Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory and that your hand might be with me and that you would keep me from hurt and harm!” And God granted what he asked.
In the beginning years of my ministry, The Prayer of Jabez was preached by many, and it focused mainly on the prosperity of material things. I heard many sermons with this text intended to bring hope to the hopeless and the poor so that God would prosper and bless all we asked for. Just recently, while studying and preaching from James’s short letter, this prayer came to mind when I read chapter 4, verses 2 and 3: “You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures.” After many years of researching and studying for sermons, I wondered what meaning this prayer would have for me today or for you.
Jabez’s mother bore him in pain beyond any painful experience and named him Jabez, which means “pain and suffering.” One can imagine what it must be like to be thought of as the one who would bring or carry into the future the kind of pain he inflicted on his mother during birth. Instead, Jabez prayed. Jabez prayed for himself and began his prayer, asking for blessings.
Blessings are a gift of God’s favor, protection, mercy, and well-being. I believe that we are all blessed, though we lack the awareness of daily blessings or feel too small or unworthy of God’s blessings. Jabez asked to be blessed, whether he asked for a double portion or to be made aware of God’s blessings; he believed he needed this.
Jabez then asked for his territory to be enlarged. If we steer away from the material momentarily, what else could the word territory represent if not our hearts? We want to be blessed to extend God’s blessings to those around us and not just keep them to ourselves, as if only we were blessed people and those around us were not. We want to be and feel loved by God so we may extend God’s love to those around us—the same we could say about peace and joy.
We want God to put God’s hands on us so that we may receive a fresh anointing each day so that we are prepared to share the message God wants God’s people to hear and receive in their hearts while we, too, receive something new each day to restore, renew, and refresh our souls to deepen our relationship with God.
Though temptations may abound in today’s world to hurt each other through our words and actions, we know that if we pray to God to protect us from harmful thoughts and ways, we can become merciful peacemakers, kind and loving people, understanding and compassionate people, a forgiving and life-giving people.
Perhaps Jabez’s prayer is for the broken-hearted, those going through sorrow, pain, uncertainty, doubt, and fear, for people like you and me. Except that this time around, we are going to ask rightly instead of wrongly, not for material pleasures, but for all things spiritual, to do what is pleasing to God for the sake of God’s beloved humanity, our neighbors near and far, to receive and share treasures of God’s kingdom, here and now.
In Christ,
Pastor Iraida