1 Chronicles 4:10

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. 1 Chronicles 4:10 (NIV)

I was ploughing my way though the genealogy lists at the start of 1 Chronicles when I came across this little gem. It immediately brought to mind a great little booklet I read a number of years ago called ‘The Prayer of Jabez’ by Bruce Wilkinson.

Let me quote you an extract from his book from page 10 and 11:
‘What exactly did Jabez do to rise above the rest? Why did God answer his prayer? I wondered. For that matter why did God even include Jabez’s miniprofile in the Bible? .. I picked up the Bible and read verse 10 – the prayer of Jabez. Something in his prayer would explain the mystery. It had to. Pulling a chair up to the yellow counter, I bent over my Bible, and reading the prayer over and over, I searched with all my heart for the future God had for someone as ordinary as I.

The next morning, I prayed Jabez’s prayer word for word. And the next. And the next. Thirty years later, I haven’t stopped. If you were to ask me what sentence - other than my prayer for salvation - has revolutionized my life and ministry the most, I would tell you that it was the cry of gimper named Jabez, who is still remembered not for what he did, bur for what he prayed – and for what happened next.”

Click here to listen.