Friday, October 13, 2006

Prayer of Jabez


1 Chronicles 4:10 KJV
And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.

Much has been made of this prayer lately and not without good reason. I do think that today's spiritual fads can be very dangerous. And the "prayer of Jabez" fad of our day tends to be more on the line of "name it and claim it" and "if God does not answer and bless you abundantly then you don't have enough faith" kind of teaching. But everything about the prayer of Jabez is sound and it would be sound for a Child of God to incorporate the sentiments of this prayer into our daily worship and walk with the Lord.

Jabez prayed fervently.The term "Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed..." contains the same Hebrew word repeated twice. It is like Jabez prayed bless your blessings on me.

Jabez prayed evangelistically"...Enlarge my coast..." Gill says that this is read in the Targum as, "multiply my borders with disciples.''[1] It certainly is not wrong for a Christian to ask the Lord to give him disciples to train and lead in God's work.

Jabez prayed providentially
"...that thine hand might be with me..." I think J Vernon McGee said "providence in the hand of God in the glove of man's circumstances." Whatever happens in our lives, we need to know we have the hand of God guiding us.

Jabez prayed circumspectly
"...that thou wouldest keep me from evil..." Jabez understood that spiritual warfare are a reality to the believer in this world so he sought God's protection in the midst of the evil generation.

Jabez prayed successfully
"...And God granted him that which he requested."
Jabez's prayer would be meaningless without this final sentence. I do not know that God's Word guarantee's that every Christian will get every one of these requests answered if he prays them every day. However, there can be little doubt that this prayer, alongside the Lord's model prayer, provide us with a powerful format for our prayer life.


[1] E-Sword 7.7.7, John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible, Dr. John Gill (1690-1771)

No comments:

Post a Comment