One Simple Sentence Asks it All-

Prayer of Jabez-1 Chronicles 4:10

O 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,
And God granted his request!

Such a tiny little prayer packed with the perfect request to God. Raw emotion.

I remember when there was a big hoopla over Bruce Wilkensen's book of "Prayer of Jabez, Breaking through to Blessed Life." Honestly, I didn't really think too much about it-a small book, a small prayer. But when I read the prayer when preparing for a new small group, the message hit me. It hit me hard. I was not praying for blessings for me and my family, not like I should. Sure, I pray(ed) for the normal things. For strength, guidance and protection for family, friends and the church etc, but I was not asking God for real blessings!

Bruce defines as follows, (p23): "To bless in a biblical sense means to ask for or to impact supernatural favor."

Okay, I pray for blessings for people when they are ill and dying but every day? Pray for extraordinary things to happen every day? Amazing, miraculous blessings for me? My family? Friends? No, I wasn't; but I am now!

I am praying with more expectation and faith that God will answer my prayer for blessings, expanded territory, for his hand to be with me, to keep me from evil, to prevent me from causing pain and believe that he WILL grant these things according to his will. I can ask for the miraculous things that only GOD can deliver for me and my loved ones and for the world I live in-I can expect great things from God!

Maybe this all sounds trivial. I mean it's not that I didn't believe in miracles or ever pray for them before. I do believe in angels, miracles and God's desire to grant our prayer requests, but not to the degree that Jabez prays for in his simple request before God.

This prayer and group study has really helped me improve my overall attitude about my daily life whether it's dealing with loss of a loved one, dealing with illness or with missing my spouse and dealing with the day-t-day struggles and frustrations of wearing many different hats from one of mother, daughter, friend, colleague, child of God and the list continues.

So what is this simple request all about? It's about asking God for supernatural goodness and protection that only God can bless us with. Things that we just cannot accomplish on our own. I now pray this prayer and my own version of it every day.

I hope you will too!