George Muller ran orphanages in Bristol, England, during the Victorian era with a rule that would have terrified most administrators: he never asked anyone for money. No fundraising letters. No public appeals. No hinting. He prayed, and he waited. By the time he died in 1898, he had cared for over 10,000 orphans without ever making a single direct financial request.
The Morning of the Empty Kitchen
The most documented incident occurred on a morning when the orphanage had no food. Not low supplies — no food at all. Three hundred children were about to come down for breakfast and there was nothing to give them. The kitchen staff stood in the empty pantry wondering what to tell the children.
Muller instructed them to set the tables. Plates, cups, cutlery — everything arranged as though a meal were about to be served. The children sat down at tables with empty plates in front of them. And then Muller did what he always did: he stood at the head of the room and gave thanks for the food they were about to receive.
The Physical Act of Preparation
Setting the table was the physical act. Not prayer alone — Muller prayed constantly. The distinctive element was that he prepared for the answer before it arrived. The plates on the table were a physical declaration of expectation. The cutlery beside each plate was an act of faith with a specific shape.
Minutes after the prayer, a baker knocked at the door. He had been unable to sleep the night before and had baked enough bread for the entire orphanage, feeling compelled to bring it that morning. Shortly after, a milk cart broke down in front of the orphanage, and the driver — unable to continue his route — offered all the milk to Muller rather than let it spoil.
The Pattern Over a Lifetime
This was not an isolated event. Muller's journals record over 50,000 specific answers to prayer during his lifetime, many of them following the same pattern: prepare the physical space, act as though the provision is coming, and then watch it arrive. The total funding that came through without being asked for exceeded two billion pounds in today's currency.
What This Means for You
Preparing for what you have asked for — setting the table, making the space, arranging your life as though the answer is on its way — is itself a physical act of faith. It costs something. It looks foolish if nothing comes. And that is exactly what makes it powerful.