First of all, make your soul happy in God

I wake up hungry every morning. You do that too.

We may or may not wake up with an empty stomach, but deeper down our soul is growling wildly. No matter how hard we try to satisfy that hunger elsewhere, and no matter how many live in denial, God has caused our souls to hunger for Him and to feed on Him.

We want when we wake up – and want and want and want. Some immediately turn to breakfast. Others immerse themselves directly into an electronic device or screen. Some roll over and try to squeeze a little more joy out of sleep. But the hunger remains. And that is no coincidence. God has made us begin each new day with this pain as a call to turn to Him again.

Great discovery of 1841

In his widely acclaimed autobiography, George Mueller (1805–1898), who cared for more than ten thousand orphans in England throughout his tenure, recounts a life-changing discovery he made in the first half of 1841.

In a diary entry dated May 7, he recorded the insights he gained this spring. The entry consists of a long paragraph of 1,500 words that rewards careful and repeated reading.

Over the years I have read it again and again and seem to get more out of it each time. Mueller’s life-changing insights have proven significant in my own life. As I re-read this journal entry over the last few days, I noticed several different aspects of this one lesson that could be identified and sequenced to help today’s readers.

In short, Mueller’s big discovery was “the first big and important business that I was supposed to take care of every day.” [is] To Make my soul happy in the Lord.” What a find! Almost any other duty would be stressful, but “being happy”? This is a deeply refreshing task.

Mueller reiterates the point: “The first thing to worry about was….”. . as I could Bring my soul to a happy state.” The discovery stands against the background of other things that exist not his and your first calling: “Not how much I could serve the Lord”, not to present the truth to the unconverted, not to benefit the believers, not to help those in need, not to behave in the world as it should Befitting a child of God. None of these real, decisive callings are “first and primary.” None of this is “first.” Most importantly does not flow out but first fill up. First things first: Make your soul happy in God. Find happiness in him. Obey your hunger for God and celebrate.

But then we ask: How? How does hunger lead to happiness?

Feed on God

Mueller responds that hunger becomes happiness when we satisfy our empty souls with God—which implies a certain way of approaching God. We come to get, not to give. Many human satisfactions come from various actions and achievements. Others come by receiving goods or honor. Still others get through the intake of food and drinks. Among these other desires, God has caused our soul to crave such consumption—to receive, eat, chew, and enjoy God as food. And to receive it as a drink, to quench our thirst and enjoy the satisfaction.

That’s why Mueller clarifies his lesson: “The first thing the child of God must do every morning is:” Receive nourishment for your inner man.” He uses the language of both food and refreshment (as well as “strengthening”). He draws near to God, he says, “to obtain nourishment for my own soul,” and as he abides in God’s presence he tries to “keep before me constantly that nourishment for my own soul is the object of my meditation.” .

Next we might ask: Where? Where do you turn to find such nourishment for your soul?

In His Word

Mueller’s answer – simple and unsurprising, yet profound and transformative – is: the word of God. So that we may not miss it, he asks us the question and answers it: “What is the food for the inner man?” Not prayer, but the Word of God.”

“Hunger becomes happiness by satisfying our empty souls in God.”

Now we take up an important part of the lesson. Mueller says his practice for years was to wake up and go straight to prayer. It might take him ten minutes or even half an hour to find enough concentration to actually pray. He might then spend “even an hour on my knees” before receiving “comfort, encouragement, humiliation of soul, etc.” He had the right goal: Make my soul happy in God. He had the right direction: Come to feed on God. But he had the wrong attitude. Or he had given the wrong order. The lesson he had to learn was to listen first and then speak. That means hearing God’s Word first and then praying in response.

In God’s Word: “We find that our Father speaks to us to encourage us, to comfort us, to instruct us, to humble us, to correct us.” God’s Word nourishes and strengthens the soul. His word guides, cares, warns, provides support. Then we speak to God in prayer in response to what He has told us in His Word.

Through meditation

At this point we might assume we know how to absorb God’s Word: just read it. After all, that’s what you do with a written text, right?

Mueller has another clarifying word, and it may be his most important for us today: “Not the simple reading of the Word of God…” . . but to think about what we read, ponder it, and apply it to our hearts.” In other words, he feeds his soul with the Word of God through what he and many other great saints have called “meditation.”

This meditation is a crucial aspect of teaching and has increasingly become a lost art to us, almost two centuries later.

Mueller’s first mention of “meditation” makes it clear what kind of reading he means: “The most important thing I had to do was to devote myself to reading the Word of God, and to meditate on it.” Then he makes this meditation clear affects the heart. Mere reading may fill the mind, but meditation aims to comfort, encourage, warn, rebuke, instruct, and nourish the heart.

He returns to explain what he means again. “Meditating on the Word of God” involves “searching each verse, so to speak, to draw blessings from it.” . . to obtain food for my own soul.” After chewing a morsel and savoring it, “I move on to the next word or verse, turning everything as I go on into prayers for myself or others, as the case may be Word leads to it, but still keep it before my eyes.” Food for my own soul is the goal of my meditation.”

He comes back again and says he doesn’t mean “simply reading the Word of God so that it just passes through our minds, like water flowing through a pipe, but given what we read Ponder about it, and we apply it to our hearts.” This series of three verbs is perhaps the greatest help he gives us in teaching ourselves how to meditate and not just read.

Mueller asked us to slow down, pause, and read again so we could hold what we read ponder about it, and apply it to our hearts – not only or mainly for our practical life, but above all for our inner person, to our hearts.

Such a conscious, loving reception of God’s Word naturally leads us to prayer.

Then prayer

Don’t think that Mueller is avoiding or sidelining prayer in this life-changing lesson. Rather, he helps prayer flourish by placing prayer in its proper place (in response to God’s Word).

After hearing from God in His Word and thinking about it, meditating on it and applying it to my heart: “I speak to my Father and to my friend. . . about the things he has set before me in his precious Word.” Meditation soon produces a response – in fact, “it almost immediately turned more or less into prayer.” The time when prayer “is most effectively performed is after the inner man has been nourished by meditation on the Word of God.” Now that we have heard our Father’s voice deep into our souls, we are able to “truly pray” and so actually with God to communicate.

Communion with Jesus

In Mueller’s diary entry from May 7, 1841, you will find that for him “meditation and prayer” are synonymous with the expression “fellowship with God.” Communicating with God does not simply mean addressing Him in prayer, nor does it simply mean hearing from Him in His Word. Communion involves both his and our speaking. This is a father-child relationship. God speaks first in His Word, and we receive His words with the hunger, joy, and leisurely pace that correspond to the Word of our Father and divine Friend. Then we respond humbly yet courageously by worshiping our God, confessing our sins, thanking him for his grace and mercy, and asking him for ourselves, our loved ones, and even those who seem like enemies.

Mueller calls this hearing from God and responding to him “experimental.” [that is, experiential] Communion with the Lord.” By “feeding my heart with the truth,” he is “brought into experiential fellowship with God” in meditation and prayer. And not only with God the Father, but also with “the Lord” Jesus, the risen, reigning Christ, who sits on the throne of heaven, dwelling in us by his Spirit and drawing near to us to share with us through his word and our prayers to communicate with us.

epilogue

Mueller repeatedly emphasizes that such fellowship with God is never a means to serve and nurture others, but God often appoints remnants. Such early morning meals, enjoyed deeply in the soul, may prove to be “food for other believers” “soon after or at a later date,” but that is not the goal. Food for ministry is not the first and most important task of each day, but food for our own souls. The meaning and purpose of prayer is soul-satisfying communion with the risen Christ.

For Mueller, this hungry and hedonistic approach to each new day changed his life. And it gave him the help and strength, he says, “to go through more difficult trials in peace in different ways than I had ever experienced before.” This approach was significant for me too. Maybe it’s the same for you. Müller cheers: “How different it is when the soul is refreshed and made happy in the early morning!”