The Prayer of Jabez

I Chronicles 4:10

Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, "Oh that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from harm that it may not pain me!" And God granted him what he requested.

I feel so blessed today!  This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible.  This and Isaiah 40:31.  Jabez is one of the only men in the book of Chronicles that is talked about a little.  It talks about how he was born and that he prayed to God.  I have a book somewhere, maybe one of you have my book, that talks about how praying this prayer for you will increase your ...land, knowledge, whatever it is you want to increase.  I loved this verse so much that when we had the National Day of Prayer services one time, I asked Tom McRoberts, one of our ministers, to talk about this.  He did such a wonderful job. 

Jabez wanted God's blessings and asked God to be with him through everything.  He asked for his territory to grow bigger and that he would be kept from harm.  Those are all things that we ask for too, isn't it?  What person wouldn't want to be painless, and under God's protection?  Well, pain free we are not, but we are under God's protection.   He loves us and wants us to depend on him for everything.  I try, but it is hard because sometimes I want something done the way I think it should be.  And I usually make it worse and jumble things up more.

We just need to learn to trust God and wait on him to do what he wants from us.  John 16:23 says, " In that day you will not question Me about anything Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you."  I think that says it all.