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A Scandalous Prayer

Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers,
and his mother called his name Jabez, saying,
"Because I bore him in pain."
And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying,
"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!"
So God granted him what he requested.
(1 Chronicles 4:9-10)

THERE is a little book that has been written about this brief passage, and it has been having huge success. It is called The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson. Millions of copies have already been sold and there seems to be no end in sight — Christian bookstores across America and in Canada are having difficulty keeping it in stock. It is capturing the hearts of God's people. And let me tell you, this book is scandalous!

Of course, the prayer itself is scandalous — every bit as scandalous as the grace of God and the cross of Christ. Do you remember how Paul spoke of the "offense of the cross" (Galatians 5:11) and said that it was a "stumbling block" to the Jews (1 Corinthians 1:23)? The words "stumbling block" and "offense" are translations of the Greek word skandalon, which is where we get the word "scandal."

When we begin to plumb the depths of the love of Christ and the grace of the Father — it is so contrary to the way of the world to which we are still accustomed — we are scandalized. Likewise, when we dig into the prayer of Jabez and begin to realize the enormity of his request, we are again scandalized — how could anyone ask such things from God!

But the amazing thing is that God did not take any offense at all at this prayer. No, He was greatly pleased! Jabez knew that "he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:6). He offered a prayer of great faith, and that always pleases God. In Jabez' eyes, God was huge — exalted, glorified, magnified! Not only that, but Jabez recognized that this magnificent God — the God of Israel — had covenanted Himself to him in lovingkindness and tender mercy.

The difficulty for us arises because we tend to think and believe just the opposite from the way Jabez prayed. The sensibility of the world is too much with us, and our awareness of God's great grace and covenant faithfulness is too small.

"Oh that You would bless me indeed, "Jabez prayed. He didn't just want to be blessed — he wanted to be blessed a lot. How different that is from how I often hear Christians talk. "I'm not worthy of blessing," they say. Well, Jabez was no more worthy than we are. But that is irrelevant, for Jabez was in covenant with God. The same is true of us. If we have received the Lord Jesus Christ, we are in covenant with God Almighty. In fact, it is an even better covenant than Jabez had, being established on better promises (Hebrews 8:6). Our worthiness has not been an issue for 2000 years, for Jesus took our sin upon Himself and has given us His righteousness, the very righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). God now sees us as worthy because He sees Jesus as worthy.

We tend to think that God's blessings are somehow limited — that if He blesses us a lot, He can't bless others as much as He would otherwise. It seems ungrateful to ask for more blessing, especially when so many people have no blessing at all. But God is infinite in His resources, infinite in His love, and infinitely willing to bless His people. There is enough to go around in abundant measure.

Paul said, "God is able to make all grace abound to you so that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have abundance for every good work" (2 Corinthians 9:8). God wants us to have, not just enough, but more than enough, so that our abundance can overflow into the lives of others. When we fail to ask for God's blessing upon ourselves, we are cutting off blessing from the very people God wants to bless through us.

Jabez asked for big blessing because he wanted to be a big blessing. The circumstances of his life were somehow painful for him and for others, and he wanted God to completely reverse that, to turn it around — for the benefit of others as well as himself.

"Enlarge my territory," was the second part of his petition. He was not being vague and ethereal here. He was asking for more land. He was asking for increased prosperity. He was asking for greater wealth and influence in the world.

This is quite shocking for many Christians. They are offended by it and scoff at anyone who preaches that God wants His people to prosper.

Yet Scripture promises exactly that. God instructed Joshua to meditate upon His Word, "for then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success" (Joshua 1:8). Psalm 1 says of the man who delights in God's Word and meditates upon it, "whatever he does shall prosper" (v. 3). Psalm 35:27 tells us that God "has pleasure in the prosperity of His servant." The promise of Psalm 84:11 is "No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly." Of the righteous man, Psalm 112:3 says that "wealth and riches will be in his house." The benediction in Psalm 115:14 is "May the LORD give you increase more and more, you and your children." And the promise of abundant, overflowing provision given in 2 Corinthians 9:8 (see above) is set in a financial context.

Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done." Toward that end, God has made provision for us, both spiritual and material. He wants us to use increased wealth and influence for His kingdom purposes. Moses said, "You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant" (Deuteronomy 8:18). If this is true of the Old Covenant, how much more is it true of the New?

Somehow, in the midst of all his pain, Jabez developed a large vision — to touch the world for God and change it. And so he prayed, "Lord, enlarge my territory."

Jabez asked of the Lord, "that Your hand would be with me." With his previous request, he placed himself in a position where he knew he had to be totally dependent upon God. Now he was asking that the strength of the Lord would indeed be there on his behalf.

We, on the other hand, often pray, "Lord, don't give me more than I can handle," as if we were the ones doing the handling in the first place. Or we try to make a deal with God: "Lord, if You'll take care of the big things, I'll manage the little stuff." But the truth is, we need God's hand to be with us in everything. Nothing is too big for God to handle, and nothing is too small for God to care.

Jesus was Himself fully dependent upon the Father. He said, "The Son can do nothing by himself, he can only do what he sees the Father doing" (John 5:19). In another place, He said, "What I say is just what the Father has told me to say" (John 12:50). This was the pattern for His ministry: He did only what He saw the Father doing and said only what He heard the Father saying. This is to be the pattern for our ministry as well.

Someone has said that if you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat. Jabez wanted to walk on water, so he fixed his eyes on the Lord and stepped out in faith.

Finally, Jabez prayed, "That You would keep me from evil." This is very important, for if God did not honor this one, all that Jabez gained by his other requests would soon be lost. But Jabez trusted that God is willing to keep His people from evil if we turn to Him.

Jesus also taught us to pray this way in the Lord's Prayer: "Deliver us from evil." Actually, it is more accurately translated, "Deliver us from the evil one," that is, the devil. The devil comes to steal, kill and destroy. But Jesus comes that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly (John 10:10).

Many Christians today think that evil, such as sickness or poverty (these are evil in the sense that they are the opposite of good) is something that we just have to learn to live with. They believe that God sometimes sends us these things to punish us, or to teach us some lesson. How convoluted it is to suppose that sickness and poverty are somehow blessings. They are not blessings. They do not come from God, they come from the enemy. God is the giver of good gifts, not evil ones (James 1:17).

God is the one who says of Himself, "I am the LORD who heals you" (Exodus 15:26). He did not say, "I am the LORD who makes you sick." He is not the one who sends disease. No, He is the one Who sends His Word to heal disease (Psalm 107:20). Neither is God the one who sends poverty. He is the one who "raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap, that He may seat him with princes, with the princes of His people" (Psalm 113:7-8). God doesn't change. If that is the way He was with His people back then, then that is the way He is with His people today.

If you want to see your prayers get results, then learn how to pray the kinds of prayers that God answers. The prayer of Jabez is exactly that kind of prayer. The Bible teaches that God is no respecter of persons (Romans 2:11). That is, He doesn't play favorites. What He has done for Jabez, He will do for us. Further, Jesus promised that "whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them" (Mark 11:24). God answered the prayer of Jabez on the basis of faith and covenant, and He will answer it for us on that same basis.

The phenomenal success of The Prayer of Jabez by Dr. Wilkinson is no accident. I believe that God is about to do a fresh work in the world. He is using this prayer to raise the faith-level of His people, to stir up our passion for His grace and glory, and to enlarge our vision for His kingdom. He is getting ready to increase His territory, and He is going to do it through us. And that, I believe, is why this prayer is capturing the hearts and imaginations of His people in these latter days.

The prayer of Jabez is wonderfully scandalous. The best prayers always are.

© 2001 Jeff Doles.
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