Troublesome Topic: WHAT ABOUT THE PRAYER OF JABEZ?

In I Chron. 4:10 we read the prayer of a man named Jabez. The part of the prayer that is most often emphasized is this: “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my territory.” The verse ends by saying that God granted his request. Does that mean that this was an example of true prayer? Is this how we should always pray? No. This is an example of asking God for favors. It is also an example of how God, in His great mercy and grace, sometimes gives us favors. The fact that God answered that request is not a reflection on the nature of his request; it is a reflection on the nature of God. Many have been impacted by the book The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson. Unfortunately, it has only served to increase our bad habit of praying about ourselves and for ourselves. We are in the habit of using prayer as nothing but asking God for favors, and when a book like The Prayer of Jabez comes along, it seems to justify such bad habits. 

The next lesson in this series is GRATITUDE