Prayer Of Jabez

This was something that exploded onto the Christian scene a few years back. I was the next big thing in Christianity, despite it having been a part of the bible since it was God breathed.

It can be found in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 you can read it here

About 4 years ago I moved from my hometown in London to Neath, leaving behind a box of books with a good friend that I simply didnt have room for at the time.

This past weekend, I got the chance to get back up to London to visit and my friend handed me my box of books.

I had almost totally forgotten them after all this time, and as I looked through them, I found books that I had forgotten I even owned and a few that I am still convinced are not mine, but obviously God wants me to read them.

Within the books was a small book by Bob Gass, many people may know the name as part of UCB and the Word for Today. This small book offers 'Fresh insight on the prayer of Jabez.  First of all I want to recommend reading this book, it took me no time at all to finish and God spoke to me all through it.

I want to share some things that grabbed me and to do this I am going to use quotes directly from the book as I think it holds a timely message for the church and us today. (therefore I would like to add that a fair bit of what follows is directly copied from the book and no my own work)

here it is

'Because God's promisescome with conditions...in this 'microwave mentality' generation, we risk turning the Prayer of Jabez into a get rich quick formula, or a way of manipulating God to get what we want, instead of taking the time to ask what we need'

 As a church, but maybe even more importantly as individuals, we have to grasp this fact. God doesn't pander to us. It is we, as examples of Christ that should take on the serving role just as we are told in philippiams 2 read

We need to be the ones serving God in what we do.

'...if you want what Jabez had, you have to do what Jebez did. His prayer was backed up by a lifestyle of obedience...'

Bob Gass continues in his book with what follows, and I want to state now that I in no way have gotten there with this, I am not yet at this point and I am learning this lesson even as I write this today.

'As a devout Israeli...Jabez would have been a tither. Actually the thought of not giving the first tenth of his income would never have occurred to him...'

Malachi 3:10 gives us the promise of God on this very subject, Matthew 23:23 then shows us that it is not a teaching just of the old covenant.

'Jabez would have grown up hearing the words of scripture on a regular basis and Deuteronomy 28:2 says "You will experience all the blessings if you obey the Lord your God"

...God can not bless you beyond your last act of disobedience'

Also read Dt28:1-13

'Now let me show you something else that will keep the prayer from working for you... Psalm 66:18 NLT

this scripture simply means, if you refuse to acknowledge your sin and seek forgiveness, God wont answer your prayers. He cant! if He did He'd be violating the very conditions He Himself laid down in His word'

You see we have to come before God with a confidence, in who HE is, who WE are, and mostly in WHERE we stand before Him.1 john 3:21-22

'...its not praying for what we want that brings God's blessing. But having the confidence that we're praying according to what He wants for us. He already has a plan in place for us. The trouble is most of us have no idea where we are in His plan, so we ask for right now things that He hasn't scheduled until later ( and in some cases not at all) You see, you can pray for a roof until you are blue in the face, but if your foundation hasn't been properly laid, you wont get one because you dont need one yet'

Hebrews 10 tells us if we continue to do God's will then you will recieve His promises - isnt that what we ultimately want out of life, the promies of God, His best for us???

The bottom line in our lives has to be Christ, He must be the ficus, we cant continue to live for ourselves, when the price that was paid was so great. We need to refocus our lives on what the cross is all about, john 15:13 'greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.' But thats not the end of it there at all. its that the price that was paid was in our place. And if our God can give up that much in sacrifice in our place then we need to grasp this final thing from the first chapter of the Bob Gass book

'...God knows the where's, the when's, and the how's of blessing you. You can trust Him to know WHAT you need, WHEN you need it, and HOW to get it to you...'

Lets stop trying to rip the calender of our lives from the grasp of God telling Him that He somehow forgot about x,y and z on our agenda, and realise that to fully experience the blessings of God we need to know He is in control and take the choose to life by the John the Baptist principle 'He must increase, but I must decrease' John 3:30 KJV

I leave you with a fantastic song by OneHundredHours that I love

At the foot of the cross