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Food For Thought

This prayer is located in the Old Testament; in the middle of a section of genealogy. It is hid from most readers but packs a punch as prayer goes. David gave us prayers, as well as others in the Old Testament. Jesus taught his apostles a way to pray as we find in the model prayer or as some know as the Lord's Prayer.

Pray the prayer of Jabez. Repeat this prayer often. Know first what it means. There are only four (4) lines to this prayer and they are 1. God bless me, 2. God enlarge my coast, 3. God may your hand be with me, 4. God keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me.

Let's look at the first line for a minute. "Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed," Here we are saying: "God Bless Me". We pray for everyone else, but how often do we ask God to bless us? We say: Bless this house, bless my church, bless my family, etc. This is great! But we need also to be asking God to bless us, bless our finances, our health, etc; us. The next time we pray, say this: "Lord, Bless me indeed".

The second line reads this way: "and enlarge my coast". What does this mean? The word coast here represents a border. We surround ourselves with an invisible fence when we say: "I can't" or: "I don't". How many times do we ask God to expand our boundaries? The boundary may be a bigger house, a better job, more money, etc. What about our ministry? Do we set limits on our ministry? Do we hear ourselves saying: "God, I can't"? Next time we are on our knees talking to the Lord say this: "Lord, enlarge my boundaries". Be sure to name specifically the boundary you want enlarged. God loves to hear it from us, not only the thought.

The next line says this: "and that thy hand might be with me". "Thy hand" it reads. It can be described this way. The hand of a father can touch us, as a child, and teach us right from wrong. The hand guides us. It is sometimes gentle and sometimes hard. It corrects us when we err in our judgments. God's hand is like this. God is just waiting for us to ask Him to guide us, our paths.

Now let's go to line 3: "and that thou wouldest keep me from evil". Jabez was asking God to keep him from evil. In Daniel 3 the three Hebrew children told the king that God could deliver them from the furnace if He so desired. There is a difference here. Why bring these differences up? God will let us go through some trials to test our faith, and to strengthen us. Almighty God cannot deliver us from something we are not already into. This is different from God 'keeping' us from evil. The devil will sneak into our minds like he crept into the Garden of Eden. Adam was brought down by the 'wiles of devil' before he knew what happened. The same can and will happen to us if we don't keep our guard up. God is wanting to "keep" us from evil and will do so if we ask Him to.

Lastly, the fourth line: "that it may not grieve me". This is a continuation of line three. If we don't have the hedge of protection set around us by God we will be surely grieved. We can further add that David knew the grief caused by letting the devil into his life. David also knew the awesome power of the "hedge of protection". We can also ask God to place a hedge of protection around us, and others as we pray. This way God acts as a hedge to keep us from evil.

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