The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” Job 1:21b
“For many weeks past very little has come in for the other funds. The chief supply has been by the sale of Bibles. Last Saturday I was not able to pay the whole of the weekly salaries of the teachers in the day schools, which, however, does not make me a debtor to them, as it is an understood thing that they have not to look to me for payment, but to the Lord. Today again only two shillings was in hand, whilst several pounds were needed to pay the salaries. It appeared now plainly to be the will of the Lord that, as all the laborers in the Orphan Houses know about the state of the funds, so the brethren and sisters who labor in the day schools should share the trial of faith and the joy of faith with us. Accordingly we all met, and after I had laid on their hearts the importance of keeping to themselves, for the Lord’s sake, the state of the funds, we prayed together.”
George Muller in Chapter XII “Plenty and Want” of for 29 August 1840 in The Life of Trust (London: H. Lincoln Wayland) 190.
Recently at GTP we put the word out for many to pray with us for funds to add staff. I must report that on 31 December 2021, we hit the mark so we have started the search for staff. The timing was one month longer to reach the goal than we had hoped. But in that window, new givers came to the table, and the effort stretched the faith of our board, staff, and regional facilitators.
Why tell this today? If we are pastors, ministry adminstrators, or others in positions of leadership, we must “share the trial of faith and the joy of faith” with those we serve as it helps everyone grow. We must live, give, serve, and love in a way that teaches people to trust God. Listen to Muller’s account of the impact that trusting God had on their entire team on 9 December 1840.
“This way of living brings the Lord remarkably near. He is, as it were, morning by morning inspecting our stores, that accordingly He may send help. Greater and more manifest nearness of the Lord’s presence I have never had than when after breakfast there were no means for dinner, and then the Lord provided the dinner for more than one hundred persons; or when, after dinner, there were no means for the tea, and yet the Lord provided the tea; and all this without one single human being having been informed about our need. This moreover I add, that although we who have been eyewitnesses of these gracious interpositions of our Father, have not been so benefited by them as we might and ought to have been, yet we have in some measure derived blessings from them. One thing is certain, that we are not tired of doing the Lord’s work in this way.”
As you “share the trial of faith and the joy of faith” may you bring the Lord remarkably near to those you serve and may they not tire of doing the Lord’s work in this way. May they be eyewitnesses of the gracious interpositions of our Father. And may this transform them to live as conduits of material and spiritual blessings with ever growing faith. Nothing can touch the life of trust!