George Müller and the Orphans of Bristol

In 1835, George Müller sat in his study in Bristol, England, reading Scripture about caring for the fatherless. He had read such passages many times before. But on this particular morning, something shifted. Müller closed his Bible, stood up, and began knocking on doors — not to discuss theology, but to find a building where orphaned children could sleep that very winter.

Within weeks, Müller opened his first home for thirty girls on Wilson Street. He had no steady income, no wealthy board of directors, no fundraising campaigns. What he had was a conviction that God's Word required more than nodding agreement. Over the next six decades, Müller would house and feed over ten thousand orphans in five large homes overlooking the city of Bristol, all without ever making a direct appeal for money.

What set Müller apart was not unusual intelligence or remarkable talent. Plenty of Christians in Victorian England read the same scriptures about compassion for the vulnerable. Many preached eloquent sermons on the subject. Müller simply refused to let the Word remain words. He treated every command of Scripture as a personal assignment from the Almighty.

James 1:22 warns us that hearing without doing is self-deception. Müller understood this instinctively. The Bible was never meant to be merely admired — it was meant to be obeyed. Every passage we read is an invitation not just to believe, but to act.