A few years ago when I discovered that obscure and isolated prayer of Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10, I was caught up with wonder as to why the Holy Spirit would have directed the recording of that little bit of seemingly unrelated “blurp” of personal information about an unconnected man in the midst of a sea of “begots”. The information we have is strangely placed there with no reference to whom he belongs and who are his brothers.

Here is the passage (in NKJV):  “Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, ‘Because I bore him in pain.’ 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.”

Right off we see that Jabez was out front with God, ahead of his brothers, for he was more honorable than they were.  What does that mean? Solomon says, in Proverbs 15:33, “The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility.” It looks like Jabez was captured early on with the fear of God and humility, which indicates great reverence and a submissive spirit were strong character traits in him. I say “early on” he developed these traits because of the name his mother gave him—Jabez, “Because I bore him in pain”.

Imagine growing up with some brothers and other kids who liked to tease and “badger” him about that name—“look out guys, here comes Ole’ Painful”; or “yonder goes that ‘pain-in-the-neck’”; or, “don’t choose him, he’s nothing but a pain”.  Talk about turning a lemon into lemonade—Jabez turned that problem into a promotion of favor with God.

Three of his four specific requests in the prayer have to do with his relationship with God.  He wanted God’s specific and certain blessing; he wanted God’s “hand to be with him”, a desire for God’s strength and protection to surround him; and then, “keep me from evil that I may not cause pain”. This last one is also found in the model prayer that Jesus gave is in Matthew 6, and again, Jesus prayed that for His believers in His prayer  in John 17. It points to a recognition of spiritual inadequacy on the part of humankind and a plea for God’s help to resist the clamors of the flesh, the world and the devil to surrender to their demands.

When I began to ponder this unique portrayal of an obscure person whom God chose to bless with a yes answer to his prayer, it seemed to me that God’s message to those who would see what He did and quickly abandon any restrictions and reluctances to calling on the Lord at the first possible moment.  “So God granted him what he

requested.” The lessons of Scripture seem to bear out the truth that getting positive answers to prayer is not a matter of over-coming God’s reluctance but is to connect with His extreme  willingness.

The one request in the prayer that seems to have been a stumbling block for a few people is his desire that God “enlarge his territory”.  That does it; all he wanted was more land; just a selfish person would ask that! Is that your reaction, too?

That passage in James 4:2-3 hangs over us like a dark and unrelenting threat of judgment if we dare to ask God for anything, lest it be con-sidered selfish and immoral.  So what does it say?:  “You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” (My emphasis.) Looks like the only result of asking amiss is that you get “no” for the answer.  If you don’t ask at all, you get the same answer, so why bother, right? Yet God continually calls out for us to ask of Him for our needs, our desires, our concerns. Now Jabez was an honorable man in God’s eyes, not one to want something that was contrary to the righteousness of God.  Perhaps God had blessed him with so many cattle that he needed more land to take care of what God had charged to him!

It comes to me that much of the reason why believers have a hard time making the connection with God’s benevolence is not, as we want to think, a matter of overcoming His reluctance but is the quality of our relationship with the God who declares, “For all the promises of God in Him [Christ] are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.”  That last tag, “through us”, speaks volumes about what I am trying to say—to the reader, and also to this writer!  How often do we quote Ephesians 3:20, in part, leaving off that last tag, as in the above verse: “Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the powerthat works in us.” [Underscoring mine.]

In His graciousness God does not give a believer more than he can handle at his particular level of faith and understanding of the ways of God.  He does not put “new wine in old wineskins”, thus He tells us “to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.” Someone has said, “Don’t expect God to do for you what He can only do with and through you.”  It looks like the Scriptures bear that out, and it appears Jabez, that obscure and yet honorable person, was not overlooked as God scanned the landscape for someone He could bless and through whom He could bring glory to Himself. It reminds me of that very thing which God does, even today: “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf ofthose whose heart is loyal to Him” (2 Chronicles 6:9). Is there any-one who is up to it?

Of a certainty we are all dirty, rotten sinners, standing alone and giving in to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life with seeming regularity!  What a condemnation that is! According to the first “Be-Attitude” (Matthew 5:3), however, it is only when we come to fully realize that truth:  “Blessed are those who realize their spiritual poverty, for only then are they able to receive all the blessings of God” (my paraphrase).

God does not share His glory with any human; He makes no partner-ship with the flesh (carnal man).  That is why “you must be born again”, for it is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” that makes one fit for the presence of God.

According to the great inventor, Thomas A. Edison, every failed attempt to turn an idea into a workable device was just another discovery of an approach that did not work.  Because of the greatness of God’s gift of grace and the absolute certainty of His forgiveness and redemption, we can be sure that we are not condemned before Him for our failures.  It is only when we fail to believe His total forgiveness and turn back to walking by the dictates of the flesh that we wallow in self-condemnation.

The very reason Jesus came as God’s sacrifice for our sins was because of the fact that we are totally depraved and dreadfully sinful—in the flesh.  “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:1). This verse includes a last phrase not found in all translations. That phrase, “…who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit”, is clearly identified in the next few verses.  It is a truth that is foundational to the principle of living by faith.

One of the great promises of the security of the believer is John 5:24,

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”  No condemnation from God, ever again, He tells us.  So, how is it that condemnation comes over us like a blanket sometimes?

One who lives by faith and not by the law must hold fast to the promises of God in Christ and not trust in his own works of righteousness in trying to keep the law.  Faith and works do not mix at the same level—faith must come before works in every instance.  Paul

writes in Galatians 2:21, “I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain.”

John also brings clarity to the issue this way:

“For if our heart condemns us [because of failures], God is greater than our heart, and knows all things. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God” (I John 3:20-21).

What does He know?  That we are redeemed by the blood of Christ and “there is, therefore, no ondemnation” for the redeemed!  (Exactly what we are supposed to believe in, not our works!)

Now let’s consider the pragmatic results of this position of the redeemed for its benefits and blessings. The above affirmation,

“Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, then have we confidence toward God” (I John 3:21) is a turning point for living   by faith in Christ.  Once we realize our sinful disobedience in a given issue, and confess it to God, He tells us, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”

(I John 1:9).  Now, we are free to live by faith and not by works of the flesh.

Confidence toward God, then, is an attitude of faith based on assurance of acceptance.  John writes, interestingly, in I John 5:11-13, that eternal life is in God’s Son, and he who has the Son has life, that those who believe mayknow they have eternal life, and that they may believe on the name of the only begotten Son of God. [My italics]  [This phrase is not included in many translations, but it seems to address a deeper meaning of belief.]

The very next verse seems to indicate that that phrase in italics speaks

of a faith that rises out of the assurance of salvation, which is the beginning of all confidence toward God.  Verses 14-15 read, “And this is the confidence we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us, and if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”

The great challenge of faith is to believe the promises of God no matter how unworthy, sinful and sorry we feel about ourselves (that’s self-condemnation).  Paul confesses in Romans 7:24, “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”, and turns his heart and mind to serve the Lord and give no quarter to the clamor of the flesh.  We come to Christ empty-handed, and we have no righteousness of ourselves to contribute to our salvation nor our service to Him.  It is all of grace–His grace.

Motivational speaker Les Brown often refers to “an old African proverb” that seems to fit this scenario very well:  “If you have no enemies within, your enemies without can do you no harm.”  Like-wise, I John 4:4 seals it for us:  “…He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”