What About the Jabez Prayer?by John Eiwen Many if not most of you have heard of the Prayer of Jabez. If you haven’t run into it yet, some Christian friend is very likely to share it with you soon. This prayer has been popularized to an almost unbelievable extent by a little book of the same name, written by Bruce Wilkinson. Somehow, almost inexplicably, this book has made it to the top of the best seller lists, not just among books by Christian authors, but even the New York Times best seller list that takes account of sales in secular bookstores. But what shall we make of it? Is it something every Christian should use? Or is it something we should stay away from? I had the opportunity to get acquainted with this prayer when we discussed it at a recent men’s prayer retreat at my church. So many people had heard about it that they wanted to take a look at this prayer -- and I as their pastor wanted to take a close look to see if it was something we should be promoting. For those of you who are somehow in the dark about all of this, let me explain that the little prayer in question is found tucked away in one of the most unlikely places of the Bible, in the middle of a genealogical list in 1 Chron. 4:9-10. Quite frankly, though I have read the Bible through many times in my lifetime, I had never noticed this prayer before. Quite likely the same thing is true for many of you. The entire text of this prayer can be printed in a few lines: “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.’” That being the case, what is so special about this prayer? It is really very simple. It is short enough to pray every day, which is exactly what Wilkinson suggests in his book. Some of you just may have taken up that practice. As far as I can see this is okay, despite some of the hostility with which the prayer has been met in some Christian circles. Let me, however, share one major caution. Please do not turn this prayer into a mantra that you rattle off thoughtlessly. Certainly God never intended any prayer to be approached in that way. There is certainly nothing wrong with written prayers. Luther wrote his own morning and evening prayers, which some of us learned as youths. And our Lord gave us a prayer that He suggested that we pray regularly. But even those prayers were not meant to be rattled off, but rather prayed thoughtfully. This is a caution we must constantly keep in mind in all of our praying. But let me return to the Prayer of Jabez itself. Whether you pray that prayer as it is, or adapt it into your own prayer, there are some very important themes that are included in it if they are understood correctly. The prayer begins: “Oh that you would bless me indeed.” And indeed we ought to pray that God would bless us, not in the sense of seeking lots of material blessings -- Wilkinson warns against misunderstanding the prayer in this way -- but rather in the sense that we might be blessed to be a blessing to others, as God promised to Abraham. The second line of the prayer asks God to enlarge our territory. Again here the idea is not that we become large landowners, but that God would expand our opportunities for mission. One of our Zion members shared that shortly after she started praying this prayer she had an opportunity to share the Gospel with two neighbors that she had not witnessed to before. What a blessing! This is the kind of opportunity we all should be praying for. From there the prayer goes on to ask that “your (God’s) hand would be with me.” This too is a very important petition, because none of us can carry out our ministry as lay people or pastors without God’s help. We need to be praying daily that God would enable us to be the kind of active Christians who will bring new people into Christ’s Kingdom. Finally, the prayer concludes with the request that God would “keep me from evil that I may not cause pain.” Certainly that is a crucial prayer for every one of us, as we face temptations all around us that may lead us to hurt others and ourselves. In short, the prayer of Jabez is a very good prayer if you understand it and use it in the right way. Remember though, it is an Old Testament prayer so it should always be prayed in the context of our looking to Jesus Christ who alone is our intercessor before the Father. I certainly encourage each one of you, whether you use the Prayer of Jabez or not, to incorporate these themes into your own prayer life that together we as Christians will grow daily in our service to God. John Eiwen |