Journey into the Prayer of Jabez: Day 1

Journey into the Prayer of Jabez: Day 1
January 27, 2010


I decided in my morning devotional to read the prayer of Jabez: “Oh that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory….” ~1Chronicles 4:10

Enlarge my territory, give me more to do - more people to influence. I suppose the losing of something causes one to reevaluate their influence. Life often presents opportunities for the shedding away of something: an unhealthy relationship, job, bad habits, and this shedding, though painful at the time, is God’s way of telling us that whatever we were doing was not enlarging our territory. Instead of being discouraged, feeling rejected, or unworthy, we must have been doing what God desired us to do all along.

In the midst of a loss, it is necessary to change ones thinking in this direction, “I must be doing what God intends. He has been directing my path all along. He knows what I need and it is my faith in His almighty power that will carry me through this difficult loss.”

Losing something, or someone important to us is painful. The separation that often follows causes many questions and fears. The thing or person probably brought some joy, some excitement, or some sense of purpose to our lives. If the loss was unexpected then the questioning often begins, accompanied by regret, rejection or shame. “Why did this happen? What did I do wrong?”

But maybe there is another perspective God asks us to consider. Not the one of hopeless failure and despair, but maybe, just maybe the answer to a prayer. “Expand my territory,” we prayed and God answered, closing one door, yet opening at least one more. To realize we have no clue as to what this means, or where we are headed, yet to follow with action is the true meaning of faith. To have no idea what the expanded territory will look like is both exciting and scary. Perhaps our territory is so large, we only get to spend a short time in some places. All the more reason to enjoy where we are, to take full advantage of the present moment. God knows we tend to hang on a little longer that what is good for us. Perhaps he is saying, “I have more for you to do, a wider, deeper, larger territory in mind for you to cover. So I need you to move on. I am showing you the emergency exits right now. Follow them to the territory you asked for. Trust me.”

These are the words of comfort, hope and strength God offers. In reply he only asks us to say, “Yes God, I will go where you would have me go, see who you would have me see, do what you would have me do.” Now you have followed the words of Jabez, “Oh that you would bless me indeed and enlarge me territory…”

Giving up the Fight

Most recently I was reading a writer’s interpretation of the Prayer of Jabez. Hidden in one of the bible’s briefest biographies is the story of a man determined to be a gimper for God. A gimper is someone that does a little more than what is expected or required. Jabez was such a person. He prayed a little more that what was expected, what was required and God expanded his purpose as a result.

In the reading today, I noticed that in his final request: “Oh… keep me from evil,” Jabez is asking to be kept out of the fight. In a culture consumed with competition this seems an odd request. Don’t we want to win the fight? Shouldn't’t we “fight the good fight"? How can we possibly stop fighting, our freedoms will be lost, our streets will be unsafe, our lives will be threatened or lost. But God calls us to take a different path. Like Jabez, he asks us to stay away from the competition that threatens to consume us in the modern way of living.

We are familiar with stories of patients fighting their illness, or people fighting for their rights. Our courts are filled with fighting plaintiffs and armed defendants standing ready. Our county continues to ask us to fight for our freedom. What exactly has all this fighting gotten us?

We stand angry at school doors ready to attach the very people that can help. We stand ready in courtrooms to defend our rights condemning our offenders to imprisonment. We stand armed on battlefields ready to shoot, killing and maiming our enemy. We stand ready in hospital beds ready putting up or armor, shielding us from death.

All this fighting has taken a toll on our bodies, minds and even more importantly our spirits. We no longer accept the difficulties of our lives with God’s helping hand because we are too busy spraying our bullets at our opponent.

In Alcoholics Anonymous one is told to “cease fighting anything and anyone…” The recovering alcoholic learns to lay down his weapons of defense, he is able to surrender, and give over his life to a higher power that has the ability to take away the desire to drink. We can learn many lessons from the recovering alcoholic as well as Jabez. God calls us to stay away from evil forces, those that threaten our sanity, our dignity and our lives.

Fighting always, always implies a winner and a looser. Someone comes in first, someone comes in last. In the lions den a warrior knows he cannot afford to come last. The key is to stay out of the lions den in the first place. If you don’t show up for the fight, there can be no fight. The opponent is forced to go home.

Sometimes there are situations when you cannot avoid the conflict. God is not asking us to bow before anyone or anything that is causing harm or injury. He is asking us to avoid the evil thoughts and places if we can that will lead us to defensiveness and evil. He is asking us to surrender our power to him, the only one that has the power to defend us. He is asking us to not go it alone, thinking we are the only hope for our children, our country, our families and ourselves. He compels us to rely solely on Him to rid us of our competitive nature. With God there are no winners and losers, no better or worse, no either or. With the power of God there is only rest, strength, acceptance. We are compelled to live as Jabez did, staying away from evil and being a gimper for God's work.