Reset Password
Reset Link Sent
| Blogs > lemonrock > peace be with u |
|
Little Prayer, Giant Prize - Jabez called on the God of Israel Little Prayer, Giant Prize Jabez called on the God of Israel 9. And Jabez was honoured more than his brothers; but his mother had given him the name Jabez, saying, Because I gave birth to him with sorrow. 10: And Jabez made a prayer to the God of Israel, saying, If only you would truly give me a blessing, and make wider the limits of my land, and let your hand be with me, and keep me from evil, so that I may not be troubled by it! And God gave him his desire. (1 Chronicles 4:9-10 ) My own starts in a kitchen with yellow counters and Texas-sized raindrops pelting the window. It was my senior year of seminary in Dallas. Durlene, my wife, and I were finding ourselves spending more and more time thinking and praying about what would come next. Where I should throw my energy, passion, and training? What did god want for us as a couple? I stood in our kitchen thinking again about the challenge I’d heard from the seminary chaplain, Dr. Richard Seume. “Want bigger vision for your life?” he had ask earlier the week. “Sign up to be a gimper for God.” A gimper as Seume explained it, was someone who always does a little more than what’s required or expected. In the furniture business, for example gimping is putting the finishing touches on the upholstery, patiently applying the ornamental extras that are a mark of quality value. Dr. Seume took as his text the briefest of Bible biographies. “Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers” (1 Chronicles 4:9). Jabez wanted to be more and do more for God, and ‒ as we discover by the end of verse 10 ‒ God granted him his request. End of verse, End of Bible story Lord, I think I want to be a gimper for you, I prayed as I looked out the window at the blustery spring rain. But I was puzzled. What exzctly 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 miniprofile in the Bible? Maybe it was the raindrops running down the windowpanes. Suddenly my thoughts ran past verse 9. I picked up my 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 revolutuionized my life and ministry the most, I would tell you that it was the cry of a gimper named Jabez, who still remembered not for what he did, but for what he prayed ‒ and for what happened next. In the pages of this little book, I want to introduce you to the amazing thruths in Jabez’s prayer for blessing and prepare you to expect God’s astounding answers to it as a regular part of your life expierence. How do I know that it will significantly impact you? Because of my experience and the testimony of hundreds of others around the world with whom I’ve shared these principles. Because, even more importantly, the Jabez prayer distills God’s powerful will for your future. Finally, because it reveals that your father longs to give you so much more than you may have ever thought to ask for. Just ask the man who had no future. The Prayer of Jabez By Bruce Wilkinson 
|
×
×