The Prayer of Jabez

About a week and a half ago I wrote a posting called, A Job year? Officially, there are no comments on the blog, but several people who know me; Paul, Marge, Jared and Mike to name a few, emailed me and shared some comments. I always appreciate the views of others, whether they agree with me or not.



Mike, who happens to be a neighbor and a member of our Table Group picked up on my comment, "For a year now I have been praying my version of The Prayer of Jabez, and it would seem like God IS expanding my territory." He happened to have Bruce Wilkinson's book, The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life on CD and he offered to let me borrow it. I was aware of the book, but had not read it.



I listened to the 110 minute unabridged presentation last night. The first thing that struck me is how gifted authors, and teachers like Mr. Wilkenson can take something as simple as two verses out of the Bible and write a book on it. Granted , is not a large book, but it did take nearly two hours to listen to.



Just to be clear, here is the entire text of the prayer attributed to an Old Testament character named Jabez.

1 Chronicles 4:9-10
9Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.”10Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.

That's it! Jabez is not mentioned prior nor after these two verses. In fact, it is very interesting that these two verse even appear in the Bible. 1 Chronicles Chapter 4 is primarily listing of the genealogy of the Clans of Judah and it begins listing "The descendants of Judah." Verse 7 ends with "...Aharhel son of Harum." We get the prayer in 9-10 and then11 begins with, "Kelub, Shuhah's brother, was the father of Mehir, who was ..." The genealogy goes on from there.



Clearly God had a plan for that passage of scripture. Mr. Wilkinson does an outstanding job of establishing the context for Jabez's petition to God and then for providing insight into what that means for you and I. If you haven't read the book (or listened to it) I would encourage you to do so.



As for me, I have already confessed that I had been praying that prayer for over a year. I have shared and continue to share with anyone who will listen, how God is honoring that prayer. After listening to Bruce, I am rededicating myself to asking God to bless me and enlarge my territory.



I was not quite comfortable with the last part of his request, "...keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain..." I didn't feel worthy. I now have a better understanding of why that request is so very important for me to include as part of my prayer.



We server a Great God! HE has GREAT plans for each and everyone of us. Most of us will never realize the fruition of those plans, simply because we never ask God to unleash HIS power in our lives. If you ask for the Power, you NEED the Protection! When you step out in Faith for God, you are Worthy and you deserve HIS protection. ASK for it. From now on, I will.

A Job year?

If you believe everything that the press tells you, you probably find yourself in one of two camps. The first is that 2009 is going to be bad, very BAD. If you are a little more optimistic or perhaps a Democrat, you may believe that Mr. Obama is the savior and that he is going to come in and FIX everything.

As for me, I believe neither. My good friend Arlin has been in the book of Job for nearly three weeks now. As I read his devotional this morning, it occurred to me that we (WE is a group that is expanding by the moment) may be in for a Job experience.

I'll digress for a moment and proclaim that I am currently being blessed by circumstances that can only be attributed to answered prayer. My business, Quality Systems Solutions, Inc. is on track to have our best single month in the 12 year history of the company. For a year now I have been praying my version of The Prayer of Jabez, and it would seem like God IS expanding my territory. I remind myself daily that "The Lord giveth…and the Lord taketh away", so for now I am extremely grateful for what He has given.

Back to the big picture. 2008 saw a reversal of fortune for many... MANY people. We all know someone who was "riding high." Life was good and everything seemed to be going their way. BOOM! Out of nowhere, they were knocked off their horse. For some, it was a minor setback and they may have already "gotten back in the saddle", perhaps riding a bit slower, but riding none the less. For others, their horse may have run off, leaving them to walk. Yet others still suffered injury in the fall... in some cases, significant injury. Some may never fully recover.

So, what does this all mean? I guess that it depends. If you are a Christian, I'd suggest that you go back and Read the book of Job. How does your life align with Job's? What can you learn from Job? Job aside, what do we know about God? God is GOOD! He is good in the best of times. He is good in the worst of times. The only thing that ever really changes is US. God is always the same.

If your not a Christian, I'd suggest that you go back and Read the book of Job. How does your life align with Job's? What can you learn from Job? Seriously, whether you believe in God or not, there is some real wisdom contained in the book of Job. Otherwise, what option do you have? Think that you can work it all out on your own? Think that Obama with "fix" everything? Let me know how that works for you! Let's meet back here in a year and compare notes. ;-)