I have received a few requests about what the Prayer of Jabez is, so today I will share it. Here it is:
“Lord, bless ME indeed,
Enlarge my territory,
Keep your hand on me,
Keep me from evil so I may not cause
pain. “
That’s it. So little. So powerful. Now, I get those numerous chain mails that tell you to pray a prayer and send it to ten people and you will get your wish. This is about as far away from any of those as the east is from the west. This is not making a wish. This is asking God to change your life, profoundly. Not asking for anything specific. Just asking. And waiting to see God work before your very eyes. You have no idea what His next path is for you and He’s just waiting for you to ask to be shown. Let’s look at the prayer line by line.
“Lord, bless ME indeed”
Seems a bit conceited, huh? Stop to think. If God doesn’t bless you first, how will you be able to help others? The kicker is, God has blessings for us everyday, but we must remember to ask. In the prayer book, one story illustrates it this this way:
“A man died and went to heaven. It was beautiful, just like we all imagine. He was so happy there. He was told he could go anywhere he wanted in all of heaven, except through one door. The man, of course, didn’t listen and went through the door. He found a huge room full of rows and rows of white boxes tied with beautiful ribbons and arranged by name, alphabetically. He couldn’t wait to find his row. When he found the boxes with his name on them, there were hundreds. He was really excited to start opening them. Someone came walking down the aisle. He looked at the person and said, “Here are my boxes! What’s in them?” The person said,”Your blessings.” He looked at him and said, “My blessings?”. The person said, “Yes. All the blessings God had for you everyday that you were down on earth.” The man said, “But I never got them!” The person said, “You never asked for them.” The man spent a long time opening the boxes and crying over all he missed out on in his life because he never asked.
That right there was enough for me to ask everyday for my blessings!
Second line:
“Enlarge my territory”
Look out for this one! My friends, this is giving God free rein with your life. This is where the ride of your life begins. Asking God to enlarge your territory opens your life to places, people, and possibilities that you would never, ever, begin to imagine would enter your life. Just remember what I said, and hang on tight if you pray this.
Third line:
“Keep your hand upon me”
Obviously if you’re going on the ride of your life, you don’t want to go alone. In the things you will be called to do, you will need all the help you can get. While exhilarating and fulfilling, your blessings will take you places that will cause you to doubt if you can go there, or do this and you will need constant reassurance.
Last line:
“Keep me from evil, so I may not cause pain”
Again, if you’re on the ride of your life, stepping on a land mine is the last thing you need. You have to ask God daily to ward off evil, which crosses our paths in many forms, disguised, and can cause us to hurt, more than help.
It’s funny, in just these few lines we’re given all the tools we need to change our lives, enter into the mission of helping others and serving God, and receiving blessings that are beyond our wildest dreams. I know. Been there. Done that. Doing it again.
As I said yesterday, somewhere along last year, I stopped praying the prayer. The tide went out on me again. I’m once again in ebb tide, praying the prayer again, getting ready for the tide to come back in, with a vengeance.
I’m signing up for another tour of duty. (My family better hold on – here we go again, kids!) The last seven years saw our lives pried up out of a rut of 26 years and moved through three houses, and one apartment, across two states. People entered our lives that have changed us deeply and took us all over the country. Two college educations have been completed across two states, relationships, jobs, apartments and journeys through cities that were neither planned or imagined were made. Five people have been changed deeply and profoundly as a result of the blessings gained from this prayer daily, over seven years.
A new book has just come out -“The Prayer of Jabez for Women” by Darlene Marie Wilkinson. I just finished it last night. If she wasn’t writing about me, then I don’t know who she was writing about. Maybe you? LOL! I found more wisdom and understanding in that book than in all 75 books I have in my kindle! It’s a worth it read, but beware – if you start praying that prayer – you’re in for the ride of your life – hang on!
And so, as another day goes by, I can’t wait to see what’s next for me and my family, and ….I have written.
Linda,
I was drawn to your sunny personality when I first met you at the table at Anne’s workshop, and since then, you’ve been so welcoming, guiding me through Facebook and now I have a blog! Your post about the Prayer of Jabez was so inspiring – confirming what I’ve been struggling with – and just this morning (after finishing my morning pages) I made a commitment to myself (using the analogy from your post) “to untie the pretty ribbon from my white box.” I accept my gift (writing and whatever else is in there!), and will leave my fear (and my rush to complete my novel, and my obsession that it isn’t perfect, etc.) behind. Thanks for ALL you do! Peace, Diane