September 16 – Jabez

September 16 – Jabez
1 Chronicles 4:9-10

Much has been made of Jabez and his prayer, with good reason.

His mother named him Jabez because she gave birth to him in pain.  I suspect there are a lot of mothers who have felt the severe pain of childbirth and wanted to name their child something horrid, but after looking at the face which comprised a reflection of everything they love, relented and gave it the name they’d originally considered.

But Jabez grew up knowing every day that he had caused pain to his mother. If she wasn’t reminding him of that, every time someone called his name, he remembered.

Rather than destroying him, the Bible tells us he became more honorable than his brothers.  This reminder in his life forced him to work harder to become a good man.  He didn’t want pain to be part of his life.

His prayer, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I may not cause pain,” (1 Chronicles 4:10) was answered by God.

We never hear about Jabez again in scripture.  All we know about him is contained in these two verses.  His mother named him ‘Pain,’ he was honorable, he prayed a great, big prayer and God granted that request.

I believe that’s enough.  We can’t escape from the things that happened at our birth, in our childhood or in our background. We have to live above those things.  Jabez was honorable, so much so that rather than just another name in a list of the clans of Judah, the author stepped out and told us about his honor. As we live above the things that have hurt us in the past, our lives will be seen by others to be honorable.

Then, we have to pray great, big prayers.  We have to fully trust that God will bring us the desires of our hearts and we have to walk with Him every day so that we know our desires line up with his great, big desires for our lives; no matter what size we believe them to be.