Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!
God is our provider!
George Mueller, who ran an orphanage in nineteenth- century Bristol, England, was a man of vision. He made it a policy never to reveal his financial needs to anyone. Even when people asked, he would tell only the Lord what the needs were. He saw God as his ultimate provider, and he believed that if God was in the ministry, He would lay it on people's hearts to participate.
One man, visiting the orphanage, said to Mueller, "Of course you cannot carry on these institutions without a good stock of funds."
Mueller acknowledged that that was the case.
"Have you a good stock?" the man asked.
Mueller, knowing that he was penniless, only answered quietly, "Our funds are deposited in a bank which cannot break."
The man responded by saying he wanted to make an investment in that bank, and he gave Mueller a sizable gift!
Many times when Mueller had no money, no food, and no knowledge of where the orphans' next meal would come from, he would nevertheless gather them around the table at mealtime and thank the Lord for His gracious provision. On more than one occasion, while they were yet praying, an unexpected donor would show up with food enough for everyone.
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I've seen this happen in my ministry, too. As a young preacher, sensing the call of God to preach the gospel to the world, I left San Francisco on a ship with only twelve dollars in my pocket. That was all I had, except for enough faith to believe that the God who had called me could also provide my needs along the way. He did, and I learned that God's provision is one thing that is a certainty. The eyes of faith lay hold of what God has promised to do, not what the natural eyes see happening.
The apostle Paul, writing about the faith of Abraham, said he trusted a God who "calls those things which do not exist as though they did" (Rom. 4:17). What would we normally say about someone who calls things that are not as though they were? We would say he is a liar. But not so with God. He can call the things that are not as though they are because He knows the end from the beginning (see Isa. 46:10). That means He knows how things will turn out from the time they start. He looks into the future and sees the culmination of all He's going to do. The future is so certain with Him that He counts it as an accomplished fact and declares it to be so.
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William James Roop
