It's unfortunate that George Mueller is not a household name, considering all the good he did for thousands of parentless children on the streets of London in the middle of the 19th century.   

The orphanages that God raised up through Mueller's faith were started with only two shillings (50 cents) but as he prayed - believe it or not without making his needs known - slowly but surely the buildings were built to feed and house orphans for sixty years.

How did this happen, you ask? Curiously, Mueller credits his habit of scripture reading.

I believe that the one chief reason that I have been kept in happy useful service is that I have been a lover of Holy Scripture.

It has been my habit to read the Bible through four times a year; in a prayerful spirit, to apply it to my heart, and practice what I find there. I have been for sixty-nine years a happy man; happy, happy, happy." 

Forget four times. Try once in 2012. Baby steps. Here are some questions to keep you focused and to increase your understanding of what you are reading.

1. What do these words actually mean?

2. What light do other scriptures through on this text? Where and how does it fit in the total biblical revelation?

3. What truths does it teach about God, and about man in relation to God?

4. How are these truths related to the saving work of Christ, and what light does the gospel of Christ throw on them?

5. What experiences do these truths delineate, or explain, or seek to create or cure? For what practical purpose do they stand in Scripture?

6. How do they apply to myself and others in our own actual situation? To what present human condition do they speak, and what are they telling us to believe and do?

From A QUEST FOR GODLINESS by J. I. Packer, page 105

Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) was a key figure in the Church of England, until deposed for a 15 year period while the Puritans under Cromwell enjoyed running things.

Those years, however, became very productive in terms of writing. Odd how God has a way of doing that! Just ask John Bunyan with his Pilgrim's Progress written while in Newgate prison, or the Apostle Paul with the book of Philippians , or John on the isle of Patmos writing Revelation.

Holy Living and Holy Dying were written in those years of Taylor's exile. And in Holy Living, some prayers are included to pray at the end of the day.

Given our media-driven lifestyle, we often go to bed with the days news still reverberating in our ears, or, having just signed off of Facebook after a couple of hours of "friend-snooping," our minds are filled with the mundane of a Starbucks run or other innocuous tidbits.

Jeremy Taylor provides us with a prayer that puts the essence of our lives forefront as we close out the day. It places eternity at the forefront, where it belongs.

Into thy hands, most blessed Jesu, I comment my soul and body, for htou hast redeemed both with thy precious blood. So bless and sanctify my sleep unto me, that if may be temperate, holy, and safe, a refreshment to my wearied body, to enable it so to serve my soul, that both may serve thee with a never-failing duty.

O let me never sleep in sin or death eternal, but give me a watchful and prudent spirit, that I may omit no opportunity of serving thee; that whether I sleep or wake, live or die, I may be thy servant and thy child: that when the work of my life is done, I may rest in the bosom of my Lord, till by the voice of the archangel, the trump of God, I shall be awakened, and called to sit down and feast in the eternal supper of the Lamb.

Grant this, O Lamb of God, for the honor of thy mercies, and the glory of thy name, O most merciful Savior and Redeemer Jesus. Amen.

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