Part 5: Prayer of Jabez, Part 1: Bless Me Indeed!
When I was preparing devotionals for the 2017 Advent Season, including New Year’s and Epiphany, which celebrates the arrival of the Magi at Bethlehem (on Jan. 6th), I asked God what He wanted me to do for the New Year’s post. “The theme for the 2017 holiday season was: “New Beginnings: See? I Am Doing a New Thing!--God.” As I quieted my spirit before Him, I clearly heard, “Enlarge My Borders!” I vaguely connected that phrase to Dr. Bruce H. Wilkinson’s book, “The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life” (2000), which is based on a 4-part prayer found in 1 Chronicles 4: 10: “10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that You would indeed bless me and enlarge my border [property], and that Your hand would be with me, and You would keep me from evil so that it does not hurt me!” And God granted his request.” With His further prompting, on January 14th, I began a Face Book group: “Jabez Prayer Warriors.”
In the Preface to his book, Wilkinson declares, “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.”
Imagine having extraordinary favour with God! The first part of Jabez’s prayer is “...bless me indeed!” Wilkinson notes that most Christians don’t ask God to bless them, but the meaning in this first part of the prayer goes beyond asking God to bless us. It actually means, “God bless me a lot!” And as I [Elizabeth] have prayed, “God bless me, indeed,” He definitely has and continues to do so. On June 11th/18 I posted on Face Book about God’s favour on me and my family, practical, down to earth favour, and I’m sharing excerpts of it to give those of you who may be struggling hope, too:
This is the year of the favour of our Lord! I'm so glad that I've heard this message via different sources—sermons, music, testimonies and books-- & now I am claiming it for me, my family, friends, and ministry! xx
We have seen so much of God’s favour in the past few months! I had been working on sorting out hospital and medical bills…. Being uninsured has been a difficult position to be in. However, we applied for, and received, financial sponsorship from the hospital, which they back-dated to August 13/17 and which extends to Apr. 10/2019. I have been awarded a hospital sponsorship for a 76% reduction on my unimaginably-high hospital bill and also on the bill for pre-surgery evaluation. However, other hospital-associated services were not guaranteed to match the sponsorship discount (e.g., my surgeon, speech pathologist, pathology and anesthesiology). I contacted the individual billing departments; and, amazingly, they all agreed to match the hospital sponsorship, providing me a deep 76% discount for their services (normally, they will agree to a 20-30% reduction for self-paying patients!)! Hallelujah!
Lord, bless me indeed, bless me a lot—and He has and continues to do so! And so, I continue to thank Him for His unmerited favour on my life, and on the lives of my family and friends, too! If you haven’t yet begun praying Jabez’s Prayer daily, begin doing so now. I pray that as God showers His favour on you, that your spirit is open to recognizing and receiving it!
Blessings & Peace
Elizabeth Hogan Hayduk
Former Salvation Army Officer (pastor), Canada
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