Prayer Of Jabez - Hand Of The Lord Series

Title: Prayer of Jabez – Passionate Prayer and the Hand of the Lord

1 Chronicles 4:9-10 Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, "Because I bore him in pain." (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.

Introduction

Jabez prayed unto the Lord a few things and we are remined that “God granted him what he requested.” This gets my attention. I want to be able to pray prayers that God grants. I want to be able to pray and ask requests that God cares about.

James 5:16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

Effectual Fervent - - Original: e??e??e´?

- Transliteration: Energeo

- Phonetic: en-erg-eh'-o

- Definition:

1. to be operative, be at work, put forth power

a. to work for one, aid one

2. to effect

3. to display one's activity, show one's self operative

AMP The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man (believer) can accomplish much

MSG The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.

Passionate Prayer

We have already worked through a few of these. Jabez asked for God’s blessing “Oh, that You would bless me”. Oh, is a word of passion. It shows us that this is a deeper passionate prayer that runs deep into our soul.

It reminds me of the verse I quoted last week, “Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be open”. This is a persistent prayer that God expects from us. This verse is built around a parable of a friend who persistently knocks on the door of another and is granted his request.

We can continue to seek Him through prayer and to make our requests known to Him (Philippians 4:6).

So there is something to this passionate persistent prayer that God expects from us. If we were to be honest, we don’t pray enough. I am not talking about quantity, time in prayer, I am talking about quality. The persistent focus of prayer to an almighty ever caring God. One who hears our prayer and is wanting to grant them (1 John 5:14 – 15).

So Jabez passionately prayed to the Lord. What did he pray?

1) Oh that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory. We covered this last week. God is wanting to pour out his blessings on people. God is wanting to increase our influence.

2) That your hand would be with me

3) That you would keep me from evil

He summed it up by saying if you do these things, I believe that they would keep me from causing pain. If you do these things my life will be on a different track. That is why I believe this idea of pain is deeper than just a name that his mother gave him. It is more than just an event but was adapted as a lifestyle. Jabez was a “pain maker”. He hurt people until he called upon the name of the Lord. What a change this made.

That your hand would be with me

So we covered blessings and territory last week. Let’s this week look at that next part of this passionate prayer. “that your hand would be with me”.

This is a powerful prayer request.

The phrase the hand of the Lord is used throughout the Old and New Testament. There are a few ways it is used.

I. In judgement.

God’s hand represented judgement upon a nation and upon a people.

Pharaoh ran into this in Exodus 3:20. Pharaoh thought he had it all together. His plan was to enslave Israel to control them. His plan was to subdue them with distractions.

Exo 3:20 So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders which I will do in its midst; and after that he will let you go.

And that is what he did.

Exodus 6: 6

Ex 13:9

Brought them out by the hand of the Lord

It is by the hand of the Lord.

Ex 13:14

When we get out of bondage, we should be saying it was by the hand of the Lord that got us out

Ex 15:6

When the hand of the Lord is against the enemy, the enemy will stumble

Pharaoh is a type of Satan. Satan has tried to bound the world in sin. He has tried to put people in bondage. That is what sin is, it is bondage. But it is Christ who sets us free and gives us life.