Recently I was re-reading (for the
umpteenth time) a section in the biography of James Hudson Taylor when I
noticed these words in a reference to George Muller of Bristol: “I consider my
first business to be, my most important business every day, to get blessing in
my own soul – for my own soul to be happy in the Lord, and then to work, and to
work with all diligence.”
While this could sound, as my wife
pointed out, very self-seeking, it shouldn’t be read that way. Anybody who has
read about George Muller knows that he wasn’t a self-interested man – quite the
opposite. Much of his day, and indeed most of his life, was devoted to caring
for orphans. What he was saying when he made this statement was that he
considered it his top priority to begin each day by taking care of his inner
man.
I like the way he puts it. He doesn’t say
that he made it his “most important business every day” to read his Bible and
pray for a set time. No, he speaks in terms of outcomes. Although he is
referring to his practice of Bible reading and prayer, he didn’t view this as a
religious ritual. Instead, he saw it as a means of getting “blessing in his
soul.”
The particular terms he uses are
interesting. When he speaks of his “soul” I take him to mean his heart, or his
inner man. He was looking to have the very depths of his being – the inner core
of his life – influenced by the Holy Spirit through reading, meditating and
praying in such a way that he felt “blessed.” He wanted to feel enriched,
strengthened and refreshed. The apostle Paul spoke of being inwardly “renewed
day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16) and prayed that the Ephesian
Christians might be strengthened “with power through the Spirit in your inner
being”(Ephesians 3:16). That’s evidently the sort of thing
that Muller is talking about.
Perhaps an example from personal
experience will help. This morning I found my own soul deeply stirred and
“blessed” while meditating on the opening verses of Matthew 23. They contain
Jesus’ warnings against the scribes and Pharisees on account of their
hypocrisy. They were to be honoured, he told his disciples and the crowd that
followed him, inasmuch as they sat “in Moses’ seat” – that is, were teachers of
the Law of Moses. But they weren’t to be followed, “for they do not practice
what they preach” (v. 3).
As a preacher myself, soon to begin
preparing a message for Sunday evening, I found myself arrested by these words.
They seemed to speak with pointed challenge to me. Was I someone people could
follow – because I practiced what I preached – or was I, like the Pharisees of
Jesus’ day, someone that couldn’t be imitated? Did I practice what I preached? I
found myself drawn to pray, “Lord, please keep me from the duplicity of the
Pharisees. Help me to so hear your Word that I practice as well as preach it.”
The experience left me humbled, watchful, chastened, challenged. I didn’t feel
“put down” or discouraged by what had happened, but purified and blessed. I was
the better for it. And certainly, when I did turn to sermon preparation, it was
with a heart eager to hear and do what God was saying. I’m sure that’s just the
sort of thing that George Muller was talking about.
But note that he also speaks of having
his soul made “happy in the Lord.” That’s much the same thing, except that it
has special reference to the Lord Jesus. He didn’t just look for any kind of
soul blessing; it was for soul blessing that left him “happy in the Lord” –
that is, had some reference to the Lord Jesus. He loved to come away from his
morning devotions truly happy in Jesus – glad to have such a Saviour, glad to
have met him and to be “in him”; glad of the privilege of serving him. In such
a state he was able to turn to the tasks of the day, whatever they were, with
diligence.
What a way to begin a day. Most of us pay
attention to renewing our outer man when we get up in the morning – that is, we
eat breakfast. But how easy it is to neglect the all-important “inner man”! Yet,
if we stop and think about it, the latter is the more important to take care
of. We can easily survive missing breakfast once in a while. It’s not likely to
affect much of what follows in the day. But the state of our hearts will.
Muller’s practice is worth following.