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1 Chronicles 4:10, And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!" So God granted him what he requested.

Prayer has been so misunderstood.  The words of the Bible have been twisted so often to mean what man wants it to mean.  We have been told by too many preachers that if we are really Christians, we can ask God to give us anything we can’t get on our own and He will give it to us.  When we ask for a new car or a new _____ (You fill in the blank.) and don’t receive it, we become confused.  So what does this request by Jabez mean?

Jabez prayed, “Oh that you would bless me indeed”.  Bruce Wilkinson states in his book The Prayer of Jabez, “it is to ask for supernatural favor”.  He wrote, “It is the crying out for the wonderful, unlimited goodness only God has power to know about or give to us”.  What Jabez asked for had nothing to do with material things; it had everything to do with the presence of God in his life.  It was about being so deep in the water that you go where it takes you (Check out the page on Ezekiel 47:5). It is about allowing the Lord to decide where, when, and how He wants to use you or what lesson He wants to teach you each day.  It is the desire to want nothing more and nothing less than what God wants from us each day.

The key to this is to ask.  Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”  James 4:2b, “Yet you do not have because you do not ask”.

James 4:3, You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures”.  We need to ask and keep asking; we need to ask for what blesses God.  Jabez asked for God to bless him.  He received because he asked God to bless him in order to bless others. 

Bruce Wilkinson said that he began praying this prayer every day.  As he did, God began sending people into his life that needed to have someone listen to their “story”.  I believe that God wants His people to walk with Him in this way.  It is a focus on how you can help others in this hurting and fearful world.  It is caring enough to take time to listen, to let people know you care.  I have seen that when you do, it can have a great impact on the life of another person. 

“God’s bounty is limited only by us, not by His resources, power or willingness to give.   Jabez was blessed simply because he refused to let any obstacle, person, or opinion loom larger than God’s nature.  And God’s nature is to bless.” Bruce Wilkinson

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