Praying Through
Scripture and George Müller’s Experience
The first thing I did (early in the morning), after having
asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing upon His precious word, was, to begin
to meditate on the Word of God, searching, as it were, into every verse to get
blessing out of it; not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon;
but for the sake of obtaining food for my soul.
The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very
few minutes my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to
intercession, or to supplication; so that, though I did not, as it were, give
myself to prayer, but to meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or
less into prayer…. With this mode I have
likewise combined the being out in the open air for an hour, an hour and a
half, or two hours before breakfast, walking about in the fields, and in the
summer sitting for a little on the stiles, if I find it too much to walk all
the time. I find it very beneficial to
my health to walk thus for meditation before breakfast, and am now so in the
habit of using up the time for that purpose, that when I get in the open air, I
generally take out a New testament of good-sized type, which I carry with me
for that purpose, besides my Bible: and I find that I can profitably spend my
time in the open air, which formerly was not the case for want of habit…. The difference, then, between my former
practice and my present one is this.
Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and
generally spent all my time till breakfast in prayer,
or almost all the time…. But what was
the result? I often spent a quarter of
an hour, or half an hour, or even an hour on my knees, before being conscious
to myself of having derived comfort, encouragement, humbling of soul, etc; and
often, after having suffered much from wandering of mind for the first ten
minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even half an hour, I only then really
began to pray. I scarcely ever suffer
now in this way. For my heart being
nourished by the truth, being brought into experimental fellowship with God, I
speak to my Father, and to my Friend (vile though I am, and unworthy of it!)
about the things that He has brought before me in His precious Word. It often now astonishes me that I did not
sooner see this point.
quoted
in Roger Steer, George Müller Delighted in God
(Tain, Scotland:
Christian Focus, 1997), pages 91-92.
For more information about praying through
Scripture, please see
Donald S. Whitney, Simplify Your Spiritual Life: Spiritual Disciplines for the Overwhelmed
(