~ The Answer Might
Surprise You! ~
A number of
years ago I wondered about the best way for a Christian to increase their
intimacy with God. Should they spend a lot of time in prayer? Or would much
time reading the Bible be better. What about more time fellowshipping with
other Christians? Should they work hard on obedience? Eventually I found
several answers—all from sources I
greatly respect. They ALL pointed to getting into the Word of God—which the Spirit of God then uses to convict and grow.
(1) Many
Christians are familiar with George Muller (many pronounce it Mueller, but it
is pronounced similar to Miller) who lived from 1805 to 1898 and is renowned
for his great faith that God would provide (and He did) for the orphanages
which he ran.
“Without
faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6).
“The point is this:
I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to
which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. 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 this might not be attended 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 meditation on it, that thus my heart
might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and thus, whilst meditating, my heart might
be brought into experimental communion with the Lord. I began therefore, to meditate on the New
Testament, from the beginning, early in the morning.
“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.
“The result I have
found to be almost invariably this, 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.
“When thus I have
been for awhile making confession, or intercession, or supplication, or have
given thanks, I go on to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go, into
prayer for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it; but still continually
keeping before me, that food for my own soul is the object of my
meditation.
“The result of this
is, that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication,
or intercession mingled with my meditation, and that my inner man almost
invariably is even sensibly nourished and strengthened and that by breakfast
time, with rare exceptions, I am in a peaceful if not happy state of
heart.
“Thus also the Lord
is pleased to communicate unto me that which, very soon after, I have found to
become food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public
ministry of the Word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my
own inner man.
“The difference
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. At all events I
almost invariable began with prayer. ...
“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 hour, or even half an hour, I only then began really
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. In no book did I ever read it. No
public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private intercourse with
a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet now, since God has taught me
this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing the child of
God has to do morning by morning is to obtain food for his inner man.
“As the outward man
is not fit 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. We should take food for that, as everyone
must allow.
“Now what is the
food for 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 only 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. ...
“I dwell so
particularly on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and
refreshment I am conscious of having derived from it myself, and I
affectionately and solemnly beseech all my fellow-believers to ponder this
matter.
“By the blessing of
God I ascribe to this mode the help and strength which I have had from God to
pass in peace through deeper trials in various ways than I had ever had before;
and after having now above forty years tried this way, I can most fully, in the
fear of God, commend it.
“How different when
the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is
when, without spiritual preparation, the service, the trials and the
temptations of the day come upon one!”
(from the Autobiography of George Mueller;
compiled by Fred Bergen; London: J. Nisbet Co.; 1906; excerpts from pages
152-154)
In part two
we will look at others conclusions on this subject.
~ Robert Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE NOW
