Most of us remember David Wilkinson's 2000 book on The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking through to the Blessed Life. In it, Wilkinson focused on the prayer of Jabez from 1 Chronicles -- "Bless me, and enlarge my territory" -- in a prosperity gospel direction. You pray the "prayer of Jabez" so that God might bring you success and good things in life -- the expansion of your "territory".
That's not how I read that prayer at all. First, here's the prayer from 1 Chronicles 4.9-10:
Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, "Because I bore him in pain."I focus less in that prosperity way and more on the intended result -- "that I may not cause pain".
And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying,
"Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!"
So God granted him what he requested.
Jabez means pain. And I'm honest enough with myself to know this could just as easily be me. Given my life's history, I could be a child named "pain".
And the child named pain grows up to pray a prayer about pain. A prayer that he might be protected from pain or that he might not be the cause of any more pain.
If I'm honest with myself and others, I've caused pain. Sometimes even on-going pain. So a prayer to not cause pain resonates with me more than one that seeks to enlarge my holdings.
It's a daily struggle in our world not to cause additional suffering. Pain is sad, soul-crushing, a great weight in some folk's lives. So it's a big deal when we pray not to come under or cause it.
My name could be Jabez. Our cultural name is Jabez.
So this prayer isn't about expanding territories. The prayer of Jabez is something different. Something full of sadness, loss, shame, regret, guilt and sorrow.
I pray, dear God, that I don't cause any pain. That's the prayer of Jabez.