A Blessing of God
Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from harm that it may not pain me!” And God granted him what he requested. 1 Chronicles 4:10
I opened my Bible the other day, as I have more than just a little interest in the history of Israel, to 1 Chronicles. Some of the genealogies are monotonous to me as they are to anyone, then I came across this kind of random verse about a man called Jabez. I asked myself, “Isn’t this a selfish prayer?” So, I bookmarked it to ponder upon.
The prayer is not just for the blessing of God, but to be blessed indeed, or in today’s language, ‘Well blessed.’ Enlarge my border is to have more land or property. Then the last part of the prayer is for protection that it will not be a pain to him. I think that Jabez was probably asking that his riches would not cause him harm and become a pain to him. On the surface it sounds like a totally selfish prayer. BUT God granted Jabez his request. It does say this about Jabez. These are the only two verses there are about this man.
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother named him Jabez saying, “Because I bore him with pain.” 1 Chronicles 4:9
My mind went swimming with all the promises of God that were written. I thought about the promises of God that most of us gladly claim and accept. Salvation, eternal life provision of our needs healing! We tend to shy away from the promises of success and wealth, because of the bad press of the prosperity gospel fraternity. God did promise and gave the prosperous land of Canaan to the Israelites. God promised to Abraham, to bless the people of faith after the faith of Abraham, with the blessings of Abraham. This included wealth.
Then recalling the many times that Jesus taught about prayer, that we would be granted whatever we ask for, if we ask in faith. But we have been taught and it is in our hearts that we must pray according to the will of God. The question should be is it God’s will to bless us with more than we need. I would say yes to that question. Because then we can be a blessing to others. That is part of the being an honourable man.
O taste and see that the Lord is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! O fear the Lord, you, His saints; For to those who fear Him there is no want. The young lions do lack and suffer hunger; But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing. Psalms 34:8-10
David says in this psalm that as Saints, we who fear/revere/honour God and seek Him there is no want or lack of ANY good thing. This is God’s will. Pauls says that God will supply all our needs, not just the desperate ones. Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given, seek and you will find, Knock and it will be opened. Look at it this way, we need to ask in faith. That is an important point. Asking and then adding if it be your will Lord, is not asking in faith. Ask and it will be given, maybe it will take a while. The second aspect of this is seeking, to me that sounds like living with an expectancy, not doubt. That expectancy is looking for the answer to the prayer, sometimes that can take some work.
It is the blessing of the Lord that makes rich, And He adds no sorrow to it. Proverbs 10:22
This can take a long time to explain, but it is not the prosperity gospel, prosperity is a part of the Gospel, as is salvation the number one aspect, and healing, peace, righteousness and joy in the Holy Spirit. Next time we look at some more of the promises of God as our provider.
God’s Blessings
Above we saw that Jabez prayed and ask for prosperity, and it says that God granted his request. That is the basic truth about Jabez, and that he was more honourable than his brothers. Perhaps he read David’s Psalm below. Maybe He worked out that God is faithful to His promises. Trust in the Lord, do good and cultivate faithfulness in God, and He will give you the desires of your heart.
Trust in the Lord and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness. Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it. Psalms 37:3-5
I have heard teaching that says that if we are faithful in works for God, grow in faith, read the Bible and keep it on our minds constantly, That God will change our desires to His desires for us. This sounds like good teaching on the surface, thinking deeper about it, it would be so easy to make these things into works of our flesh. Jesus cuts through this, in the middle of the parable about the vine. Jesus is the vine and as long as we stay connected to the Vine, we will be abiding in Him, and His word is abiding in us. We will bear fruit.
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. John 15:7
There is a condition that is not really a condition. We must abide in Jesus and His word. We must obey His commandments. What commandments are they? To love God and to love one another. Jesus taught that we are not in the will of the Father unless we forgive everyone who has something against us. Unforgiveness creates some sort of blockage in our relationship with God.
The question is, Does God want us to be prosperous? I don’t mean to be so rich that we have too much money to know what to do with. I am talking about having plenty and not be in lack of any good thing. That is one of God’s promises. To have enough that we can give away and be a blessing to others. When I read through John’s Gospel, it is noticeable how many times it says that we will get what we pray for.
Whatever you ask in my name, that’s what Jesus said. The next question is this; Does God want us to be poor and have lack in our lives? The answer is No. There may be times that we go through periods of lack. Have challenging times of not enough. Generally, God’s will, is for us to prosper; to have more than enough. Though this psalms says more, and it is a heart humbleness, not a works humbleness.
But the humble will inherit the land and will delight themselves in abundant prosperity. Psalms 37:3-5,11
We are going through some tough times financially, but God is our provider, not the world or the government. God may well use the world or government to provide for us, but our faith should be in God. Everybody seems to be relying on the government to do something to help with inflation, especially fuel costs. If we do this as Christians, our faith is no longer in God.
In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full. John 16:23-24
Ask for anything in Jesus Name. In this chapter there are no added conditions to this promise of answered prayer, except to ask in Jesus’ name. If we have a daily relationship with the Lord, we are abiding in Him and His word. We must believe what He said is true, whether we are asking on behalf of others or for ourselves. As Jabez did and God granted His request.
For us He will do it.
The Lord Bless You
Charlie
FREEDOM IN CHRIST 