Living by Faith versus Presumption

[RBachman]

I recently completed G Muller's (alt Mueller) autobiography a second time. I read it as a new Christian 40 years ago. This time it really meant something since I am going through nearly daily financial testings with my small business. In reviewing the PB I did not find any comments on GM asking the question: when is daily calling on God, or living by faith in the extreme, presumptuous? Many of his points he was clear on as being his own personal experiment and witness. But if we take them away (e.g. savings for reoccurring expenses, budgets) what of his other points (i.e. not asking for help from others) would you all feel were outright wrong, wrong headed, or possibly even heretical in the sense of being presumptuous?

 

[Herald]

I read a biography about Muller years ago. I remember one story about there being no food for the children in the orphanage. Mr. Muller prayed and a wagon broke down in front of the orphanage that had food on it. The biographer used that as an example of God's provision. What the biographer did not share was what other options Mr. Muller considered to provide for the orphans in his charge. The biblical principle is that if a man is not willing to work, neither shall he eat (2 Thes. 3:10). If we have acted prudently, and have done all we should, it is not wrong to ask for help or to accept help if offered.

Like you, I am a business person. If I do not have sales, I do not have an income. Every month I have to hit certain numbers. By faith, I believe that God will provide, but I do not want to presume upon His grace through slothfulness or by making poor decisions. I have to decide whether it is wise to keep doing business with customers who are slow-pays or who only order once every six months. Sometimes I have to drop customers who are taking too much of my time for too little revenue. I am not paid for being a professional visitor. These are some of the hard choices I have to make to remain profitable. Can God provide for me if I do all these things and still cannot make ends meet? Certainly. I just do not want to presume that He will.

 

[Jeri Tanner]

Presumption can happen as Bill said above, if you're not working diligently to provide and you presume upon God's mercy, or it can happen if you are the kind who believes that God will 'tell' you to do something and so assume (wrongly) he's obligated to make your job or work or project succeed. People describe having faith for things when it may really be an assumption or even presumption. We can only have faith for something that we know is God's mind or purpose or will for us- and can only know, in that sense, God's mind or purpose or will for us about those things he has given us in Scripture.

 

[RBachman]

I am glad you mentioned the "...God will 'tell'...". This was one aspect of Mueller's comments that seemed almost heretical (or at least very contemporary!). He seemed to almost exclusively depend upon the Holy Spirit's confirmation of what ever he decided was God's Will, and thus the target of his intense prayer regime. To be fair he had rigorous criteria he used to make the determination, but ... I am a cessationist. So when ever people depend upon their feelings to indicate God's confirmation, I start looking for the door. He didn't seem to be guilty of spooky spiritualism, but it still left me a bit concerned.

 

[Jeri Tanner]

I remember getting that same idea about Muller's ways from what I read.