George Müller's Fifty Thousand Answers

In 1836, George Müller opened his first orphan house on Wilson Street in Bristol, England, with exactly zero pounds in the bank. He had made a radical decision: he would never ask a single person for money. He would only pray.

Over the next sixty-three years, Müller cared for more than ten thousand orphans. He fed them, clothed them, educated them, and loved them — all without a fundraising committee, a single solicitation letter, or a line of credit. He recorded over fifty thousand specific answers to prayer in his journals. Bread arrived minutes before meals. Coal was delivered on the coldest mornings. Funds appeared on the exact day rent was due. Not once did a child go without.

When asked about the secret of his ministry, Müller never pointed to his own faith. He pointed to God's faithfulness. "The beginning of anxiety," he once said, "is the end of faith. The beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety."

Paul wrote to the Corinthians that God had enriched them in every way — in speech, in knowledge, in every spiritual gift — and that the same God who called them would keep them firm to the end. Why? Because "God is faithful" (1 Corinthians 1:9).

Müller's life was not a testament to extraordinary human willpower. It was sixty-three years of evidence that the One who calls us into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ, truly does sustain what He starts. Every morning in Bristol proved it again.