I have been reading excerpts from the writings of George Muller. Here is a nugget received today.
The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all things might not be attended to in a right spirit. Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed in the morning.
Now I saw, that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus whilst meditating, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord.
The first thing I did, 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 the public ministry of the Word; not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon; but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.
As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time, except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man.
What is the food of the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God; and here again not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts.
When we pray we speak to God. Now, prayer, in order to be continued for any length of time in any other than a formal manner, requires, generally speaking, a measure of strength or godly desire, and the season, therefore, when this excercise of the soul can be most effectually performed, is, after the inner man has been nourished by meditation on the Word of God, where we find our Father speaking to us, to encourage us, to comfort us, to instruct us, to humble us, to reprove us.
We may therefore profitably meditate, with God's blessing, though we are ever so weak spiritually; nay, the weaker we are, the more we need meditation for the strengthening of our inner man. There is thus far less to be feared from wandering of mind, than if we give ourselves to prayer, without having had previously time for meditation.
George Muller
I find this fascinating! The man known for his prayers prayed in faith, understood that the food of the inner man is not the prayers, but the Word of God! In fact sustained consistant prayer is only going to happen if we are being properly nourished in the Word! Hello, light bulb moment for me! Have you ever felt like your prayers weren't going further than your ceiling? Have you ever found that your prayer life was seriously lacking? Have you ever thought that your prayers are not very effective and so you try to find someone extra spiritual to pray for you cause yours aren't going to work? Well, join the club!
But here it is, the advice from one of the greatest examples of prayer warriors ever: Be properly nourished in the Word of God and by the way--We need this nourishment in the morning. Because just as the body doesn't get far without a good breakfast, the inner man doesn't fair well without the spiritual food of the Word of God.
1 Peter 2:2 "like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord."
I pray that you are receiving nourishment from the Word of God today.
The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by day, all things might not be attended to in a right spirit. Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed in the morning.
Now I saw, that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God and to meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus whilst meditating, my heart might be brought into experimental communion with the Lord.
The first thing I did, 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 the public ministry of the Word; not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon; but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.
As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time, except we take food, and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with the inner man.
What is the food of the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God; and here again not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering over it, and applying it to our hearts.
When we pray we speak to God. Now, prayer, in order to be continued for any length of time in any other than a formal manner, requires, generally speaking, a measure of strength or godly desire, and the season, therefore, when this excercise of the soul can be most effectually performed, is, after the inner man has been nourished by meditation on the Word of God, where we find our Father speaking to us, to encourage us, to comfort us, to instruct us, to humble us, to reprove us.
We may therefore profitably meditate, with God's blessing, though we are ever so weak spiritually; nay, the weaker we are, the more we need meditation for the strengthening of our inner man. There is thus far less to be feared from wandering of mind, than if we give ourselves to prayer, without having had previously time for meditation.
George Muller
I find this fascinating! The man known for his prayers prayed in faith, understood that the food of the inner man is not the prayers, but the Word of God! In fact sustained consistant prayer is only going to happen if we are being properly nourished in the Word! Hello, light bulb moment for me! Have you ever felt like your prayers weren't going further than your ceiling? Have you ever found that your prayer life was seriously lacking? Have you ever thought that your prayers are not very effective and so you try to find someone extra spiritual to pray for you cause yours aren't going to work? Well, join the club!
But here it is, the advice from one of the greatest examples of prayer warriors ever: Be properly nourished in the Word of God and by the way--We need this nourishment in the morning. Because just as the body doesn't get far without a good breakfast, the inner man doesn't fair well without the spiritual food of the Word of God.
1 Peter 2:2 "like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation, if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord."
I pray that you are receiving nourishment from the Word of God today.
2 comments:
that is what i said!
this was an awesome post.
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