George Müller's Surrendered Appetite

In 1825, a young German student named George Müller was living recklessly in Halle, drinking heavily, running up debts, and treating his body as a vehicle for every available pleasure. He later wrote that he had been "a lover of the things of this world" who saw no reason to deny himself anything that felt good.

Then Müller encountered the living Christ. The transformation was not instantaneous, but it was thorough. He began to understand that his body was not his own playground but a vessel purchased at an extraordinary cost. Over the following decades, Müller became famous for something remarkable — he fed over ten thousand orphans in Bristol, England, without ever asking a single person for money. He simply prayed and trusted the God who had bought him.

What strikes many who study Müller's life is the discipline of his own body. He rose early, ate simply, walked miles each day, and maintained vigorous health into his nineties. He once said that the great danger for any believer was not outright sin but the slow surrender to habits that master us — things permissible but not beneficial.

Paul's words to the Corinthians echo through Müller's story: "You are not your own; you were bought at a price." Müller understood that every meal, every hour of sleep, every decision about his body was an act of stewardship before the God who had redeemed him. He glorified God not with grand gestures alone, but in the daily, quiet honoring of a temple that belonged to Another.