1 Chronicles 4:9 – 10 (ESV) 9Jabez was more honorable than his brothers; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” 10Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” And God granted what he asked.

The name Jabez means “sorrowful” or “sorrow-maker”. Because his had been a painful birth.

God promises us provision, not prosperity, as some mistakenly believe.

• Important to remember when studying Jabez is that God answers the prayers of the people by His will, not our wishes.

Through Jabez, God teaches the importance of relationship with Him.

We are to establish and maintain prayer without end in our daily lives. Jabez was not using prayer as a formula to get something from God; rather, He was calling upon God to help him accomplish the promises of God.

Jabez prayed for four things:

1. That God would bless him
2. That God would enlarge his territory
3. That God’s hand might be with him
4. That God would keep him from evil
   • Jabez’s Old Testament prayer can be aligned with the way Jesus taught us to pray (Matthew 6:5-15). “They think that they will be heard for their many words,” Jesus said in Matthew 6:7-8. “Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
   • Jesus taught us how to pray: “Pray then like this: our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matthew 6:9-13).
   • James reminds us, “You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2). A disciplined life of biblical prayer keeps us in constant touch with God and reliance on Him.

Lessons for us today from the prayer of Jabez

• Praise God for who He is. Remember specific answers to prayer, list virtues of His character, and ask to for Him to reveal more.
• Ask God to give us a heart like Jesus and increase the use of our lives to spread the gospel.
• Acknowledge God’s power and reign. Pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to be manifested in our daily lives.
• Pray for God to guard our hearts and for His protection from every evil, both seen and unseen.
• Pray everything in Jesus’ name. Express the desire to align every intention with God’s will.

7 Verses to Help Us Pray with God’s attitude on prosperity

-“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us” (1 John 5:14).

-“Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always” (1 Chronicles 16:11).

-“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41).

-“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)

-“The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth” (Psalm 145:18).

-“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful” (Colossians 4:2).

-Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Ephesians 3:20 (KJV)

MMM: “Success does NOT ruin the character of a person, it simply exposes the character he or she already had.” Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful (Col. 4:2).