Introduction
I would dare say that most Christians feel more comfortable praying for someone else than praying for themselves. Christians prefer intercessory prayer rather than personal prayer. Take for example in our church, if you raise your hand to give a personal prayer request, I have never heard that person who made the request say “let me pray for my personal request.” We usually want someone else to pray for our need.
As Christians, I believe we need to learn to feel comfortable about praying for ourselves. And to do that, I want to bring us to a man in the Old Testament who prayed for himself by the name of Jabez and see what we can learn about personal prayer.
Scripture
1 Chronicles 4:9–10 (NKJV)
9 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.
Background Information
If you ever read 1 Chronicles you would have certainly noticed that the first nine chapters of Chronicles dealt with the genealogy of the Jewish people all the way back from Adam in the first Chapter to King Saul and his descendants in Chapter 8. And in chapter 9, the genealogies ends with the linage of the priest, the Levites, and the gatekeepers.
But in between all those begets, the writer Ezra was struck by the praying of a man named Jabez, and so Ezra stops the genealogies for a moment and tells us how this man prayed for himself.
Jabez’s life started off badly. Apparently, Jabez was a very difficult delivery and the mother was in intense pain or possibly the pain lasted for a long time. Anyway, his mother named him Jabez because she said I bore him in pain. How would you like your name to be a constant reminder of the pain you caused your mother? He has been scared with that name. But he was not going to let that keep him down.
Some of our people sitting in this church house has been scared by something that has happened in their life. The good news that Jabez teaches us that you can pray for yourself and overcome that hurt.
Three thing Jabez teaches us.
Point #1
There is nothing wrong in you asking God to bless you.
Vs 10...Oh, that You would bless me indeed...
Some of you may be thinking to yourself that is bold on your part to ask God to bless you. I understand praying for God to bless someone else, and I do it all the time; but me asking God to bless me, I don’t feel comfortable with that.
But can I share with you that you are in good company if you ask God to bless you. There were three people in the Bible that specially asked God to bless them, and the interesting thing is that in all three cases God did bless them.
The first one was probably of the scoundrel of the bunch. It was Jacob. He was a schemer. He caught his brother Esau in a weak moment and stole his birthright by offering him some stew. He later scheme his dad by pretending to be Esau and stole the final blessing of his dad.
In Genesis 32, we are told that Jacob wrestled with God and Jacob says to God, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
Let’s look at the outcome of that Scripture.
Genesis 32:26–29 (NKJV)
26 And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.”
But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”
27 So He said to him, “What is your name?”
He said, “Jacob.”
28 And He said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.”
29 Then Jacob asked, saying, “Tell me Your name, I pray.”
And He said, “Why is it that you ask about My name?” And He blessed him there.
In Psalm 6, David calls for the Blessing of God and in verse 7 it says that God shall bless us. David prayed for God’s blessing and God blessed.
And then we go back to Jabez in Chronicles 4 that God granted him what he requested.
Jacob, David, and Jabez prayed for God’s blessing and in each case God blessed them.
Let me make sure you understand this: it is not selfish to ask God to bless you. It is Scriptural.
Jeremiah 33:3 (NKJV)
3 ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’
Point #2
There is nothing wrong with praying big.
vs. 10 ...and enlarge my territory...
Jabez did not pray take some of my territory from me; Jabez did not pray let me maintain what I got; no, Jabez prayed big, Lord, enlarge my territory.
Once again we may have a problem with this type of prayer. We would say it is selfish on our part to ask God to give us more.
But the Bible would say “no’ that is not true. Let me share with you about King Hezekiah. The Bible records an incident In Isaiah 38:1-5 where Isaiah the prophet told King Hezekiah of Judah that he was about to die. At that time, Hezekiah had been sick. Isaiah told him that sickness would be fatal and that he needed to set his house in order. Hezekiah then prayed to the Lord asking Him if he could live longer. Isaiah the prophet then told the king that the Lord would give him an additional fifteen years to live. As promised, Hezekiah did live another fifteen years.
If you are about ready to die and you ask God for more time and the Lord grants you 15 more years, I would say that is praying big.
We talked about Peter and John last week going to the temple to pray and encounter a man who was lame begging for alms. And Peter and John prayed, “Silver and gold have I done, but in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.” The man who is lame is looking for a few alms and instead he gets the biggest gift of all- rise up and walk.
I would say Peter and John were praying big. Peter and John could have easily said that we don’t have any money but we are going to pray that the next few people who pass your way will give you some alms. No, they prayed big.
Point #3
If you pray for God to bless you and you chose to start praying big, you better also pray for God to protect you because the devil is certainly coming after you.
vs. 10 ... that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil...
Let me give you some good advice: you got to pray all the prayer; you cannot leave out the last part.
If you pray for God to bless you and you don’t pray for God’s protection, you leave yourself open for the devil to attack you.
If you pray big but don’t pray for God’s protection, the devil will be coming after you.
What I personally discovered in this study of pray is the constant reminder to pray for protection.
Point #4
Sometimes God does not remove the scar from you that brought you to Him in the first place; He leaves it there to remind you that you have to keep coming back to Him.
vs 10 ...that I may not cause pain!”
With God blessing Jabez; with God expanding Jabez’s territory did Jabez ever forget the pain that he caused his mother. The answer is: no. Jabez is still worried about causing someone else pain.
Could God have changed the name Jabez, just like He changed the name of Jacob to Israel? Yes, He could have but He didn’t. Could God have removed the thorn in the flesh in the life of the Apostle Paul ? Yes, He could have but He didn’t. God left Jabez with his name and Paul with his torn to keep them coming back to Him.
And God may be doing the same thing in your life.
