Whereforth Art Thou, Jabez?
Posted: Sunday, September 28, 2008
by Jack Hager
http://midlandjack.blogspot.com
Philip Yancey declares that Alcoholics Anonymous may well be closer to New Testament Christianity than most churches. His reasoning is that perhaps all Christians would find worship more meaningful and God-centered if we began every service with individual confessions, "Hi, I'm Jack, and I'm a sinner."
Be that as it may, I confess "Hi, I'm Jack, and I've not read all the Left Behind books." I also confess, "Hi, I'm Jack, and I don't pray the 'Jabez prayer' every day."
I have read the book. It has some good principles and if it enhances peoples prayer lives, amen and amen.
But I fear it was just another churchy trend (where have all the "WWJD" bracelets gone?). It has become yet another "label" of "in" Christians, usurping the role the Left Behind series had (No, I've nothing against the books; I read the first one, enjoyed it, tried the second one and got bored).
Though I enjoyed the Wilkinson book, I am not sold on the thesis. I have studied the "Jabez prayer" before, and my conclusion (not dogmatic) is that yes, Jabez was "more honorable than his brethren" and God answered his prayer (which, to me, seems a bit self-centered) and then Jabez disappears. Why does he disappear? Perhaps because God answered his prayer?
As a reminder, the prayer in the NIV is, "Oh, that You would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let Your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." (1 Chronicles 4.10) We are then told God granted his request and, poof, Jabez disappears.
Can we be effective for Christ without being effected by pain and evil? Did Paul suffer from his "thorn in the flesh" because he forgot to parrot the Jabez prayer? Should we rejoice and be thankful that our Lord apparently didn't pray and "claim" the Jabez prayer?
UnderstandI think the Wilkinson book has some great insights and some great principles. Yet I fear many readers have made it the end of ends and paramount issue of their spirituality. Worse, I've already overheard some friends discussing another who had just gone through some tough times. Their conclusion? "She must not have been praying the Jabez prayer."
Please. If there is validity to the prayer of Jabez, it is not a rabbit's foot to be rubbed daily (or is three times a day better?). If using the prayer of Jabez as a pattern is helpful to you, great. Perhaps you can recommend it to others. But pleasepleasedon't make it a standard of spirituality, or a mark of superdiscipleship.
After all, when the original disciples asked their Lord to teach them to pray, He didn't quote Jabez.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)I agreed Jack with your thinking! It is a prayer for his own. We can have spiritual implications from it but can't follow it everytime we need to learn regarding prayer. We can't just say 'he dissappeared' instead we can say there's no metion about him after God answered his prayer...God bless you...
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