Word of Encouragement (08/13/2024)

Jabez 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. (1 Chron. 4:10)

Some of you remember when there was a big hoopla about the prayer of Jabez. It was sparked by a book titled, “The Prayer of Jabez” by Bruce Wilkins. I have not read the book but a reviewer, Rev. Greg Gilbert, gives us a gist of what the book is about. He says, “Using Jabez’s prayer in I Chronicles 4, he points out four principles—1) that God wants us to pray for His blessing, 2) that He wants us to pray for His blessing on our ministry to people, 3) that He wants us to pray for spiritual power in our ministry efforts, and 4) that we should pray to be delivered from evil.” Do you find anything wrong with these principles?

Gilbert digs a little deeper and shows what the problem is with the book: “What is unbiblical is that people are treating this prayer—and Wilkinson in no way discourages the idea—as some kind of magic formula that will somehow hypnotize God into blessing us.” Gilbert points to what Wilkins says in the Preface: “Dear Reader, I want to teach you to pray a daring prayer that God always answers.” Many instances of people praying this prayer daily for many years are given in the book and the testimonies of how much God has blessed them to boot.

Christians are not free from the impulses of primitive religions, which rely on magic to solve one’s problems. They not only believe in spiritual beings, who are capable of performing magic but they also believe in magical objects and incantations that are imbued with magical powers. We can see why such a belief system is attractive: it makes life much simpler. All we need is to know someone who has magical powers (the gods) or attain some magical objects (a magic lamp) or learn some incantations. In 1 Sam. 4, the elders ordered the ark of the covenant to be brought to the battlefield, thinking that it would bring them victory. Some recite the Lord’s Prayer every day, believing that it has a magical power to protect them from harm and bring them prosperity. And it seems that many charismatic and evangelical Christians used the prayer of Jabez as such. This reduces God to an impersonal force, which is an insult to God.

Is it beyond the realm of possibility that hundreds and thousands of people religiously prayed this prayer for many years and did not see their health and wealth improve? How can we follow Jesus Christ, who suffered and died for our sins, and think that health and wealth are the supreme evidence of a strong and genuine faith? Did Paul suffer as he did in his life and ministry because he did not know the secret of the prayer of Jabez? Is it to have a better life in this world that we follow Jesus Christ? Why do you follow Him?