THE PRAYER THAT sought a whole new life

It’s hard to live under the cloud of a bad reputation. Jabez knew what it was like. Why? Because he had a rather unfortunate name. Jabez means “pain” or, perhaps more literally, “a cause of sorrow”.

In a culture where names carry a lot of weight, Jabez was a marked man.

So what do you pray when you want to be more than your circumstances allow? Jabez didn’t pray according to the world’s expectations or even according to his own dreams. He prayed using God’s promises as His guide.

“Bless me and send me out as a blessing!” Jabez took God’s promise of blessing to Abraham and his descendants—made hundreds of years earlier—and applied it personally.

Sometimes the world boxes us in. Sometimes we’re given unfair labels. Sometimes we’re limited and restricted. But God never is. He loves it when we pray according to His promises. He loves to show Himself to be faithful.

They are God’s promises—so He will always keep them. We just need to discover them and pray them back to God, just like Jabez did.

PRAYER: 1 Chronicles 29:10-19

ANSWER: 1 Chronicles 29:20-25