The Heavenly Order - When a General Takes the Lowest Place

The Crimean War would later come to be known as "incompetent international butchery". The men fighting in it knew it to be such already. Many of them didn't even know why the fighting had started but they had neither the time nor the energy to question that now. For most, it was simply a battle to stay alive. 

The British troops were located just outside of Sevastopol, a position that had taken the allied forces almost a year to attain. In that time, they had gained a mere thirty miles of distance. No one knew how much more it would cost - in the way of time and lives - to take the five miles that yet remained.

 Within the British lines the men were competing against each other as well as against the enemy. General Gordon struggled to know how to lead such a group. There was no great purpose in the war - nothing to inspire a man to give his life willingly. Now even basic honour and the sense of camaraderie were being forgotten, for each man cared only to save himself.

The General tried to put such musings out of his mind and concentrate on strategy instead, but it was of little use. The thoughts kept returning. How can we win when we are fighting against ourselves? He frowned and shook his head. What's the point! If we have lost our honour we might as well loose our lives! His thoughts were interrupted as cannon fire destroyed part of the gabion and a cascade of stones and concrete fell into the trench. When the dust cleared a man lay dead on the ground, a large chunk of rock by his head. Three others had minor injuries, and the damaged gabion threatened to drop more rock as soon as another blast shook the embankment. 

The corporal in charge of the area shouted to one of the many privates. "Go repair the cage!" 

The private, a boy still in his teens, fell back at the command. The enemy fire was heavy upon the embankment and the task would likely cost him his life.

 The corporal looked up at the stones that rested above, no longer secured by the thick metal wires that had held them. The crowded trench left men little room to dodge falling debris. "I said get up there!" He repeated.

 The soldier's face had drained of all colour. Biting his lip fiercely he moved toward the nearest ladder. 

The general, unnoticed by either party, watched the boy with interest. He knew the inward struggle the private was facing. 

The boy was trying to make up his mind to die. He was visibly shaking as he took hold of the ladder and put his foot on the first rung. He climbed no further than that. "Please Sir, I can't!" 

His leader's face showed no compassion. "You can and you will!" 

The boy shook his head. "Would you do it, Sir?" 

The corporal looked equally surprised and enraged at the question. He slapped the private across the face. "It's not my job to do it!" Grabbing the youth by the collar he slammed him against the wall of earth. "You can die up there, or you can die down here - you choose!" He lifted the rifle that he held, as he waited for the soldier's response.

General Charles Gordon had seen enough! He silently picked up one of the heavy coils of wire and ascended the ladder himself. Several of the men gasped in astonishment and even the attention of the enraged corporal was drawn upwards. Up to the General who was repairing the gabion himself!

 The enemy fire was continuous. The explosions generated so much heat that the air burned in Gordon's lungs. He paused to pull his shirt over his face. Repairing the cage of wire was a slow and tedious task of weaving. 

The fire of cannons caused the embankment to shake beneath him as he worked and numerous bullets, many of which narrowly missed him, caused chips of rock to fly loose and hit him. It seemed like an eternity before the work was finished and he was able to descend the ladder into the safety of the trench. When he did, he was covered in sweat, blood, and debris. 

He approached the corporal. “Never,” he shouted, “Never tell another man to do that which you are afraid to do yourself!”

The expectations of the corporal should not be strange to us. It was simple selfishness. He was willing to make another man risk his life because he didn't want to do it himself. The man considered his own life to be of higher value than that of the man who ranked beneath him. 

Our selfishness may never be seen in the dramatic nature of the story above, but we also have placed ourselves - our needs, our goals, our desires - above others. Few of us have faced such a battle as the Crimean War, yet many of us have abandoned compassion and chosen to seek our good above the needs of others.

Its a behaviour that I've seen even in little children. Often in the context of a game like tag or hide and seek. The children know that the person who is "it" could be hiding anywhere, just waiting to jump out and surprise them. So they forced the youngest child to go ahead of the rest of them to see if the coast is clear. Rather than being protected and given the advantage, the smallest is used as a buffer to help the older ones get away. As we grow older most of us learn to be more subtle about it than that. But the attitude remains, only in a manner that is easier to excuse or to hide.

  We esteem positions of greatness because the come with power and convenience. High rank allows those who posses it the freedom to leave the unpleasant, difficult jobs to others. This is true regardless of the area - it could be in childhood play or business, military life or social. The lesser ranks are left the unpleasant duty of obeying, serving, and building up the higher ones. 

But what happens when a man like General Gordon demonstrates another way to use position? 

Charles Gordon was not the first of high rank to take the lowest place and serve those beneath him. The King of Kings, the very God of the universe Himself, left His place on high to do the same. 

If anyone was in a position to be served it was God. He who is worthy of all praise. Yet He used His power and position to step down to the lowest place, our place, and do the unpleasant job. This action was in direct opposition to the world's system.  

"Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His garments, took a towel and girded Himself. After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded. Then He came to Simon Peter. And Peter said to Him, “Lord, are You washing my feet?”

 Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this.”

Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!”

Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

 Simon Peter said to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!”

Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” For He knew who would betray Him; therefore He said, “You are not all clean.”

So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them." (John xiii. 3-17)

When our General, knowing His position - that He had come from God and was going to God- deliberately began to serve, the world's system of hierarchy was turned upside down. Peter said to the Lord, "You shall never wash my feet!" because in the order he was reasoning from the servant was the lowest place. My God is to be raised high. Jesus should be served by us, not be serving us! Peter thought. But he needed to learn that the order in heaven is altogether different from the one he knew here on earth. That God's ranking is exactly opposite to the world's.  

God redefined the position of greatness. On this earth those who have earned greatness receive service, acclaim, and ease as their reward but in heaven greatness is the opportunity to be the one who takes the lowest place. Authority is the job of caring for all before oneself. Leadership is demonstrated by doing the worst job and never allowing it to fall on another. 

The highest position has already been claimed by our General and King - Jesus Christ. Yet He has said, "You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet." His action, like General Gordon's, was meant to be an example to His men.

"Then a dispute arose among them as to which of them would be greatest. And Jesus, perceiving the thought of their heart, took a little child and set him by Him, and said to them, “Whoever receives this little child in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me receives Him who sent Me. For he who is least among you all will be great.” (Luke ix. 46 -48)

Instead of clamouring for notice and position we are taught to long for the opportunity to serve God through the service of others. This was the attitude of Christ. Taking the lowest place does not come naturally to us, for our selfishness would persuade us to seek our own gain whenever and wherever we can. We must persistently choose to practice a different system.

The action of washing the disciples feet was a demonstration of humility. This example can be applied to any area. The lowest place may be found in washing someone's feet, in risking one's life to fix a gabion, in volunteering to be the one to peak around the corner in the game of tag, or in any number of other ways. Such are to be considered the position of honour and we should desire to have them for ourselves, instead of passing them off to another. Do not strive for greatness in the world's system, but in God's. For in heaven's order it is those who take the lowest place that will be called up higher.

"So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them: “When you are invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place, lest one more honourable than you be invited by him; and he who invited you and him come and say to you, ‘Give place to this man,’ and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place, so that when he who invited you comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, go up higher.’ Then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”" (Luke xiv. 7-11)

Whatever the motivator - fear or a desire for gain - do not pawn the harder position off on another, nor leave it for him to find. That is to give away your opportunity for greatness in the eternal order. As General Charles Gordon reprimanded his officer,

“Never, never tell another man to do that which you are afraid to do yourself!”

Instead ask God to give you courage and make you willing to do what needs to be done. Remember that your General did it first. He is our example.

In Christ

quiana

Freedom in Thee - What God Gave Gladys Aylward

Gladys had wanted to be an actress since she was a little girl and though she had little in the way of money or education she was determined to make it work. Having to get a job as a maid did not change her plans in the least. She worked hard in the day and used her evenings to attend drama clubs and theatrical meetings. Though Gladys grew up in a Christian home and had been taught to attend church and read the bible regularly, she now found that she had little use for God and religion, and even less time for them. She had nothing against Christianity. She still believed in God but there were other demands on her time now. Church meetings, bible reading, and prayer couldn't be the priority if she was going to reach her goals!

Many of us have found ourselves in the same position as Gladys. We have demands on our time that can easily take priority over God. We may never say that we have little use for Him but our actions too often say it for us. It is easy to recognize when a person walks away from God completely, but when a person partially walks away from Him they sometimes don't even recognize it themselves.

"...Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." (Romans xii. 1)

Jesus presented Himself as a sacrifice and the punishment for the sins we had committed fell upon Him in our place. While He suffered and died we were made into the very children of God. We became spotless, blameless, with access to the Father's presence, and an inheritance preserved for us in heaven. Jesus gave Himself to us entirely. He gifted us the fullness of who He was and Paul tells us that it is our reasonable service to give ourselves back to Him.

This is not a new or profound concept to most of us, yet it is rarely applied. We esteem the idea of giving ourselves over to God, but do we practically do it?  Many of us live in a state of partial surrender instead of presenting our bodies as living sacrifices. Mistakenly we expect that we can both be a sacrifice and still hold on to our own expectations, pleasures, and goals. We are essentially saying, "God you can have my life but this is what it is going to look like..." We decide what job we are going to work, what country we will live in, how much money we need to make, or how many children we will have without ever asking if those are God's plans. Because we assume that certain decisions are ours to make.

One night when Gladys was walking home from a theatrical meeting, she noticed that the lights of a nearby church were still on. It was late for a meeting and her curiosity drew her inside. The part of the message that Gladys caught changed the course of her life. She did not become an actress; instead she spent her life as a missionary to China. For in that late night meeting Gladys realized that God had a claim upon her life. The lesson she learned was something like what Paul was trying to teach the Corinthians.

"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies." ( 1 Corinthians vi. 19-20)

  Instead of continuing her education in drama, Gladys Aylward enrolled in the China Inland Mission Center. It was not an easy decision to make, but she was determined to follow God's plans instead of her own and He told her to go to China. Three months in to her time at the school, the committee decided that Gladys' qualifications were too slight,  she was too old - at 28, and her education too limited to warrant acceptance. "The Chinese language," they told her, "would be far too difficult for you to learn." Still Gladys pressed on, with that same determination, with which she had pursued acting. Only this time she was pursuing God's plan instead of her own and was depending on Him to make it happen. Gladys later paid her own way to China and went, not to fulfill her own dreams, but to further God's kingdom. She had offered herself to God as a living sacrifice and was prepared to accept the cost.

The word sacrifice indicates loss and usually the loss of life. When an Israelite brought an animal to be sacrificed to God that animal was lost to them. It was no longer counted among their flocks and no thought that they could make a profit from some part of it would have entered their mind. It was forfeited - given to God. God did not ask for partial sacrifices. The concept is no different when it comes to us. 

"For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." (Matthew xvi. 25)

We cannot give our bodies and our lives as living sacrifices and still plan to use them how we please. Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me."(Luke ix. 23) A cross is a device of execution; a way of dying. That is what Jesus told His followers to take up daily. Dead men don't have plans for how they will spend their lives, nor do they count on attaining pleasures. It cannot be that we fit God in around other things, it must be that we do all unto the glory of God - whether we eat, or drink, or study, or work. These things must be held loosely, so that we can relinquish them if God asks us to do something different. He asks us for a heart of continual surrender not just minutes, or even hours, spent in bible study, prayer, or witnessing. This may seem like a great resignation but it is simply our reasonable service to the God who saved us.

"And which of you, having a servant plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and sit down to eat’? But will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare something for my supper, and gird yourself and serve me till I have eaten and drunk, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I think not. So likewise you, when you have done all those things which you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have done what was our duty to do.’” (Luke xvii. 10)

Late in Gladys Aylward's life an author came to to her asking to get her stories. She told him that he must have been directed to the wrong person. She didn't think she had done any thing that was worthy of writing about. At his request however she began telling him of the 'simple' life she had lived with God. Her first job in China was to serve and preach the gospel to mule train drivers who came to stay at the missionary's inn. Later she worked for the Chinese Government as a "foot inspector" (to stop the tradition of binding, and so crippling, little girl's feet) and when she proved herself to be capable in this position, she was asked to stop a prison riot in which the inmates were murdering each other. This she succeeded in doing and then regularly went back to minister to the prisoners. When Japanese armies invaded China, Gladys saved the lives of a hundred children by traveling with them, over the mountains, to Siam. It is easy to see that this woman lived an incredible life, but that life was not for her own glory and was not even the life of her choosing.

"I have not done what I wanted to. I have not eaten what I wanted to, or worn what I would have chosen. I have not lived in a house that I would have ever looked at twice. I longed for a husband, babies, security, and love. God didn't give that. He left me alone for seventeen years with one book - a Chinese Bible. I don't know anything about your latest novels, pictures, theaters. I live in a rather out dated world. And I suppose you say, "well, it's awful miserable, isn't it?" Friends, I've been one of the happiest women that has ever stepped this earth. I have raised someone else's children, whom I have loved with a great love because Jesus Christ loved me, and who I am now receiving love back from. Lord, give us freedom. Freedom in Thee. That You might be able to pick us up and put us down. And use us when and where and how You like. That someone might know how much You love them." - Gladys Aylward

Living in obedience to God is our duty, but it is also the greatest privilege. When He asks us to give our plans up, this can be easy to forget. Yet His plans are exceedingly beyond any of ours!

"A Christian lady once expressed to a friend how impossible she found it to say, "Thy will be done," and how afraid she should be to do it. She was the mother of one, only little boy, who was the heir to a great fortune, and the idol of her heart. After she had stated her difficulties fully, her friend said, "Suppose your little Charley should come running to you tomorrow and say, 'Mother, I have made up my mind to let you have your own way with me from this time forward. I am always going to obey you and I want you to do just whatever you think best with me. I know you love me and I am going to trust myself to your love.' How would you feel towards him? Would you say to yourself, ' Ah, now I shall have a chance to make Charley miserable. I will take away all his pleasures and fill his life with every hard and disagreeable thing I can find. I will compel him to do just the things that are most difficult for him to do and will give him all sorts of impossible commands.'""Oh, no, no, no!" Exclaimed the indignant mother. "You know I would not. You know I would hug him to my heart and cover him with kisses and would hasten to fill his life with all that was sweetest and best." "And are you more tender and more loving than God?" Asked her friend. "Ah, no," was the reply "I see my mistake, and I will not be afraid of saying 'Thy will be done' to my Heavenly Father any more than I would want my Charley to be afraid of saying it to me."- Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian Secret to a Happy Life

We need to submit ourselves fully to God's will, but remember that it is the good and perfect will of the one who loves us best. Even if He chooses to lead us on hard and difficult paths we can be sure that it is the best way and that He will walk it with us!

In Christ 

quiana

Ask - How Children Came to the Mueller's Orphanage

One summer day, when I was a small child, my family stopped at a garage sale. My siblings and I were eager to look through the plethora of kid's things while my mom looked over the other items. I found a shelf of books and one story in particular that I really liked and brought it up to my mom. She was talking with the lady who was holding the sale. I touched her leg and waited until I had her attention, then I whispered my question to her. Could we buy the book that I had found? Despite my hushed tone, the lady, who my mom had been talking with, overheard my question and generously offered to let me have the book for nothing. 

"Say thank-you." My mom said. That was when the problem arose - I wasn't usually a shy child but for some reason I decided that I just couldn't talk to that lady. She seemed to be very nice and my mom was standing right there with me, so I honestly had no reason not to thank her but I was determined that I wasn't going to. "If you don't say thank-you, you can't have the book." My mom warned me, still I remained silent. Long story short, I didn't say thank you and I also didn't get that book. 

I don't think I was any older than five at that time, but I still clearly remember the lesson I learned at that garage sale. My mom didn't keep me from having the book because she didn't want me to enjoy the story, but because she knew it was important for me to learn the proper way to receive a gift. She loved me enough to teach me about obedience and thankfulness. Both of which were of far more value than that little book. There is a certain way in which gifts are to be received and I needed to learn to use that method. Likewise, God has created a pattern for how we are to receive the gifts He has promised us. A pattern that we need to learn and apply. He has told us to ask. 

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" (Matthew vii. 7-11)

Prayer is the method by which we ask God for His promises. It is a God established method. He is our provider and is perfectly capable of meeting our every need. Matthew vi.8 tells us that He knows our needs even before we make requests and yet He still commands us to ask. Why? There is more to be gained than just the thing we are asking for. There are lessons to be found in the asking itself!

What lessons can be learned by asking for God's provision?

1. A Knowledge of the Giver

In the regular business of life we all too often forget to give credit where credit is due. So many of the gifts God gives to us go unnoticed. Just think of how many millions of snowflakes He has created that melt away before anyone can admire their unique design. Or think of how He paints the sky, twice each day, and is not deterred in doing so if we forget to praise His work. God gives us many gifts without us ever asking for them, but when we have the opportunity to ask Him for something His answer is meant to remind us Who the source of our provision is. Every answered prayer should remind us that we have a God and that He is generous. His knowledge of us is perfect and He answers our prayers in the way and at the time that will help us to see Him best. As He meets our needs we are taught about His loving kindness and shown the thoughts that He thinks towards us.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." (James i.17)

2.  Learning to Trust rather than Worry

The people of Israel feared Goliath because he was greater than any of them; but when David looked at the giant he realized that God much greater than him. Nothing is too large or too small to be brought before our Lord. God tells us "don't fear", "don't doubt", "don't worry." He expects us to have faith instead. You must have faith in order to access any of the promises of God. Doubt, fear, and worry are all closely tied to a lack of faith and a lack of faith is sin. 

James i.6 says, "let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind." This may sound harsh or unfair but once we understand what faith is, it makes sense. Faith is simply a complete trust or confidence in someone or something. Therefore, when we say that we "cannot have faith" or " just don't have faith" we are actually saying that we "cannot trust God" or we "just don't trust Him" and we know that these statements are not true.

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." (Philippians iv.6)

We can be anxious for nothing by comparing our problems to Him rather than to us. Coming to Him for help, sets us free from the need to waste our time in worry.

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." (Matthew vi. 34)

Tyler Sheff was quoted to say, "When you give in to fear you are under the illusion that you can predict the future." We cannot predict the future and we do not have to worry about it because the future is in the hands of our God and it is He who will determine the outcome of every trouble and every circumstance. 

When Jesus was praying for Lazarus to be raised from the dead (in John xi. 41- 42) He said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” He thanked God for hearing Him before He saw His prayer answered in the physical realm because He knew that God always heard Him and He trusted His Father to answer.  Once we learn who our God is and how faithful He is, we should easily trust in Him. Thus we can easily have faith in the place of fear and worry. 


3. Learning What to Ask For

Another important lesson that is to be learned through asking is what we are to be asking for.

"You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures." (James iv. 3)

When Jesus gave His disciples an example of how to pray He began by asking that God's name should be hallowed, which means 'honoured as holy'. That His kingdom would come and His will would be done one earth in the same way that it is in heaven. He continued to ask for other things such as bread, forgiveness, and deliverance but His greatest desire, and the first priority of His prayers was that God's will would be done and His purposes accomplished. God knows us and He delights to meet our needs. He tells us to bring our cares to Him because He cares for us. Yet it is God's will that needs to be accomplished, not ours.

"Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm xxxvii. 4)

As we come before God in prayer, seek to know Him, and learn His will He will show us what to want, what to pray for. He brings our hearts into alignment with His.

4. Persistence

God values persistence in prayer and wants to teach us not to give up easily. Jesus taught this lesson in parables more than once:

"Then He spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart, saying: “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him, saying, ‘Get justice for me from my adversary.’ And he would not for a while; but afterward he said within himself, ‘Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.’”

Then the Lord said, “Hear what the unjust judge said.  And shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke xviii. 1-8)

When we pray we are literally waging warfare in the spiritual realm. As in physical battles, patience and perseverance are needed to break through to a victory. 

"And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart." (Galations vi.9)  

Daniel fasted and prayed for three weeks waiting for an answer from God. God sent an angel to answer Daniel and when he arrived he told Daniel, "God has heard everything that you said ever since the first day you decided to humble yourself in front of your God so that you could learn to understand things. I have come in response to your prayer. The commander of the Persian kingdom opposed me for 21 days. But then Michael, one of the chief commanders, came to help me because I was left alone with the kings of Persia. I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the last days, because the vision is about times still to come.” (Daniel x. 12-14) Daniel's prayer was answered long before he saw that answer but he had to have faith and continue to pray while the spiritual warfare was waging.

We know God praises the faith of men like Abraham and Noah but have you ever thought of how long they waited in faith? Noah was commanded to build the ark one hundred and twenty years before the flood came. For more than a hundred years he was building a boat on dry ground, in a world that had never before seen rain! There was more than twenty years between the time that God first promised Abraham a son to the day that Isaac was actually born - and Abraham and Sarah were already well advanced in years!

These are only a few of the many lessons we can learn by obeying God's command to ask. When George and Mary Mueller set out to start an orphanage they had God alone to depend on. They didn't have dishes, or clothes, or people waiting in line to help them, or money with which to purchase the building. It was only God who could provide those things. They learned to ask for everything and before long they realized that there was more to be gained by asking than just the things they were asking for. God was teaching them to be persistent and to trust in Him. God would not lack in faithfulness to provide...

'"Nobody?" Mary looked up at him as if she was going to cry. She sat on the parlor floor, surrounded by bolts of flannel and calico. He saw at a glance that she had been cutting out dresses for the little girls to wear. She looked like a forlorn child herself, asking him again, "Nobody at all, George? Are you sure?"

"Nobody came near 6 Wilson Street. Not a child. Not a grandmother. Not a city official. Nobody."

"Nobody applied?" She repeated dully, rolling the bolt of flannel back and forth on the rug. "Where were they?" The drabness of the parlor, the pitifulness of her evenings spent over the cheap flannel, all that they had sacrificed - it was overwhelming. 

"Maybe we had better ask ourselves - where was God?" He retorted. Mary's eyes widened in horror. "Alright, where was He?" George persisted, flogging himself as well as Mary with the tortuous thought. Then suddenly, he wanted to throw himself down beside the chair and beat it with his fists until the stuffing wheezed out, crying to God. "Mary, Mary!"

"Oh, George!" She pushed the flannel away and got to her feet.

"All the way home from Wilson Street, I've been praying. God, where did I fail? ' Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.' That's what He said, that's what Psalms eighty one says, I believed He would."

"He did. George, He did, Until..."

"Yes. I prayed for money." There were both bitterness and sadness in his voice. "He sent gifts larger than I dreamed about. From people I didn't know."

"I prayed for kitchen things."

"And a strange man came to the door with his arms full. I know, Mary. We prayed for cooks and teachers."

"And they came. You prayed for clothes and got them. You prayed for..." She stopped suddenly, her eyes widening. "Oh, George!" He was too preoccupied with his tragedy to see that her eyes were sparkling.

 "I believed He would go on giving me what I prayed for. I believed that, Mary. Until today."

"George, George, that's it!" What ailed the woman? There was a joyous lilt to her words that made no sense at all. "That's it, " she said again. "Everything you prayed for."

"Don't you understand what's happened, Mary? He gave me everything I prayed for alright. Except the children." She looked as if she wanted to laugh. "That's it, you didn't ask for children."

"Didn't ask for..." What was she saying?

"Well, did you? I didn't. We never prayed together for them. Did you, George?" He felt suddenly weak, as if he had awakened from a terrifying dream. She was right. They had prayed for everything - everything from plates to underwear. But they hadn't asked God to send the orphans. "Don't you see, George? You thought..."

"There'd be too many."

"So you didn't"

"I didn't. Mary, I didn't." Now he wanted to laugh and take his wife in his arms and kiss her and praise God all at the same time. 

"George, aren't we stupid?"

"Terribly stupid."

"And isn't He an incredible God!" What they did next was the only logical thing to do in George's mind. There in the parlor, they bowed their heads and in a few simple sentences made the request they had forgotten.' - Excerpt from George Mueller by Faith Coxe Bailey.

“It is not enough to begin to pray, nor to pray aright; nor is it enough to continue for a time to pray; but we must patiently, believingly, continue in prayer until we obtain an answer; and further we have not only to continue in prayer unto the end, but we have also to believe that God does hear us, and will answer our prayers. Most frequently we fail in not continuing in prayer until the blessing is obtained, and in not expecting the blessing.”  — George Müller

Let us not forget to obey our Lord's commandment to ASK. For when we do we will find that His answer exceeds our every expectation! 

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen." (Ephesians iii. 20 -21)

In Christ

quiana