A Narrative of some of the Lord's Dealings with George Müller. Part 2Müller, George
Religion
A Narrative of some of the Lord's Dealings with George Müller. Part 2
Müller, George
Orphanages -- Great Britain; Prayer
III. It may lastly be said, but how shall I set about rising early?
My advice is, 1. Commence at once, delay it not. Tomorrow begin to
rise. 2. But do not depend upon your own strength. This may be the
reason why, before this, you may have begun to rise early, but have
given it up. As surely as you depend upon your own strength in this
matter, it will come to nothing. In every good work we depend upon
the Lord, and in this thing we shall feel especially how weak we are.
If any one rises that he may give the time which he takes from sleep,
to prayer and meditation, let him be sure that Satan will try to put
obstacles in the way. 3. Do trust in the Lord for help, You will
honour Him, if you expect help from Him in this matter. Give yourself
to prayer for help, expect help, and you will have it. 4. Use,
however, in addition to this, the following means: a, Go early to
bed. If you stay up late, you cannot rise early. Let no society and
no pressure of engagements keep you from going habitually early to
bed. If you fail in this, you neither can nor ought to get up early,
as your body requires rest. Keep also particularly in mind, that
neither for the body nor the soul is it the same thing, whether you
go to bed late and rise late, or whether you go to bed early and rise
early. Even medical persons will tell you how injurious it is to sit
up late, and to spend the morning hours in bed; but how much more
important still is it to retire early and to rise early, in order to
make sure of time for prayer and meditation before the business of
the day commences, and to devote to those exercises that part of our
time, when the mind and the body are most fresh, in order thus to
obtain spiritual strength for the conflict, the trials, and the work
of the day. b, Let some one call you, if possible, at the time which
you have determined before God that you will rise; or procure, what
is still better, an alarum, by which you may regulate almost to a
minute the time when you wish to rise. For about 12s. a little German
clock, with an alarum, may be bought almost in every town. Though I
have very many times been awakened by the Lord, in answer to prayer,
almost to the minute when I desired to rise; yet I thought it well to
procure an alarum, to assist me in my purpose of rising early: not
indeed as if it could give the least help, without the Lord's
blessing, for I should remain in bed, notwithstanding the noise of
the alarum, were He not to give me grace to rise; but simply looking
upon it as a means. c, Rise at once when you are awake. Remain not a
minute longer in bed, else you are likely to fall asleep again. d, Be
not discouraged by feeling drowsy and tired in consequence of your
rising early. This will soon wear off. You will after a few days feel
yourself stronger and fresher than when you used to lie an hour or
two longer than you needed. e, Allow yourself always the same hours
for sleep. Make no change, except sickness oblige you. .
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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