Prayer of Jabez

This is an OT prayer that is earmarked by what is being prayed for. Material and land gain in OT times was viewed as being blessed by God the Father. As evidenced by the behavior of Job's three friends, when they thought surely Job had sinned by losing his wealth and family.
After Christ came He established a new covenant with the children of God. In the NT we are taught to be content in whatsoever state we may be in. We are taught to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. We are taught a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.

Matthew 6:31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek: for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

James 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume [it] upon your lusts.

Although I do not find fault with the actual prayer Jabez prayed, I think that a believer this side of the cross knows much more than Jabez did and should be able to pray more according to God's will.

Luke 11:1 And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.
3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

 

I think Cutter gives a good answer. Also, Christ did not teach us to pray Jabez's prayer.

Also, here is what Paul prayed, from esv:

Php 1:9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,
Php 1:10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

Nothing about enlarging territories so I don't cause pain.

 

==I don't know that anyone has a problem with the prayer itself. The problem is more with the way it has been used.

==I would only caution you with Matt. 6:7-8. Also, are you sure God is answering your repetition or is He answering the rest of your prayer life? Maybe you have a healthier prayer life than you realize? I don't know. However I think we have to pay carefull attention to Matt. 6:7-8 when we think about things like the Lord's Prayer, the prayer of Jabez, and the various meal blessings that people repeat. There is nothing wrong with using those prayers or any other prayer of Scripture. However if it becomes repetition (ie...habit) then there is a problem.

 

The prayer of Jabez has been way over blown.

 

I agree. In the Old Testament, God chose a physical nation, Israel, and promised them a physical country, Canaan, the "Promised Land". In the New Testament, Jesus makes it clear that His kingdom is "not of this world."



I must admit to being surprised when I did a Google search for "The Prayer of Jabez", and got 226,000 hits! A closer look showed me that many, perhaps most, of them refer, not directly to the portion of Scripture we call "The Prayer of Jabez", but to a book with the same name by someone called Bruce Wilkinson. In it, he apparently makes some astonishing statements, such as:

..make the Jabez prayer for blessing part of the daily fabric of your life. To do that, I encourage you to follow unwaveringly the plan outlined here for the next thirty days. By the end of that time, you'll be noticing significant changes in your life.... Read the Jabez prayer every morning.... Reread this little book once each week during the next month...."


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"Dear Reader, I want to teach you how to pray a daring prayer that God always answers. It is brief--only one sentence with four parts--and tucked away in the Bible, but I believe it contains the key to a life of extraordinary favor with God....


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I found those quotes at http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/Jabez.htm which is a site which might be helpful in providing "the other side of the argument".

 

It's scripture that has been turned into a mantra for self.
The way it's being used is for the supplicant to tell God what He should do for the one praying.
The prayer pattern Jesus taught was one of worship, adoration, and supplication.

 

Please don't take this the wrong way - I am not judging you in any way, and besides, I may have misunderstood what you wrote - but I find it hard to fit what you say about the results in your life of praying the prayer of Jabez every morning, with what you said elsewhere: "I just get the impression that God chooses who He wants to bless and who He wants to curse and apparently I am one He wants to curse."

I certainly echo the feelings of ReformedBaptist as expressed to you in Post 54 on the "So we are not to be happy?" thread.

On a more facetious note, I see you use the phrase, "Here's the thing!" quite a lot. I always thought that was a catchphrase of Adrian Monk! :laugh:

 

The prayer of Jabez leaves out one really important thing.

Mat 6:10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as [it is] in heaven.


Jesus gave us a model prayer for a reason. We do not always pray according to the way we should. The prayer of Jabez was Jabez's prayer to God. Why should we claim it as ours?