In recent years there has been a renewed interest by some in the meaning of names. I know my wife spent much time looking into the meaning of various names and visiting with me about this matter before we named each of our children. How would you like to learn that your name meant, "He makes sorrowful?"

Can I assume that you have no close friends or relatives named Jabez? If they did, perhaps they would have changed it. The pages of the first nine chapters of I Chronicles are filled with names, many names most of you would rather not read aloud in public, and names you might not pay much attention to if your were reading this book of the Bible for your personal devotions.

Several years ago the name Jabez became somewhat popular in Christian circles due to a book titled, "The Prayer of Jabez." A few years earlier a pastor friend of mine made mention of this prayer when we were praying together. I want to focus on the prayer of Jabez this morning. Certainly anytime is appropriate to think about prayer.

Before looking at the requests, let's take a minute to consider who Jabez was. Being brief here should be no problem since we only read about him here in our text for this morning and in I Chronicles 2:55. In the later passage, Jabez is in an unidentified town, probably in Judah, inhabited by the families of the Scribes. Nowhere else is this town mentioned in the Bible. The Scriptures do not tell us from what family of Judah Jabez came, but in I Chronicles 4:9,10 we see that he was noted for his honorable character - more honorable than his brothers. He was so named by his mother because she bore him in pain or sorrow. His name means causes sorrow.

Some have suggested that having such a name may have motivated him to be a man of prayer, that his life might become a contradiction of his name. Could his name also be a hint of the painful discipline of real prayer? The scriptures do not give us all the details here, but tell us that Jabez called on the Lord of Israel with four requests.

I. Bless Me (Us).

"Oh that thou wouldst bless me indeed.." v. 10 NASB. As a child I was taught to pray at bedtime. My habit in those early days was to pray, "Now I lay me down to sleep..." Then I followed this by asking God to bless my mom, my Dad, my sisters, Barb and Faye. Then I mentioned other relatives and friends. Sometimes my list got rather long, praying God's prayer of blessing on other persons.

Notice here in this prayer of Jabez the request of the blessing is personal. It is a request of blessing for himself. Do you also pray, Bless me? Bless us? The Living Bible paraphrases this request, "Oh that You would wonderfully bless me." Perhaps while some ask for God's blessings primarily for themselves, other Christians may shy away from asking God to bless them. They may be concerned about distortions becoming preoccupied with material possessions, bank accounts, and positions. To bless is to make holy, to set apart for a holy purpose. Jabez added the bless me, the word indeed. I believe he was making emphasis, true, real blessing, without limit, speaking of that which is truly a blessing because it comes form God and fits in with His purposes.

II. Enlarge My (Our) Border. Coast, Horizon.

Jabez prayed, "Oh that thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my border. I really like this part of the prayer, but I would guess it is not a common prayer request for many of us and you might ask , "What does it mean?"

In the context, as the promised land was being conquered for the Lord, it may have literally referred to the expanding physical borders of the land he occupied. I think of another man of God, years earlier, when Caleb was about eighty years old, said, "Give me this mountain."

For Jabez, for Caleb, I believe the request has far more to do with the understanding of their great, Awesome, God, and what God wanted to take place, than just the physical borders of the land. So for you and me, as we make such a prayer request to enlarge our border, our coast, our horizon. Increase my understanding of you, God. Help me really spend time in Your word. Help me to know you better. Help me to touch other lives with Your grace.

The only limit is what God can do in you and in me. I believe God wants to enlarge the borders of what our churches are doing for Him. Some years ago when I was living in Des Moines, it was estimated that in the Des Moines metropolitan area 72,000 to 84,000 people did not even attend a church. Could it be that 20 to 30 percent of Adel people of our area do not attend a church? The number could be much larger than that since the latest figure I heard is that on a given weekend 19% of the people of Iowa attend worship services. Studies have shown that one person in four is waiting to be asked to come to church and that 65% would come with you if you invited personally them. As we pray for God to enlarge our borders, I believe God wants you to ask someone or several to come to church with you.

III. Keep Your Hand Upon Me (Us).

The request to keep your hand upon me or us, may be a little more common. We may realize our weakness and how we need God's help to sustain us and empower us.

When Pastor Thomas Collins called on a family from his church, he found the mother very despondent and feeling that God had forsaken her. Looking at the baby in the woman's arms, Pastor Collins said to her, "Drop that baby on the floor." Startled by the suggestion, she looked at him in disbelief. "Well," he said, "for what price would you do it?" Indignantly she replied, "Not for as many dollars as there are stars!" He then said kindly, "tell me, do you really think that you love your child more than the Lord does His?" That truth broke through the woman's despair.

Take comfort, my friends. If it is absurd to think that a loving mother would deliberately drop her helpless infant, it is unthinkable that our heavenly Father and His Son would ever loosen the grip of their all powerful Hands on us.

IV. Keep Me (Us) from Evil.

This request is also more familiar, perhaps because in the Lord's Prayer we ask, "deliver us from evil." Certainly, as we live in an evil world it is good for us to pray for God to keep us and those we care about, from the evil of sin, from the evil ideas in society, from the evil of troubles. We are human beings, and we need God's help to keep us from evil.

This is a prayer for me to make for myself, for my family, and for our church family.

Conclusion

The Bible tells us that God granted the requests of Jabez. A commentator wrote, "his faith was triumphant over his name." God is just as interested in you and me. I believe God desires for His promises to be fulfilled in our lives, too.

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