George Müller's Empty Cupboard on Ashley Down

In 1838, George Müller sat at a breakfast table in Bristol, England, with three hundred orphans and not a crumb of food in the kitchen. The cupboards were bare. The milkman's bill was unpaid. Every reasonable voice said to write letters, solicit donors, make his desperate need known. Müller refused. He bowed his head and prayed aloud so the children could hear: "Father, we thank You for what You are going to give us to eat."

Minutes later, a knock came at the door. A local baker, unable to sleep the night before, had risen at two in the morning to bake enough fresh bread for every child. Before the bread was distributed, the milkman's cart broke down directly outside the orphanage, and he offered all his milk rather than let it spoil.

For sixty years, Müller fed over ten thousand orphans this way — never once sending a fundraising letter, never once making a public appeal. He simply lifted his soul to the Lord and waited.

The Psalmist writes, "To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, in You I trust." Müller's empty cupboard became a daily altar where trust was tested and found sufficient. God's paths, as the Psalm promises, are steadfast love and faithfulness for those who keep His covenant. The provision was never early, but it was never absent.