How is your prayer life?
Sometimes, when we’re asked
that question, we can answer in two ways: either “It’s great!” or
“Oh...uhm...hmmm....next question please.”
Admittedly, some of us are
embarrassed to admit that we answer the second option more than we’d like to.
In the world we live in, prayer is an act which is often ridiculed or
forgotten. We only remember to pray when we need something from God like
guidance for our exams or urgent material needs.
When we do such, it’s as if
we’re treating God as a genie and our prayers become wishes.
Prayers are not meant only for
asking the Lord to provide what we want. It’s actually a sign of our intimacy
to our Dad up in the sky, our way of communication with Him. Prayers should
come from the heart, they should be messages we want God to know rather than
just requests we want Him to grant.
How’s your prayer life?
A man named Jabez once prayed
a remarkable prayer to the Lord:
“Lord, bless me indeed,”
You might say: “But you just
told us that praying to God about our wants and needs is quite off!”
But there’s more to the eye
with this man’s prayer.
First off, let’s meet Jabez.
Jabez could only be found in
the Bible ONCE. His story is basically summarized in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 (yep,
that’s only two verses for him). In
verse 9, his short biography is mentioned:
“There was a man named Jabez who was more distinguished than any of his
brothers. His mother named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful.”
Jabez was named after PAIN!
Ouch! Unlike the usual flowery meaning behind babies names, poor Jabez was
named pain because he came to this world painfully. Can you imagine being named
after something that hurts? But despite this, he was a man who prayed the
remarkable prayer in verse 10.
“Oh that You would bless me and extend my lands! Please be with me in
all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!”
Let’s analyze his prayer.
I. “You would bless me...”
Bless in Hebrew is barach.
Humble yourself before the
presence of the Lord: that’s what Jabez did when he came forward. He knew that
only God had the power to give and take away. He asked his heavenly Father to
bless him tremendously, to renew his mind.
Lately, we have this wrong
idea of blessings. We think we are blessed when we are given new IPhone 5Cs, a
wardrobe of beautiful, branded clothes, pockets always filled with money,
relationships that we think would last forever, etc. These are not genuine
blessings, we call them counterfeit
blessings.
“The blessing of the Lord makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow
with it.”
Proverbs 10:22
Not all that seems good is
from God. You may think that money is a blessing because as the verse says,
blessings from the Lord makes a person rich and when you have lots of money,
you are rich. Money can be a blessing when no sorrow follows it.
What sorrow do we mean?
Today, we hear news of people
who have the money to buy what they want: Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and
Cory Monteith. They are financially stable but in the end, they are found dead.
Rumors circulate, saying that they were experiencing trouble before their
death. See, money doesn’t bring happiness if it’s not from God.
God’s blessings do not bring
sorrow.
His genuine blessings are
followed with delight from His glory.
II. “...and extend my lands!”
Does Jabez really meant actual
lands when he asked this prayer?
Probably not.
Let’s go back to his
background.
We know that Jabez’s name
meant pain. It must have been hard for him to know that his mother considered
his birth painful to her. No one likes being the black sheep. Being dubbed as
one may force you to just rebel and stay away from those people, live your life
without them.
But in Jabez’s prayer, we see
him asking the Lord to extend his borders.
He was asking God to increase
his responsibility of blessing others.
It was not about him being
blessed alone. It was all about making the best of his life by living wisely
and sharing what he had.
III. “May Your hand be with me...”
Everyone’s got problems.
Even though you’re a
Christian, you’re not exempted from life’s trials. We dislike undergoing
problems because we simply hate the pressure and stress that come along with it.
When we’re experiencing
challenges, it’s not because God is punishing us. No. It’s because He wants us
to learn to call out to Him and trust His might sovereignty to cover us.
17
Jeremiah 32:17
We all need God’s hand in all aspects of our life. We have to
keep in mind that we are not forever strong and capable of solving our
problems. We need God.
Have we been trying to fix things on our own?
IV. “...and keep me from all
trouble and pain.”
SIN is POISON.
Imagine yourself becoming a victim of food poisoning. All it
took was one virus or bacteria to be included in your food and the next thing
you know, you’re writhing in pain and vomiting.
That is how sin works.
It seems enticing at first (like the food) but little did you
know, it will hurt you the next.
Pain and destruction comes to those who live a sinful life.
They just don’t see it yet but as they say, the consequences of our choices do
come after.
We have to mindful of staying away from Satan’s traps. It’s
his way of hurting God: hurting us. God loves His children that it occurred to
the devil that in order for him to gain some points against the Lord, he has to
target those He loves the most.
FIGHT! Don’t let the devil get the upper hand. With God, we
can fight!
12 So, if you think you are
standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation[a] has
overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he
will not let you be tempted[b] beyond
what you can bear. But when you are tempted,[c] he
will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
1
Corinthians 10:12-13
God will never give us something we can’t
handle. Remember: with Him, we can
Let Jabez’s prayer be an example to how we
communicate with our God. He is not a genie, rather, He is our Father who would
want updates from us and to hear that we are willing to serve Him with what
we’ve got.
Written by Ashley Petallano (c) 2013
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