Lord, Teach Us To Pray
Series: Part 7 The Prayer of Jabez
Gtcotr/ws111506
Key Scriptures: James 5 NKJV
16b … The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.
17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.
18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
The Model Prayer which we have been studying is not meant to be a rote, stale, memorized chain of words which are to be uttered in a rehearsed ritual as we check off the box, “I prayed today.”
There exists no single key or prayer that will automatically give a person audience or favor with God. However, there are patterns of prayer throughout the Bible, prayed by sincere men and women of God, which God evidently heard and answered.
These Holy Spirit inspired and biblically preserved examples of prayer have some things in common. The similar elements contained in each example serve to give us key ingredients we may include in our prayers and petitions to God.
Some key ingredients which we have not already discussed in this series as yet, are found in 1 Chronicles 4 in what we have come to know as:
The Prayer of Jabez
1 Chronicles 4 NKJV
9 Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, "Because I bore him in pain."
10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!" So God granted him what he requested.
There have been sermons preached, seminars taught, books written and clubs formed around the tenants of this Prayer of Jabez. The elements of this prayer have been broken down into a step by step formula, said by some to guarantee audience and favor with God.
I make no such claim tonight. I feel that this prayer is a description of how one man prayed an effective prayer that got God’s favorable attention. I see this prayer as a pattern and not a prescription.
Effective prayer goes deeper than mere words and formula.
Prayer which gets to the heart of God comes from the heart of man.
So, let’s look behind the scenes of these uttered words and into the heart of this man Jabez to feel what he must have felt in his hour of need.
Jabez is only mentioned here in these two verses in 1 Chronicles. All we can understand about him and his circumstances of life have to be taken from this passage. So, what do we know about Jabez?
His Name
* Jabez means affliction.
* Each time he or others spoke his name it was a confession of his future and a reminder of his past.
* It was not the future he wanted.
His Character
· Jabez is introduced as being more honorable than his brothers.
· We take this to mean that he was a man who chose to live the right way and do the right thing. He was a man of principle, character and integrity. He was right with God.
· A person who is right with God has God’s ear.
Psalms 34:15 The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, And His ears are open to their cry.
His Hope
· Jabez called on God.
· This is a recognition that God and God alone was his source.
· What Jabez prayed for might be less the point than the fact Jabez prayed.
Jabez’s prayer is the same prayer that we all pray: “God, change my life!” “Help me” “Change my circumstances.”
Change what life has planned for me and give me what You have planned for me instead.
I believe that it is right and reasonable that we ask God to bless us.
I also believe we are expected to attempt something large enough that failure is guaranteed unless God steps in.
This was Peter’s prayer request in Matthew 14:
Matthew 14:28 And Peter answered Him and said, "Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water."
Peter asks Jesus to command him to do something impossible for Peter to accomplish without heaven’s divine intervention.
This is the same type of prayer we find in Jacob’s Bethel Prayer.
Genesis 28 NKJV
20 Then Jacob made a vow, saying, "If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on,
21 "so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD shall be my God.
22 "And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You."
Gideon’s prayers: If you want me to save
Judges 6 NKJV
39 Then Gideon said to God, "Do not be angry with me, but let me speak just once more: Let me test, I pray, just once more with the fleece; let it now be dry only on the fleece, but on all the ground let there be dew."
40 And God did so that night. It was dry on the fleece only, but there was dew on all the ground.
These all show - heart felt prayer, earnest prayer, sincere prayer, - prayer from the heart of man to the heart of God.
People needing to do something they themselves cannot do or know something they themselves cannot know, all asking God for help from a heart of honesty, integrity and sincerity. Their hope was in God.
Jabez’s prayer worked because he was a righteous man, so did Gideon’s, Peter’s, Jacob’s and Elijah’s. There is no magic in the words but power in a heart of hope and results in a sincere effort to trust in God and accept His answer.
Get right with God. Be more honorable than the world around you.
