Prayer of Jabez

[dtam]

I was introduced to this book "Prayer of Jabez" by a fellow Christian from Charismatic denomination.

I am a little apprehensive about the contents of the book. Is it right to for Christians to pray for personal gains?

 

[Bizzlebin Imperatoris]

Well, the better question is, "Is it God's will to have you gain it?"

 

[dtam]

How do you tell if it is God's will for you to have something?

 

[Bizzlebin Imperatoris]

You can tell from the Bible in some cases, and in others by praying. Do you care to share more details?

 

[StAnselm]

dtam, the books has been really popular, but I share your concern. I don't think it's such a good idea to be praying for personal gain:

"It is God's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable." (1 Thessalonians 4:3-4)

 

[Jessica Lauren]

I think not.

 

[mlmum]

It depends on what you are going to do with the personal gains.

It is God's will that his children will prosper in order for his covenant to be fulfilled. i.e. If you are going to use the personal gains for His purposes, then YES, it is okay to pray for personal gains.

If you intend to keep all you have for yourself, then NO.

 

[Macca]

It depends on what you are going to do with the personal gains.

It is God's will that his children will prosper in order for his covenant to be fulfilled. i.e. If you are going to use the personal gains for His purposes, then YES, it is okay to pray for personal gains.

If you intend to keep all you have for yourself, then NO.

Exactly!!!.
Macca.

 

[Rafael]

Jabez was a disabled person and was brought into this world as a pain to his mother, already afflicted. He was probably abused and mistreated because of his handicaps. God heard his prayer and blessed him out of his mercy and love. Here is the United States, we have great overflowing wealth compared to the rest of the world and have made materialism into our God, in many cases. It's okay to pray like Jabez, but remembering always that God knows what is best for us. Sometimes want and affliction is better for us than it is to have too much. He tries us in the furnace of affliction to refine us and bring forth purity.

Ps 119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.

Isa 1:25 And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin:

Isa 48:10 Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.

Zec 13:9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.

1Pe 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:

1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

2Co 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

Heb 12:11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Re 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

 

[StAnselm]

Jabez was a disabled person

Wait a minute! How do you know this??

 

[Rafael]

Wait a minute! How do you know this??

I read this in a commentary and should have added as a speculation upon why there was sorrow in his mother's assessment of her child's future when she bore him. The name means he was brought forth and caused much pain and sorrow to his mother or at least this is part of what the Hebrew means to the commentators.
I have heard it specualted upon that he may have been diabled in some manner, and this was the reason for the sorrow in his birth. Why would a mother name a child after child birth pain when nearly all women experience pain in birth? However, if the child was born with a lame leg or a birth defect, then that would mean that there would be less fortune for the child and that child's mother, and then that would be a better reason for why she would name her child after the sorrow she foresaw as a future for a disabled child and herself.
Take it or leave it as you will, as the other commentaries have made their speculations too. The point still stands that the prayer of Jabez would not be a prayer generated from greed, but from a need.
Here is a few excepts:

Keil & Delitzsch:
God granted him that which he requested. The reason of this is probably that the vow had acquired importance sufficient to make it worthy of being handed down only from God's having so fulfilled his wish, that his life became a contradiction of his name; the son of sorrow having been free from pain in life, and having attained to greater happiness and reputation than his brothers.

Gill
and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, because I bare him with sorrow; either with sorrow for her husband, being dead, or by reason of very sharp pains she endured at the birth of him; he was another Benoni.

JFB
His blessing could be the more reasonably asked and expected in preserving them from all the evils to which the undertaking might expose him. In these words, "that it may not grieve me," and which might be more literally rendered, "that I may have no more sorrow," there is an allusion to the meaning of his name, Jabez, signifying "grief"; and the import of this petition is, Let me not experience the grief which my name implies, and which my sins may well produce.


Although I cannot find the one book of commentary that showed Jabez as possibly being diabled or lame, after customary wording used in the language of that time towards people, this short sermon has some of that direction contained in it:
http://members.tripod.com/~Turbooster/jabez.htm


http://www.pbv.thunder-bay.on.ca/NetSermons/1Chr4ser.html

 

[WashedClean]

I was introduced to this book "Prayer of Jabez" by a fellow Christian from Charismatic denomination.

I am a little apprehensive about the contents of the book. Is it right to for Christians to pray for personal gains?

I think you are correct to be concerned about this book. I have never touched it or read it, but I do know the prayer that it's based on.

I agree with mlmum that God wants His people to prosper so we can do His will and bless others. Not too keep it all to ourselves.

I've often wondered if that book was about taking up your cross daily or dying to yourself, would it still be so popular?