My eye is not on the fog but on my God

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Three Sundays ago, I shared an incredible story from the August 17th entry in L.B. Cowman’s devotional Streams in the Desert about George Mueller. The story goes like this:

I went to America some years ago with the captain of a steamer, who was a very devoted Christian. When off the coast of Newfoundland he said to me, “The last time I crossed here, five weeks ago, something happened which revolutionized the whole of my Christian life. We had George Mueller of Bristol on board. I had been on the bridge twenty-four hours and never left it. George Mueller came to me, and said,
 
“Captain I have come to tell you that I must be in Quebec Saturday afternoon.” “It is impossible,” I said. “Very well, if your ship cannot take me, God will find some other way. I have never broken an engagement for fifty-seven years. Let us go down into the chart-room and pray.”
 
I looked at that man of God, and thought to myself, what lunatic asylum can that man have come from? I never heard of such a thing as this. “Mr. Mueller,” I said, “do you know how dense this fog is?” “No,” he replied, “my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God, who controls every circumstance of my life.”
 
He knelt down and prayed one of the most simple prayers, and when he had finished I was going to pray; but he put his hand on my shoulder, and told me not to pray. “First, you do not believe He will answer; and second I BELIEVE HE HAS, and there is no need whatever for you to pray about it.”
 
I looked at him, and he said, “Captain, I have known my Lord for fifty-seven years, and there has never been a single day that I have failed to get audience with the King. Get up, Captain and open the door, and you will find the fog gone.” I got up, and the fog was indeed gone. On Saturday afternoon, George Mueller was in Quebec for his engagement.

If you have ever read about George Mueller’s life, you know that this is just one among countless stories of Mueller’s simple faith in God’s provision and God’s miraculous answers (and if you have never read about his life, then I strongly encourage you to go learn about him). I love the story from Streams in the Desert, particularly how Mueller prayed “one of the most simple prayers” and then proceeded to tell the other man not to bother praying. It is a poignant reminder that God does not answer us because of the words we choose, but because He responds to a childlike heart of trust in Him.

I also love Mueller’s response to the captain: “My eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God, who controls every circumstance of my life.” May God give you the faith to take your eyes off the fog in your life and to fix your eyes on God, the Father in heaven who loves you, with childlike faith.