than ten thousand children over the years, and as a matter of principle never once asked anyone for money. He simply prayed, and the food and the funds arrived, again and again, for sixty years. His whole life was a deliberate, public argument that God hears prayer and can be trusted.
Müller’s whole life was a kind of public experiment, and he meant it to be read that way. He cared for thousands of orphans in Bristol across sixty years, and as a matter of settled principle he never once asked a single person for money. He prayed, he kept careful written records, and he let the results stand as the evidence. There were mornings when the children were at the table and the cupboard was bare, and he gave thanks and waited, and the food came.
You do not have to follow every detail of his method to be moved by the point he was making with his days. He wanted to show, in a way an ordinary person could check, that God hears prayer and can be trusted with real and pressing needs. The quiet boldness of that, lived out for a lifetime and not just argued, is why we feature him.
Quotes with a reflection
Selected sayings
A few more lines from George Müller, gathered as encouragement, each with a note on where it comes from or what it means.
-
“Work with all your might, but trust not in the least in your work.”
The man who fed thousands of orphans on prayer, on holding hard effort and real faith together.
George Müller