“Jabez, cried out to the God of Israel, ‘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.” 1 Chronicles 4:10 (NKJV)
The prayer of Jabez is one of my favorite prayers in Scripture! He starts off his prayer by asking God to “bless me indeed” we often ask God for his blessings in our prayers too. Do you know what we are asking for? To bless in the biblical sense means to ask for or to impart supernatural favor. When we ask for God’s blessing, we are not asking for more of what we could get for ourselves. We are crying out for the wonderful, unlimited goodness that only God has the power to give us.
Jabez left it entirely up to God to decide what the blessings would be and where, when and how Jabez would receive them. When we seek God’s blessings more than anything else in our lives we are putting ourselves entirely into the river of His will and power and purposes for us. All our other needs become secondary to what we really want – which is to become wholly immersed in what God is trying to do in us, through us, and all around us for His glory!
May God bless us indeed,
Pastor Doug