Jabez' s prayer is a prayer that you never hear about and yet within 2 quick verses you learn the heart of a man and of a God who can take our broken lives, past, even our name, and create something amazing out of it.
9 Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez,[a] 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 (1 Chr. 4:9-10., NKJV).
When I first began reading about this verse in a book called "The Prayer of Jabez" by Bruce Wilkinson I was encouraged and taken aback by the simple truths pointed out in this verse But as I began reading it for myself, something stuck out to me......
"that I may not cause pain!"
It instantly hit me, the connection that is. Here was a man who from birth was given this name that meant something negative. He essentially went his whole existence constantly reminded of what he was/had meant/had been to someone (and not in a good way).
So what about you? What from your past keeps pulling you back, reminding you of what you shouldn't have done, shouldn't have said? For me, it is debt, for someone else it may be a person that you didn't forgive, a bad alliance that you made that cannot be undone. Whatever it is, God is the God of the impossible and can take our broken lives, what the doctor reports, what the world may say, and turn them into miracles.
What is your pain? What bad alliance did you make? I dare you to pray audaciously as Jabez did and ask the Lord to intervene and cause miracles that only he can receive the credit for in Jesus' name. I don't know about you, but I plan to pray this daily over the next few weeks and see God intervene in only ways he can. Prayer and expectation!
Blessings!
:
9 Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez,[a] 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 (1 Chr. 4:9-10., NKJV).
When I first began reading about this verse in a book called "The Prayer of Jabez" by Bruce Wilkinson I was encouraged and taken aback by the simple truths pointed out in this verse But as I began reading it for myself, something stuck out to me......
"that I may not cause pain!"
It instantly hit me, the connection that is. Here was a man who from birth was given this name that meant something negative. He essentially went his whole existence constantly reminded of what he was/had meant/had been to someone (and not in a good way).
So what about you? What from your past keeps pulling you back, reminding you of what you shouldn't have done, shouldn't have said? For me, it is debt, for someone else it may be a person that you didn't forgive, a bad alliance that you made that cannot be undone. Whatever it is, God is the God of the impossible and can take our broken lives, what the doctor reports, what the world may say, and turn them into miracles.
What is your pain? What bad alliance did you make? I dare you to pray audaciously as Jabez did and ask the Lord to intervene and cause miracles that only he can receive the credit for in Jesus' name. I don't know about you, but I plan to pray this daily over the next few weeks and see God intervene in only ways he can. Prayer and expectation!
Blessings!
:
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