The Prayer of Jabez
1 Chronicles 4:9-10
Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister
First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO
Have you read the little book The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson? If you haven’t, you are one of the few who hasn’t. Dr. Bruce Wilkinson’s book has made Christian publishing history with nearly eight million copies sold. On September 15, The Prayer of Jabez was number 3 on the American Booksellers Association nonfiction list; number 1 on Publisher’s Weekly’s list; and the number 8 seller in the category on the internet bookstore Amazon.com. World Magazine’s combined rankings of all the major nonfiction best-seller lists gave The Prayer of Jabez an overall position of number 3 behind Stephen Ambrose’s WWII saga The Wild Blue and David McCulough’s biography of John Adams.
This is amazing because never before has a religious book even come close to these achievements. Even more startling is the content of Wilkinson’s book. The brief ninety-two page book is an exposition and application of a relatively obscure passage from the Old Testament. The underlying theme is prayer and God’s willingness to answer our prayers and bless our lives. Wilkinson, the director of Walk Through the Bible Ministries, claims that he has been praying this prayer for over thirty years and as a result has seen God do some amazing things. Moreover, he insists that anyone who prays this prayer can expect the supernatural.
Tonight I want to examine both the book and the scripture behind it. The book has drawn mixed reviews. Secular reviewers don’t know what to do with it. They are often befuddled by its popularity. Some Bible scholars have struggled to take it seriously. They observe rightly that it is very brief and in a sense, very “superficial.” It is clearly not the best thing every written on prayer. It is probably not even the best book on the market right now on the topic. But it has caught the attention of our society. And this before the 911 tragedy!
The book seems to have caught a wave of interest in the spiritual in our society. But even millions of unbelievers are buying it. George Barna’s polling organization reports that even one out of five self-described atheists and agnostics claim to pray to God. One can only wonder who they think they are praying to and what they expect to happen. It makes me wonder how different the praying of atheists is from that of church attenders and professing Christians. Many in the media find the Jabez phenomena curious. They can’t ignore it, but they don’t get it.
The theme of the book is very close to something that I have said often in our studies of prayer on Sunday evenings—God is far more willing to answer our prayers than we often realize. He wants to bless us. The reluctance is ours, not God’s.
To this end, one of the key sections in the book is the story Wilkinson calls “Mr. Jones Goes to Heaven.” Mr. Jones dies, goes to heaven, and is greeted by St. Peter as always happens in stories like this. As he is shown around heaven—angels, choirs, gold streets and the like, Mr. Jones notices a large warehouse building and asks to see it. St. Peter suggests that it might be better if he didn’t see it, but Mr. Jones insists.
Finally, St. Peter relents. Peter opens the door. Mr. Jones sees a huge warehouse filled with row after row of shelves packed full of white boxes with bows. Each box has a name on it. Mr. Jones asks if any has his name on it. They go to the J aisle and find one with his name. Mr. Jones opens it. As he looks inside, Jones has a moment of instant recognition and then lets out a deep sigh like the ones Peter had heard so many times before.
Inside the white box were all of the blessings that God had wanted to give to him while he was on earth but hadn’t because Jones had never asked. Wilkinson concludes the section with these true words, “Even though there is no limit to God’s goodness, if you didn’t ask Him for a blessing yesterday, you didn’t get all that you were supposed to have” (p. 27).
There is another side to the book, however. Wilkinson is a very respected evangelical leader. There is no question about his love for Jesus and devotion to the Bible. Yet some evangelical writers have waved a big yellow flag about certain aspects of the book. I too share that concern. So for those of you who have read the book and those who may, I share this observation. The book is very good. I recommend that you read it. However, there is this one problem. I am not sure what Wilkinson intends, but part of his book can leave the impression that prayer is primarily a matter of finding the right magic words. If you repeat those magic words over and over you will eventually get what you want or at least be blessed. Let me read the opening lines of the last chapter of the book (pp. 86-87). Wilkinson closes his discussion with this:
“I challenge you to make the Jabez prayer for blessing part of the daily fabric of your life. To do that, I encourage you to follow unwaveringly the plan outlined here for the next thirty days. By the end of that time, you’ll be noticing significant change in your life, and the prayer will be on its way to becoming a treasured, lifelong habit.
1. Pray the Jabez prayer every morning, and keep a record of your daily prayer by marking off a calendar or a chart you make especially for the purpose.
2. Write out the prayer and tape it in your Bible, in your day-timer, on your bathroom mirror, or some other place where you’ll be reminded of your new vision.”
He continues with a number of other similar steps and some final personal illustrations of how this process revolutionized his life, family, and ministry at Walk Through the Bible. Here lies the problem. Prayer is not a matter of finding magic words or using some magic formula. I don’t think Wilkinson believes that either, but his suggestion could easily be taken in that direction. He comes very close to making the Prayer of Jabez sound like a Christian “mantra.” The term “mantra” refers to a practice in the Hindu religion in which a novice is given a magic word or phrase by his guru with the promise that using or repeating this word will guarantee a spiritual breakthrough. In Hinduism the phrase is often a meaningless sound or symbol repeated over and over. The classic example is the term “ooommm.” The promised result in Hinduism is the release of your soul or inner being into a closer communion with the “spirit of the universe.” The practice of transcendental meditation is very much a part of this in modern Hinduism.
Almost all pagan religions have something like this—special incantations, special potions and sayings that bring some sort of spiritual power. We all know that some forms of Roman Catholicism appear to teach this ritualistic approach to prayer with the rosary or repetition of the “Our Father” or the “Hail Mary.” The use of the Lord’s Prayer by non-Catholics can become almost this ritualistic. In their crudest form, all of these examples, pagan or Christian, are distortions of biblical prayer. The Prayer of Jabez could be just the latest example of such thinking. Perhaps this is why it appeals even to pagans. It promises magical results from simple repetition. That is not prayer.
Prayer is personal communion with the Living God. It is speaking and listening. It must come from the lips, but also from the head and the heart. There is no magic path to prayer power. The Bible never promises it. We should never expect. Not even from the Prayer of Jabez.
Having said that, I still insist that we can learn much from this little inspirational book. Like the Lord’s Prayer and dozens of other prayers in the Bible, the Prayer of Jabez is a good model. Its example can teach us more about what prayer is. We will learn this not by simply and mindlessly repeating the Prayer of Jabez, but by learning its principles, understanding its lessons and practicing Jabez’s faith, not just reciting his words.
Let’s turn to the actual prayer of Jabez in the Bible. “Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” 10Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request” (1 Chronicles 4:9-10).
To understand the prayer, we need to look at three separate pieces of information: the context of the prayer, then the content, and finally the conclusion. The context is partly what makes this prayer so striking. In the middle of a long list of genealogies in which we are told little or nothing about the people, up pops Jabez. 1 Chronicles tells the story of King David’s reign with a special emphasis on his preparations to build a temple for God. The first nine chapters tell the family tree of David. Chapter ten relates King Saul’s death and chapter 11 the inauguration of David as king of Israel. Chapters 22-29 outline the temple plans. Chapter four continues a lengthy list of family names in the tribe of Judah, David’s family and the Messiah’s family line. In the middle of this listing, the writer tells us a detail about Jabez. Apparently, he became famous as a man of prayer. Oh, that the Lord would make more fathers and leaders famous for such a thing!
We are told two facts about Jabez. First, he was more honorable than his brothers. I don’t think this is intended as a put down of his brothers, just a strong compliment to Jabez. He was exceptional. The term “honorable” is the Hebrew word for “glory,” an adjective often applied to the Lord. The root idea was of something heavy or weighty. Therefore, something that was glorious or honorable was something of substance and value. Jabez was no lightweight. There is something substantial about a man or woman who makes prayer a passion.
Secondly, Jabez may have had a hard beginning in life. Wilkinson speculates a lot about this in his book. He is probably at least partly right. The fact is his name sounded much like the Hebrew word for “pain.” His mother gave him that name because of her experience in childbirth. It may have been exceptional labor pains or even some trauma or emotional hardship she experienced at the time of his birth. We are not told. Whatever this means, it was significant enough to be recorded in this testimony to Jabez. Possibly it was a clue to the life he lived. Perhaps, his early years reflected the pain of his mother and the name she gave him. Maybe it was those hard times that made him a pillar of prayer. Unfortunately, that is a fact of human nature. We do pray more in times of pain than in times of pleasure. Sad, but true! Perhaps this disposition to pray is a part of the blessing of the poor in spirit, those who mourn, those who are persecuted, and the others that Jesus lists in his Beatitudes. How much better would we be if we prayed as fervently in the good times as in the bad?
Next note the content of his prayer. Here is where Wilkinson’s book is both right and wrong. He is right to challenge us to pray like Jabez—to ask for the same kinds of things he asked for. He is off base if he is suggesting that will happen simply by mouthing these words verbatim without making them our own. Neither Jabez’s prayer or the Lord’s Prayer is a magic ritual that substitutes for a personal conversation with the Lord of Glory.
Jabez prayed for four things. But first note that he knew to whom he was praying. He cried out to the God of Israel. He was not calling out to Whomever It May Concern or to My Higher Power However I May Understand Him. God has a name and resume. Those who know both who he is and what is has done are more likely to pray and see their prayers answered.
Here are the four things Jabez prayed for: 1) that God would bless him indeed, 2) that God would enlarge his territory, 3) let his hand be with him, and 4) keep him from harm or evil. First, he called upon the God of Israel to bless him. Wilkinson rightly makes much of this first point. God’s nature is to bless. It is not selfish to ask for his blessings. That is at the heart of prayer. Of course, we are to ask for his blessings on others as well. But if we are not asking for blessings in our own lives, we are not likely to be very sincere or passionate about seeking his blessings for others. This is not selfishness. It is recognizing that without God’s blessings we are totally undone. It is a false humility that doesn’t ask for God’s blessings because we claim we don’t deserve them. Such false humility is first disobedient because God told us to ask. But more likely, it is arrogance in disguise. We are tempted to think we could actually get buy without his blessings. If we don’t ask his blessings, we are not likely to recognize them when they come. And when they do come, we will not be thankful for them.
Jabez’s request is stated emphatically. “Bless me indeed” is a better rendering. His prayer was full of passion. Perhaps he believed deeply in prayer. Or maybe when he began to pray this prayer he was in desperate straits. At any rate, Jabez didn’t just want any old “run of the mill” blessing. He needed a big one. Often our prayers are only as big as our problems. It would be better if they were as big as our God!
Next, he asked God to enlarge his territory or his borders. This could have been literal. “Lord, bless my lands and my herds. Give me prosperity and responsibility.” There is nothing wrong with such a prayer if it is motivated by a desire to glorify God and use the results of the enlarged borders as a generous steward. But such praying can turn selfish very quickly. Greed not generosity can motivate such passion. But it doesn’t have to.
Wilkinson applies this part of the prayer to a believer’s praying for greater ministry opportunity. He insists that his having prayed for this is the reason that the work of Walk Through the Bible Ministries has expanded around the world as it has. Certainly there is truth here. What if we as a church truly prayed with passion: Lord, enlarge our territory? What if every Sunday School class prayed the same prayer? What if you prayed for greater influence for Christ in your workplace, your home, and your neighborhood?
Third, Jabez prayed for God’s hand to be with him. Jesus told us that he is the vine and we are the branches. Abide in him and we will bear much fruit. Apart from him we will do nothing. Knowing we need God’s protective, providing, and guiding hand is the foundation of real faith. We can seek to live our lives under our own steam or under God’s hand of blessing. How we pray spells the difference.
Finally, Jabez prayed much like Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus said, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” A thousand years before, Jabez prayed, “Keep me from harm so that I will be free of pain.” Quite likely the idea of harm is not so much “keep my life full of good circumstances” as it is “keep me from doing evil.” That is certainly a worthy prayer for all that recognize that they are sinners who need not only God’s forgiveness for past failure but also his protection against future sin. Likewise, the meaning of the last part of the petition “so that I will be free of pain” could be more likely “so that I will not cause pain by my sin.” That ought to be our concern in the Christian life and godly prayer—not just that we live pain free, but that we don’t become a stumbling block to others and cause them pain when they trip over us.
Of course, the writer of Chronicles wouldn’t have included the Jabez story, Wilkinson wouldn’t have written a best selling book about his prayer, and we wouldn’t have ever heard of this little known man from the tribe of Judah if it weren’t for the last part of verse 10—the conclusion of his prayer. This is the punch line, if you please—without it, nothing else is note worthy. AND GOD GRANTED HIS REQUEST! Really, prayer is about answers. It is not about some form of emotional comfort derived from religious self-talk as some describe prayer. It is about asking for God’s blessing, knowing that he hears, and experiencing his answers—in his timing! What would be the point if we prayed and prayed and God never answered!
Conclusion: At first glance, Chronicles reads like Jabez was an exception. He was more honorable than his brothers. We might conclude from this that answered prayer is only for special people. We would be wrong! This is the good news that we always need to hear when we read of powerful prayer lives in the Bible or the pages of Christian history. Answered prayer is for anyone who will seek God, call out to him, and ask for his blessings. This is the message of James 5:16-17, “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. “ Jabez, too, was a man just like us!
***Dr. Roger W. Thomas is the preaching minister at First Christian Church, 205 W. Park St., Vandalia, MO 63382 and an adjunct professor of Bible and Preaching at Central Christian College, 911 E. Urbandale, Moberly, MO. He is a graduate of Lincoln Christian College (BA) and Lincoln Christian Seminary (MA, MDiv), and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin).
