I happened to chance upon Christian book written by Rick Warren, God’s Answer to Life’s Difficult Question. One of the Chapters is “How to live above average.” Lessons to be learnt as follows:
Main Bible Passage: I Chronicles 4: 9 – 10: 9 Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” 10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.
What makes Jabez so special?…
- he has great ambition. Now, there are three things about having ambition that Christians need to remember: First, humility is different from fear of God. You might say “Oh, I can’t have ambition because I’m a humble person” but in this case, Jabez believe that only by God’s will that what he wants in life could be fulfilled. Second, Contentment is not the same as laziness. Just because you are contented in what you have, does not mean that you stop having goals in life (Phil 4:11 – 13). Third, small thinking is not the same as spirituality. Just because you choose to have simple live, does not mean that you are more spiritual than the rest.
- he has growing faith. Jabez is common man with uncommon faith. Look at the above main passage, we can notice two things about Jabez: First, No indication that he is smart / intelligent or having special abilities / skills. Second, he seems to be born under “handicap”. his mother named him pain, which suggests that he is unwanted and unloved.
- he prayed genuinely. If you notice at verse 10, Jabez pray was specific. He said: “Enlarge my territory.” Jer 33:3 said: 3 Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know. Do not be shy in asking God, what you want in life. Further, there are three elements in his pray: (i) Ask for God’s Power (You would bless me); (ii) Ask for God’s Presence (Let Your hand be with me) in his life; (iii) Ask for God’s Protection (Keep me from harm) over his life.
