people blog,i oso try to blog….

Dear bothers and sisters in Christ.

     How’s life?As for me,i’m struggling with something.It may seem like a small matter but its what all of us christians face.I have not been consistent with reading the bible since my exams ended last month till now.Surprisingly,I seldom skipped reading the bible during the exam period and before.But after the exams when i’m so FREE,I slack to the max!!Amazingly i can remember everyday that I’m reminded (i believe by the Holy Spirit)to read it but i just ignore that reminder.

   A portion of the booklet below has encouraged me before this but i forgotten bout it.But thank God today i heard a sermon bout it.So i searched for the full booklet and  read it again.So,I hope u all will be encouraged.Lets run this race together!

A Booklet by George Mueller

May 9, 1841

It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost,
for more than fourteen years. The point is this:

I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which
I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing
to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify
the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might
be nourished. For I might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might seek
to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the distressed, I might in other ways
seek to behave myself as it becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being
happy in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my inner man day by
day, all this might not be attended to in a right spirit.

Before this time my practice had been, at least for ten years previously, as an habitual
thing, to give myself to prayer, after having dressed myself in the morning. Now,
I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading
of the Word of God, and to meditation on it, that thus my heart might be comforted,
encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed; and that thus, by means of the Word of
God, while meditating on it, my heart might be brought into experiential communion
with the Lord.

I began therefore to meditate on the New Testament from the beginning, early in the
morning. The first thing I did, after having asked in a few words the Lord’s blessing
upon his precious Word, was, to begin to meditate on the Word of God, searching as
it were into every verse, to get blessing out of it; not for the sake of the public
ministry of the Word, not for the sake of preaching on what I had meditated upon,
but for the sake of obtaining food for my own soul.

The result I have found to be almost invariably this, that after a very few minutes
my soul has been led to confession, or to thanksgiving, or to intercession, or to
supplication; so that, though I did not, as it were, give myself to prayer, but to
meditation, yet it turned almost immediately more or less into prayer. When thus
I have been for a while making confession or intercession, or supplication, or have
given thanks, I go to the next words or verse, turning all, as I go on, into prayer
for myself or others, as the Word may lead to it, but still continually keeping before
me that food for my own soul is the object of my meditation. The result of this is,
that there is always a good deal of confession, thanksgiving, supplication, or intercession
mingled with my meditation, and then my inner man almost invariably is even sensibly
nourished and strengthened, and that by breakfast time, with rare exceptions, I am
in a peaceful if not happy state of heart. Thus also the Lord is pleased to communicate
unto me that which, either very soon after or at a later time, I have found to become
food for other believers, though it was not for the sake of the public ministry of
the Word that I gave myself to meditation, but for the profit of my own inner man.

The difference, then, between my former practice and my present one is this:

Formerly, when I rose, I began to pray as soon as possible, and generally spent
all my time till breakfast in prayer, or almost all the time. At all events I almost
invariably began with prayer, except when I felt my soul to be more than usually
barren, in which case I read the Word of God for food, or for refreshment, or for
a revival and renewal of my inner man, before I gave myself to prayer.

But what was the result? I often spent a quarter of an hour, or half an hour, or
even an hour, on my knees, before being conscious to myself of having derived comfort,
encouragement, humbling of soul, etc., and often, after having suffered much from
wandering of mind for the first ten minutes, or a quarter of an hour, or even half
an hour, I only then began really to pray. I scarcely ever suffer now in this way.
For my heart, first being nourished by the truth, being brought into experiential
fellowship with God, I then speak to my Father and to my Friend, (vile though I am,
and unworthy of it), about the things that He has brought before me in His precious
Word.

It often now astonishes me that I did not sooner see this point. In no book did I
ever read about it. No public ministry ever brought the matter before me. No private
intercourse with a brother stirred me up to this matter. And yet, now, since God
has taught me this point, it is as plain to me as anything, that the first thing
the child of God has to do morning by morning is, to obtain food for his inner man.
As the outward man is not fit for work for any length of time except we take food,
and as this is one of the first things we do in the morning, so it should be with
the inner man. We should take food for that, as every one must allow.

Now, what is the food for the inner man? Not prayer, but the Word of God; and here
again, not the simple reading of the Word of God, so that it only passes through
our minds, just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what we read, pondering
over it, and applying it to our hearts. When we pray, we speak to God. Now, prayer,
in order to be continued for any length of time in any other than a formal manner,
requires, generally speaking, a measure of strength or godly desire, and the season,
therefore, when this exercise of the soul can be most effectually performed is after
the inner man has been nourished by meditation on the Word of God, where we find
our Father speaking to us, to encourage us, to comfort us, to instruct us, to humble
us, to reprove us. We may therefore profitably meditate, with God’s blessing, though
we are ever so weak spiritually; nay, the weaker we are, the more we need meditation
for the strengthening of our inner man.

Thus there is far less to be feared from wandering of mind than if we give ourselves
to prayer without having had time previously for meditation. I dwell so particularly
on this point because of the immense spiritual profit and refreshment I am conscious
of having derived from it myself, and I affectionately and solemnly beseech all my
fellow believers to ponder this matter. By the blessing of God, I ascribe to this
mode the help and strength which I have had from God to pass in peace through deeper
trials, in various ways, than I had ever had before; and after having now above fourteen
years tried this way, I can most fully, in the fear of God, commend it.

In addition to this I generally read, after family prayer, larger portions of the
Word of God, when I still pursue my practice of reading regularly onward in the Holy
Scriptures, sometimes in the New Testament, and sometimes in the Old, and for more
than twenty-six years I have proved the blessedness of it. I take, also, either then
or at other parts of the day, time more especially for prayer. How different, when
the soul is refreshed and made happy early in the morning, from what it is when without
spiritual preparation, the service, the trials, and the temptations of the day come
upon one.