Set the Table

1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

An admired man of faith, George Mueller (1805-1898), did many great works for the Lord in his lifetime, among them building several orphanages.

The following is a great story he tells:
It was time for breakfast at of one of my orphanages in England and there was no food. Not only was there no food in the kitchen, but there was no money in the home’s account. A young girl whose father was a close friend of mine was visiting the home. I took her hand and said, “Come and see what our Father will do.” In the dining room, long tables were set with empty plates and empty mugs. We sat down at the table with the others and and I prayed, “Dear Father, we thank Thee for what Thou art going to give us to eat.”

At once, we heard a knock at the door. There stood the local baker. “Mr. Muller,” he said, “I couldn’t sleep last night. Somehow, I felt you had no bread for breakfast, so I got up at 2 o’clock this morning and baked you some fresh bread. Here it is.” Muller thanked him and gave praise to God. Soon afterward, a second knock came. It was the milkman. His cart had broken down in front of the orphanage. There was no way to move and repair the cart except to empty it of the milk he needed to still deliver so he asked me if we could use his milk. We had a wonderful breakfast that morning.

Faith was the pinnacle of George Muller’s life. Without a personal salary, he relied only on God to supply the money and food he needed to support the hundreds of homeless children he befriended in the name of Messiah. A man of radiant faith, he kept a motto on his desk for many years that brought comfort, strength, and uplifting confidence to his heart. It read, ‘It matters to Him about you.’ Mueller believed that those words captured the meaning of 1 Peter 5:7, and he rested his claim for divine help on that truth. He testified at the end of his life that the Lord had never failed to supply all his needs.

Many Christians…okay, most of us…probably all of us, at one time or another did not really wait in faith for God to provide our needs. We professed it with our mouths...especially to other Christians because it was the ‘Christian’ thing to do and say, yet we spent countless hours creating new gray hairs as we stressed ‘trying to figure something out’. I’m not saying we should sit on a rock doing nothing, George had the table set in anticipation of God’s provision after all. Our culture is one of ‘doers’, we want to make things happen. We get in God’s way will all our ‘doing’ and I imagine He has stepped back many a time to let us run with issues He was prepared to handle. Saddest part of all is we tend to take pride in finding our own solution. So, we didn’t wait on God and we were proud of ourselves for ‘figuring it out’ and thwarted His work. No wisdom there, been there – done that!

We are not a patient people. From reading the Bible, it seems people never have been. We want what we want and we want it now. Doesn’t take a lot of faith to stomp around demanding our right to instant gratification, now does it? Any little two-year old can show you how.

I’ve had a recent situation where casting my cares made a big difference in how I allowed that situation to affect me. Here is the circle of events: Situation made itself known. Instantly, I felt distressed. I gave it to God. He took it. Distress left me. He gave me peace. I accepted it. Gave thanks to the Lord.

The situation was not immediately resolved but I was able to wait on Him to ‘fix it’ and was in complete peace in that waiting time. Notice in the brief description above the ‘give and take’ involved. Moreover, notice the ‘take’ NOT present. I didn’t give it God only to take it back after leaving it at the foot of the cross.‘It matters to Him about you (and me)’ Remember that God is concerned with our every need! Cast your cares upon Him today.