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Devotional

Soul Nourishment First

7/7/2016

18 Comments

 
Soul Nourishment First
A Booklet by George Müller


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.
18 Comments
Thomas
8/10/2016 12:49:42 pm

Very nice. Came to know this booklet thru Joseph Prince, message #47.

Reply
Barbara
2/21/2018 07:51:45 am

Same here. Found out about this booklet through Joseph Prince. Intend to start practicing 'soul nourishment first'.

Reply
Kate
2/26/2018 10:07:11 pm

Same here also. Looked this up while listening to Joseph Prince sermon titled Meditate For Good Success from DVD album Good Success God's Way.

Reply
Elisa Dean
8/2/2018 06:50:31 pm

Josep Prince message brought me here as well

Reply
Gamu
3/22/2018 12:29:09 am

Very insightful words. I was also prompted to search for the booklet having listened to the same sermon by Joseph Prince

Reply
Comrade Bob alleluia
4/13/2018 12:22:38 am

Thanks Joseph prince I wouldn't have known this edifying book

Reply
Joel
5/30/2018 05:54:07 am

got to know this through PST Joseph Prince

Reply
Jazmin Acosta link
6/15/2018 01:08:04 am

I too, was lead here via Joseph Prince. I must say we are all looking for something to fill us. May it be the word of the Lord, so that our hearts won't be troubled, and we can have courage to find the Word that can guard our hearts. May the knowledge of the love of the Lord for you grow, that we may gain strength to face our days . In the Mighty name of Jesus Christ , I pray. Amen.

Reply
so blessed by this! link
6/23/2018 10:58:28 am

this is truly inspiring. and i have taken up this practice. learning Gods rhythm timing and touch.

Reply
Cheryl Baker
9/3/2018 08:52:06 am

This was taught in a Sunday School lesson at my church. It was so powerful, I asked the Pastor who gave the lesson for the link. Praise the Lord for His Truth.

Reply
Debra
10/2/2018 09:12:31 pm

Same here , learned From pastor Joseph Prince

Reply
James
10/19/2018 03:14:24 am

Praise the Lord everyone, likewise I to found out about George Miller through pastor prince and h have begun making soul nourishment NY first priority

Reply
Lori Mitchum-Burns
8/7/2019 09:36:27 am

Hello, I searched for and read this article because I heard about this method of soul nourishment from Pastor Joseph Prince. Lori Mitchum-Burns

Reply
Sindisiwe moyo link
11/2/2019 08:42:14 am

I have read this booklet after listening to the same sermon by Pastor Joseph prince. Thank you very much the words are uplifting and l will truly meditate in God's word in the morning to strengthen my inner men, To flow with the Lord as we are given enough manner for each day.

Reply
Remmy link
9/2/2020 01:40:22 am

Is the book not available on PDF download?

Reply
Peter (Web Master) link
9/2/2020 10:47:12 am

Send us an email to: [email protected] and we can email this to you in PDF.

Reply
DeAnn
11/5/2020 04:16:09 am

Wow. How come this isn’t a standard piece for all Sunday school classes and basic discipleship? I found it through Libravox. The quality of the recording is very poor but contact is amazing. I needed to see it in writing and have a shareable resource.

Reply
Alvin
12/29/2020 01:17:07 am

Came searching for this book while hearing Pastor Prince sermon from 2005

Reply

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"The vigor of our spiritual life will be in exact proportion to the place held by the Bible in our life and thoughts."
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