George Muller - How to Become a Successful Labourer in Christ’s Vineyard

In the first prayer this evening there was the following expression: ‘Use thy servants, and let them see fruit, as they are able to bear it.’ I desire to say a few words on this, especially the latter part. It has in a lively way brought to my remembrance my own experience.

It was forty-four years ago, on the 17th of this month, that I began to preach in my own country; but I saw very little fruit from my preaching. I preached in the parish churches – I loved to preach, there was a real earnestness in my preaching, and a real desire to do good – unquestionably so. And yet I never met with a single instance in which I could say I had been used as God’s instrument in the conversion of a sinner, though sometimes I preached to a thousand people, or more. I do not say that persons may not have been converted; but I never met with one single instance of conversion.

It did, however, please God, in a few instances – when I did not expect it – to use me in the conversion of sinners; but this was quite apart from the preaching. I once visited a poor tailor and expounded the Scriptures at his house, and a person was brought to the knowledge of the truth through this exposition. Two of my fellow-students, my former companions in sin, were converted simultaneously whilst I was speaking to them. So that in a few cases, where I expected nothing, I was made an instrument of blessing; but where I expected great things, there was nothing at all.

In course of time I came to this country, and it pleased God then to show to me the doctrines of grace in a way in which I had not seen them before. At first I hated them, and said, ‘If this were true, I could do nothing at all in the conversion of sinners, as all would depend upon God and the working of his Spirit.’ But when it pleased God to reveal these truths to me, and my heart was brought to such a state as that I could say, ‘I am not only content simply to be a hammer, an axe, or a saw, in God’s hands; but I shall count it an honour to be taken up and used by him in any way; and if sinners are converted through my instrumentality, from my inmost soul I will give him all the glory,’ the Lord gave me to see fruit in abundance. Sinners were converted by scores; and ever since God has used me in one way or other in his service.

I delight to dwell on this, especially for the benefit of my younger fellow-believers. We must be really willing to give God all the glory. We may say, ‘God shall have all the glory,’ but the point is, do we mean it? We must aim after this – to be content to be nothing but the instrument, giving God all the glory. We must not say, ‘God shall have ninety-nine parts of the glory, and the one-hundredth part shall be ours.’ No, we must give him all, we must not take the one-hundredth part; he is worthy to have it all.

Let us aim after this, and assuredly God will take us up; for he can then use us. Our adorable Lord Jesus, during all his life on earth, had one single aim – to seek glory for the Father. Well, as we are enabled to get glory for the Master, not for the servant, so he, whom we seek to honour, will see to it that honour is bestowed on the servant.

I affectionately, as an elder brother, lay it upon the hearts of my beloved young brethren, whether engaged as preachers, Sunday-school teachers, tract distributors, district visitors, or in any other way working in the Lord’s service, if they desire to see fruit resulting from their labours, that they primarily aim after this – that not only with the lip, but with the heart, they will give all the honour and glory to God, if he should condescend to use them as instruments in his service.

Thoughts on Prayer (2) - Praying for Pastors

Every congregation wants a biblical pastor. There are many ways at which we can look at having one, and one crucial element is the prayers of the congregation for him. Usually a congregation is exhorted to do so at an induction and no doubt most congregations pray earnestly for their own minister(s). Yet they should also pray that other congregations should have such pastors and we are aware of vacant churches in our denomination (indeed it would not take long to pray for every minister in our denomination – we could pray for one presbytery each day, and then we would be praying for all our ministers weekly). And they should continue to pray for their own and other ministers because it is possible that they may become stale in their spirituality and distracted from the main aspects of their calling

An obvious element of praying for pastors is that the petitions should be biblically informed. Paul frequently mentions features of his pastoral work and often requests specific prayer by churches for particular areas of his activities. One passage that highlights several characteristics of his work is Colossians 1:24–2:5. I will draw attention to four in 1:24-29 here and mention next week those in 2:1-5.

The first characteristic that Paul mentions in 1:24-29 is his joyful spirit despite being in difficult circumstances (he was under arrest in Rome when he wrote this letter). There are many matters that can deflate a pastor (as there are with all Christians) and the devil will aim to do so. Yet it is important that pastors work with a sense of spiritual joy, and we should pray that God would give this blessing to them.

The second feature mentioned by Paul is his ongoing awareness of his divine calling. God had set him apart as a steward, with the role of making the word of God fully known. This does not mean that a pastor has to preach about every word in the Bible, but I think it does mean that he has to explain, as much as possible, everything the Bible says about Jesus (Jesus, after all, is the focus of what Paul calls the ‘mystery’ revealed to God’s people). We should pray that pastors would remember their calling to convey the message of who Jesus is and what he has done, is doing and will yet do.

A third detail of pastoral work is proclamation. Sometimes we imagine that proclamation involves loudness, but I suspect a more important element is clarity. There is no point in a loud message that no-one understands. How did Paul ‘proclaim’ Christ? He did so by warning and teaching. In other words, he warned his listeners about error (in belief and practice) and taught them the truth (about belief and practice), and did both by using words and language his audiences could understand. Of course, such messages require wisdom as to when they are declared and concerning the level of content in them. So we should pray for wise pastors who will preach with clarity as they warn about error and teach the truth.

The fourth aspect of pastoral work that Paul refers to is his realisation that such work was hard (he uses the term ‘toil’). Paul, despite all his years of experience, despite his many natural gifts, found pastoral work a struggle even although he had divine help. It is important to note that Christ’s help did not remove the struggles of Paul, instead these struggles were the channels through which Christ’s power worked effectively. If a pastor loses the sense of struggling, there is something wrong with him. We should pray that pastors will struggle along with God’s help and thus see his blessing.