Without question, George Muller is one of my favorite individuals in church history. Page after page in his autobiography, Muller recounts astonishing, providential answers to prayer. His life in many ways illustrated the truth that God is willing and able to do “exceeding abundantly” above all that we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). What was it that fueled the effectual, fervent prayer life of this remarkable man of God? Muller writes:
“The most important thing I had to do [to start the day] was to read the Word of God and to meditate on it. Thus, my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, and instructed. Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible. But I often spent a quarter of an hour to an hour on my knees struggling to pray while my mind wandered. Now I rarely have this problem. As my heart is nourished by the truth of the Word, I am brought into true fellowship with God. I speak to my Father and to my Friend (although I am unworthy) about the things He has brought before me in His precious Word…
It often astonishes me that I did not see the importance of meditation upon Scripture earlier in my Christian life. As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time unless he eats, so it is with the inner man. What is the food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God – not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through our minds, just as water runs through a pipe. No, we must consider what we read, ponder over it, and apply it to our hearts. When we pray, we speak to God. This exercise can be best performed after the inner man has been nourished by mediation on the Word of God.”
