“Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, ‘Because I bore him in pain.’ 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.” (NKJ)
Before Bruce Wilkinson wrote his bestselling ‘Prayer of Jabez’, hardly anyone had ever heard of this guy. Hidden within a long list of genealogies in your OT is a golden nugget of truth, only recently discovered by popular Christian culture. Sadly, even though it sold millions of copies and no doubt had a great effect on all who read the book, most Christians don’t seem to live any differently as a result of this powerful passage. We are supposed to pray for God’s will…and yet, let’s not miss the fact that God wants for us to pray for His blessings, and wants to bless us! Jabez’ name means “pain,” "sorrow," "burden" or "miserable." Can you imagine what a hard time this little fellow must have had when he was a boy? His name meant misery. Maybe some of the children came knocking on the door asking if Misery could come out and play. What a name!
The Bible says that his mother called him Jabez because she had borne him in pain. (I Chron. 4:9). A hard time at birth had labeled his name and to the Hebrew child a name meant destiny. A name to the Jewish people was often taken as a wish for the child’s future. If there ever was a guy who could be bitter, it was Jabez. His very name could have driven him to a life of hate and bitterness. But Jabez, rather than letting his name determine his destiny, rose above his name, becoming a man of noble nature.
What does that tell me? It tells me that your past does not have to determine your future.So Jabez decided to do something about this. He decided that he was not going to live ordinary and the only way to do that was to place himself totally in the hands of an extra-ordinary God.
None of us are bound to our upbringing or trapped by former circumstances…with God’s help and blessing we can rise from the muck of the pit and be something more for Him!
My challenge then this year and especially these next four weeks is to let this prayer mark your daily life. Start this year with a focus on being all that God wants you to be and having everything God wants you to have.
I. Believe God Wants to Bless You
This prayer is a recognition that without the hand of God in his life, he would have a mighty tough time of it. It is a cry to the only One who could make mountains move, go before Israel, and bring the blessings promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and renewed through Moses. It is a prayer to acknowledge his helplessness in the face of the task. It is a prayer admitting His need for God to work a request for God to intervene so he could accomplish His work.
This word blessed means to bow the knee before God to praise and adore God for who He is. The idea here is not wealth and prosperity but believing God wants to bless His people and that includes you.
What does it mean that God wants to bless His people?
Ephesians 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,” (NKJ)
The Greek word for blessed means that god speaks well of us. It means the god of Heaven and Earth, of all creation, The God who sits on the Throne of Heaven has spoken and is speaking well of you.
A. It’s His Nature to Bless
Psalm 103:1-5, “Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.” (NKJ)
Don’t forget the benefits you and I have. He’s forgiven all your sins Christian. He’s redeemed you and has crowned you with His love and given you good things in this life.
Just because bad things happen to good people don’t miss the point that we live in a fallen world where sin has left its mark but God has stepped in and forgiven you and look at what Psalm 103 goes on to say, “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities…As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” V.8-10,12 (NKJ)
B. It’s His Plan You have what’s Best
Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (NIV)
Think about that verse for a minute. God said this to His people while they are in captivity after the most horrendous of sins blatant disobedience, gross immorality, and even child sacrifice. And yet God is saying you are my people and I love you. Didn’t Jesus promise us He would never leave us or forsake us? Even until the end of the age?
Doesn’t the Bible ask us in Romans 8:31, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (NKJ) and doesn’t it go on to say there in v.38-39 “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (NKJ) Think about it nothing that has happened or will happen will separate you from God’s love.
We have been in our house now nearly two months. There are some things that I built that I know needs fixing, plaster job here and there, closet doors not yet completed, a little of this and a lot of that. YET I have taken up residence in my home. It’s mine and I have the payments to prove it. It’s the same thing with Jesus.
There are things in our lives that need work, attitudes, prejudices, tempers, things we say, a little of this and a lot of that and YET…He has chosen to take up residence in our lives. The Bible says, in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (NIV) He knows the real you and yet loves you anyway.
I. Believe God wants to bless you
II. Believe You Can Make a Difference
Everything begins by how we view God. If our view is legalistic then we will see nothing but God’s justice and even view His discipline as punishment. If we never believe that God is in our corner then we will never grasp that we can make a difference for Him.
The problem is that our pulpits today either chain God’s people to legalism, or they preach health, wealth and hankies.
This prayer isn’t about either one. This prayer means that I choose to believe that God loves me, wants what is best for me, and I have to align myself with His plan for my life.
See Our text is right in the middle of the first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles. In these nine chapters is so an so begat so and so. This list is all the men of Israel starting with Adam to about 1056 B.C. covering around 3,000 years. But nestled right in the middle is Jabez. The author stops, puts his pen in his mouth and for some reason thinks of Jabez.
He’s not Abraham, Joseph, Moses, or David, but for some reason this guy stood out. The reasons was his character was more honorable then his Jewish brothers. **v.9** the word honorable
It means to gain glory or be promoted. It refers to living out the character of God. In other words walking with Him, obeying Him and ridding my life of sin.
It also implies that I learn love people as God loves people that my heart becomes a heart like his. That I care about others and I live as Christ lived. One of the phrases I try to live by is what I believe Jesus lived by: “Don’t be too big to do something too small.”
Listen to Jesus’ words in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
That is the whole idea of the Christian life. We give ourselves to Christ and we then give of ourselves for others.
The world needs servants. Every aspect of the church is wrapped around servant-hood. From the pew to the pulpit the goal of the Christian is to lay down our lives. A Pastor is a servant leader, the word deacon means servant and Jesus said in Luke 4:8, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.” (NKJ)
John Wesley provides the most convicting analysis on what it means to be a true servant: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you can.” Rick Warren. The Purpose Driven Life, Zondervan Publishing, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2002,
See this to many is going to require a major paradigm shift. Because service is required as a Christian but serving others is not in the mindset of many today. We don’t look to serve we expect to be served.
Here’s the paradigm shift, you ready? It’s not about us! One of the books that transformed me in this area is The DNA Of Relationships, by Dr. Gary Smalley. Here’s what he said, “Honor Others: Honor is a way of accurately seeing the immense value of someone made in God’s image. God created each one os us as a one-of-a-kind person, with unique gifts and personality. He sees us as precious and valuable.”
The truth is I’ll never value another person out side of my immediate family if I never get that God loves and values me. But, when I get that then I’ll begin to see that god loves others and has put me here not to be blessed but to be a blessing and I’ll only accomplish that as I serve Him.
Conclusion: This prayer is not about God bless me and pray something that has only a selfish intent. This prayer requires I do something and it starts with what I believe about God and what He wants me to do.
We have made up 400 of these cards with the prayer on them. I want you to take one, pray it and study this passage over the next 4 weeks. Then I want to encourage you to expect some change in your life.
Expect that God wants to bless you that He is on your side no matter what you have done in your past. God can and has forgiven all sin and the only thing that will stop blessing is if we continue to walk in sin. God can’t bless us with sin in our lives.
Expect that God is going to orchestrate some events in your life where you can be a blessing to others. Look for ways and opportunities to share Him and show Him to another person.
So why not, dive in give yourself to this attitude of prayer aren’t we reminded in 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (NIV)
Baron de Rothschild once asked Ary Scheffer to paint his portrait. Rothschild was a ga-zillion aire financier but decided he wanted his portrait painted as a beggar. A friend of the painter came by and Rothschild was such a convincing beggar, old clothes and tin cup that the painter’s friend dropped a coin in his cup.
Ten years later that man received a letter from the Baron and a check for 10,000 francs. Here’s what is said, “You one day gave a coin to Baron de Rothschild in the studio of Ary Scheffer. He has invested it and today sends you the capital which you entrusted to him, together with the compound interest. A good action always brings good fortune.”
Good actions get God’s attention. He notices when we serve. I challenge you to make this prayer a way of life and know any good thing you do is not in vain. Forgive someone who doesn’t deserve it and you’ll become just like Jesus. And that’s when you’ll be blessed beyond belief.
PRAY
