“Let us all say grace,” George Mueller said, but the 300 orphaned children sitting around the table were not convinced. They had heard the housemother whisper that there was no food in the orphanage. Why say grace when there was no breakfast to be had?
George Mueller had founded and ran the orphanage in 19th century England. George insisted on living by faith–the orphanage relied on God’s provision in the form of whatever spontaneous donations came; they did not accept regular donors or sponsors. Because of this, they were forced to rely solely on God for any and all provision. God had always come through, but now here they sat–saying grace for a breakfast that had not yet appeared.
As they bowed their heads for grace, there was a knock at the door and Mr. Mueller went to answer it. It was the baker; he had been awakened in the middle of the night and prompted to bake three batches of bread for the orphanage. They started rejoicing. Just then another knock came–the milkman’s cart had broken down in front of the orphanage and he had to do something with all the milk or it would spoil–could they use a cart full of milk? There was just enough milk to satiate 300 thirsty children.
Just like God provided for the Israelites in the middle of the wilderness wanderings, so He still provides for us today. God gave the Israelites just enough manna to get them through the day, and once a week just enough to get them through two days. If they gathered more, it would spoil. God always provides in His time. Not always in the way we want but always in His time, and often just in time.
This kind of reliance on God takes faith. It can be scary, but in these times it’s important to ask ourselves if we truly believe in God’s provision? Do we trust Him to take care of all our needs? I am not saying that we shouldn’t work and do what we were put on this earth to do–we most certainly should, but when our plans have failed and we have fallen short of what we need, do we trust God to close the distance?
So many times we see the need coming and we panic. Before the need has even arrived, we look down the pipeline, and we do everything we can to close the gap. When these plans work, we congratulate ourselves for solving our problem. We take God out of the equation. We neglect to realize that God is the one who allows the circumstances to come together.
Have you ever been in the middle of a scary situation that you were itching to jump in and try to solve and you felt God urging you to wait and to trust him? Have you listened? Or have you rushed ahead with your plan of how to solve things? How did that work out for you?
The next time things aren’t going the way you want and you feel like you’re trying to fix everything, and nothing, absolutely nothing, is working, pray that you will remember the faith of George Mueller, and then stop and ask God what His plan is, and then allow Him to show you. It could be that He wants you to work harder; it could be that He wants you to work differently; it could be that He wants to you to just wait and trust that He will come through for you—just in time.