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!
-Jabez's prayer, 1 Chronicles 4:9-10
When looking at this prayer, you may think that it's a selfish one. Asking God to bless you by giving you more stuff, keep you out of harm's way, all for yourself. You've gotta actually look a little deeper into this than that. That I may not cause pain! Those six words ring the trueness of Jabez's intentions in praying this prayer. He wants God's blessing, not to be blessed out of his own strength or doing, but solely by God.
He wants God to enlarge his territory. He does not want a bigger house with bigger land. He wants God to give him a bigger territory to spread His Gospel on and throughout.
He wants God's hand to be with him, upon him, keeping him from evil, so that he may not cause pain. There's a lot there. Not only does he want God with him, I must guess, for his own protection and wisdom, but also that he brings no one any pain while he's spreading the gospel- that he has the right words to say, letting God speak through him.
Keep me from evil. That's a biggie. As you may know, I've been really big on praying Jesus' prayer lately, and even he says the same thing. Keep me from evil, get it? You can ask to not even be tempted with evil and to be taken away, even, from evil thoughts.
So why do so many people pray the Jabez prayer? Why has it been so popular in books, etc.? Sure, people want their personal ministry to prosper. But deep down, I think we all want to be able to "save the world." To reach out and be that big help that we always wanted. To see Jesus in people.
Back in June/July... sometime around then... I started praying this prayer a lot. And God did it. He enlarged my spiritual-ready territory. It has been tough, and sometimes exhausting, but beautiful, amazing, and I wouldn't trade it for any other place. He never promised that the cross would not get heavy, and the hill would not be hard to climb... (Through the Fire, which we sing in concert). I confess that I haven't been praying this specific prayer for quite some time now, but I think there is a time and season for all things, and that God puts certain things on your heart in certain times. Maybe He's doing it again.
We shall see.
How about you? Are you ready for an enlarged territory?
-Tara K
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