What do You think about The Prayer Of Jabez: Breaking Through To The Blessed Life (2009)?
This small book was simple to read, but it was also tough to get through. It points, rather glaringly, at the failure of most Christians to be willing to ask for God's blessings. I'm not talking money and cars and houses and private islands, but I am talking about the blessings one can receive from God FOR God. That sounds almost circular when you think of it that way, but God is all about being involved in His follower's lives and the primary role we are called to perform is to witness and spread His message to everyone. How can we do that while being constantly bombarded with Satan's influence and temptations? We CAN do it, if God blesses us and condones our actions and augments our abilities with His infinite ability to bless and reward us as we serve Him. The only treasure that Wilkinson seemed to promise is the kind you get well after you're dead, and that treasure is going to be deposited right back at God's feet anyway. So why not ask for all the blessings that you can so you can stockpile the treasure that really matters? Wilkinson made this argument clear and concise in his little book, and has encouraged me to pray as Jabez did. According to some, this book is telling you to pray for more stuff or status, but this is how Jabez's prayer was meant to come across:Oh, that You would bless me, indeed! (bless me to do Your will, God)And enlarge my territory, (enlarge my realm of influence for Your glory, God)That Your hand would be with me, (guide me, God)And that You would keep me from evil, (keep Satan away from me)That I may not cause pain! There were a coupe of areas that I felt were almost bragadocious on the author's part, as if the author were pointing to his blessings and saying, "Look at how many I have!" Still, I can set those moments aside because he has a right to be pleased with his tremendous work for God. I do, however, hope that he is not truly prideful of his blessings, but I also do not think that God would bless him indeed if Wilkinson truly were. Overall: Great and short read with a wonderful message! Recommended for anyone looking for more out of life!!
—Keith Bryan
In I Chronicles 4:10 we read, “Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, ‘Oh that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from harm that it may not pain me!’ And God granted him what he requested.” This is the verse that Wilkinson builds on in this short work. Wilkinson introduces his book as follows:"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. This petition has radically changed what I expect from God and what I experience every day by His power. In fact, thousands of believers who are applying its truths are seeing miracles happen on a regular basis."So the book is basically about how to use your prayers to manipulate God into giving you what you want, and not to take No as an answer. According to Wilkinson, God wants to bless everyone, we just have to invite Him and give Him permission to do so.Wilkinson says, “I don’t want to go to heaven and hear God say: “Let’s look at your life, Bruce. Let me show you what I wanted for you and tried repeatedly to accomplish through you. but you wouldn’t let me.”So apparently if I don’t pray for what I want God to do in my life, if I’m not persistent, then God is limited in what He can or will do. Wow, pretty pathetic picture of a Sovereign God, don’t you think?We do know that, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much (James 5:16).” But the focus of our prayer shouldn’t be on the prayer itself, but on the One to whom we are praying. We don’t use prayer to channel God’s power or to win God’s favor. Prayer is how we express our dependence on Him and our trust in His sovereign will in our life. And it’s an expression of our relationship to God, not a formula to be followed.
—Linda
I received this little book for Christmas from a friend. It's a quick and easy read. It's based on a couple verses in the Bible (1 Chronicles 4:9-10) about a man named Jabez and a prayer he gave. He uses the New King James Version and the verses go like this: 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.He goes on to break down the prayer into four parts and talk about each part and how to apply it in our lives. He had some good thoughts and insights. Sometimes I felt like he reached too far and assumed too much, but it was a nice message overall. Some things that stand out to me are the idea of praying for more responsibilities, more opportunities to grow, more ways to help people, and recognizing that we can only do those things with his help. If we are not depending on God very much in our lives, maybe we are keeping things too safe. Maybe we need to stretch ourselves to the point that we need his help. He will provide opportunities for growth and also the help that we need to achieve that. It is kind of a scary thought to step out into doing things that are too hard for us to do alone, but I can see the wisdom in that.I also liked his thoughts on praying to keep us away from evil. I hadn't thought about it, but generally I would pray to be strong in the face of temptations and to withstand evil, but I hadn't really thought about praying to just keep evil and temptation far away from me so I don't even have to deal with it. Sounds nice. So while I didn't agree with every word, I did find some things that inspired me and got me thinking.
—Kathy
