In the book of I Chronicles, we meet a man named “Pain.” That’s right. A man whose name means “pain.” That man is Jabez.
We don’t know much about Jabez. In fact, we don’t really know anything about him other than what the author of I Chronicles tells us, and here is what that is:
And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.
I Chronicles 4:9-10, KJV
Even though the above passage represents only two verses in the entire Bible, I believe this prayer is significant. And I’m grateful for the Bible letting us know about that prayer and the man who offered it.
Yesterday (Sunday, January 10, 2021), I preached on the Prayer of Jabez. (If you want to watch the video of my sermon, you can do so below).
With this post, I won’t go into as much detail as I did in my sermon. But I want to offer a few highlights for us to keep in mind. And they are:
- Don’t pass on your pain. As difficult as the pregnancy and childbirth may have been for Jabez’s mother, she continued that cycle of pain by passing that pain onto her child. We must take care not to pass on our pain. Just because we’re hurting doesn’t give us the right to hurt others.
- You can always pray to your Heavenly Father. God is a “father to the fatherless” (Psalm 68:5). Even though others (including our parents) may let us down, God is there. We can always pray to Him.
- We can bring God our pain. He wants to hear from us, and He wants to help us. Never forget: God loves you.
- We can ask God for blessings. We serve a God who enjoys blessing His children.
- We need God to keep us out of trouble. Jabez asks God to keep him from evil. We’ve all seen how prominent Christian celebrities and leaders have fallen into sin and disgrace. It can happen to any of us. We need God. We need His protection.
- It’s honorable to want to stop the pain. Hurting people often do hurt other people, but Jabez is considered “more honorable than his brothers” because he wanted the pain to stop with him. He didn’t want pain to define him anymore, nor did he want it to be a part of his legacy. Be honorable. Do your best not to spread pain.
We don’t know a lot about Jabez, but we know what God wants us to know. The key now is what we are going to do with that information.
Hopefully, we will learn what God wants us to learn, and apply those principles to our lives.
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