Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." And God granted his request. (I Chron. 4:10, NIV)
Most of you are probably familiar with the prayer of Jabez. It was all the rage a couple of years ago to pray the "Jabez prayer." Not long ago, I had a thought about it.
God granted Jabez's requests not only for enlarged territory, but also for God to keep him free from harm and pain. But how did Jabez know that God had granted his prayer? He had to have faith that he had received God's answer, that God was good. Jabez had to keep trusting in that answer every day of his life. Otherwise, it wouldn't really have made any difference. Without faith, Jabez might have started every day in fear and dread, expecting the worst, even though God had granted him the best.
I want that kind of faith. I'm a pessimist by nature. I come from a family of pessimists. In my family, if anyone asked, "Are you going to do such-and-such this weekend, " the answer would be, "If nothing happens before then." The implication was that we fully expected something to happen--and we didn't mean something good.
So I've had to work at the kind of faith that expects God's love and protection every day. Thanksgiving has a lot to do with that. If you constantly thank God for what he's already done, you're reminding yourself of his goodness, and it's easier to expect it the next time. Have you ever noticed in the Bible how many times God reminds the Israelites, "I am the God who brought you out of the land of Egypt"? He's constantly reminding us, "I've taken care of you before. I'll do it again."
So with that happy thought, I'm going to sign off for this week. We're making a nine-hour trip to Mississippi to spend Thanksgiving with my husband's family. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, that God will keep you safe whether you travel or stay home, and that we'll all truly be thankful.
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HAHHAAAAA! We must be related - same family!
ReplyDeleteRebecca Grabill
Have a great trip and a Happy Thanksgiving, Robin!
ReplyDeleteYep, my parents were pessimists, fearful, negative thinkers, and though they believed in God, they didn't believe He was in the business of treating anyone special. If He gave one person a miracle, He was showing favoritism. God wouldn't do that. Uuuggghhh!
So I have to work hard on my thankfulness and faith. Thanks for this post. Another reminder. I want to have an attitude of hopeful expectation, of constant happy remembrance of past miracles, signs, and blessings. Because God is good! And He wants to give good gifts to His children!
Robin,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for this post!!
I read the prayer of Jabez about 6 years ago and I would walk around praising God expecting good around every corner and with every phone call.
The battles of the last few years brought me to a place where now I get a knot in my stomach always expecting the worst. Your post reminded be that God not only loves me but likes me.
Thank you so much. What a blessing to start the day. Have a fun and safe trip! Tiff
I can sympathize, too. Some of my friends call me Eeyore, and one of my favorite characters in literature is Puddleglum from C.S. Lewis' The Silver Chair (book 6 of The Chronicles of Narnia). Puddleglum was actually based on a real person--Lewis' gardener. I like the passage in James that says to pray in faith and not to waver because "he that wavereth is like the sea, driven of the wind and tossed." It's a good reminder to me to pray expectantly.
ReplyDeleteOn the flip side, The Prayer of Jabez book makes me a bit nervous because I've known a bunch of people like my grandparents who want to use it like a cheap magic trick, thinking that if they pray that prayer every day for a while, God'll do something miraculous to prove He's real. THEN, they'll believe in Him, but not before. When He didn't do what they wanted, they just took that as confirmation that they'd been right before that God isn't really real, or if He is, He doesn't care.