Recently I was visiting a friend and when he went to the fridge to get some milk for my tea I noticed he had a fridge magnet with the Prayer of Jabez written on it. It goes something like this:

“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.”

1 Chronicles. 4:10

I know it is biblical. But just because it is biblical doesn’t mean it is good.

 

On his good days David prayed beautiful prayers. Like the 139th Psalm:

“Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

See if there is any offensive way in me,                                                         

and lead me in the way everlasting.”

Psalm 139:23-24

But on his bad days David prayed awful prayers. Like the 109th Psalm:

‘‘May his days be few;

may another take his place of leadership.

May his children be fatherless

and his wife a widow.

May his children be wandering beggars;

may they be driven from their ruined homes.

May a creditor seize all he has;

may strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.

May no one extend kindness to him

or take pity on his fatherless children.

May his descendants be cut off,

their names blotted out from the next generation.

May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered;

may the sin of his mother never be blotted out.

May their sins always remain before the LORD,              

that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.’’

Psalm 109:8-14

Considering Christ taught us to ‘bless those who curse us’, that’s a prayer no Christ-honouring Christian would want to teach their children, is it?

But, you may say, the Prayer of Jabez is different. The scripture says that God answered his prayer. He wouldn’t answer a prayer if it was no good – would he?

Unfortunately the scripture says that if we refuse to take NO for answer, God may say YES to our prayer, even if he knows its going to be bad news for everybody!

‘In the wasteland (God’s people) put God to the test. So he gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease upon them.’ Psalm 106:14-15

Because a prayer in the bible is an answered prayer doesn’t make it good.

 

Lets compare and contrast the Prayer of Jabez with the Prayer of Jesus.

The Prayer of Jabez goes –

“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.”

The Prayer of Jesus goes –

” Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.”

When we compare the prayers we can see that they both deal with evil.

But when we look at the way they deal with evil, the contrasts are clear.

The Prayer Of Jabez is about ‘me’ and ‘mine’.

The Prayer Of Jesus is  about ‘us’ and ‘ours’.

The Prayer Of Jabez is to enlarge ‘his territory’.

The Prayer Of Jesus is to advance ‘God’s kingdom’.

 The Prayer Of Jabez is to avoid pain himself.

The Prayer Of Jesus is to relieve the pain of others –

bringing food to the hungry

and cancelling the debts of the poor.

 

When Jesus taught the disciples to pray he didn’t teach them the Prayer of Jabez . Instead, he said to them, ‘this is how you ought to pray’ and taught them to say:

” Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,                                                      

but deliver us from evil.”

Matthew 6:9-13

If we are going to learn to pray, act and interact like Jesus lets consider the Prayer Of Jesus.

The first aspect of this we need to consider is its term of address.

Jesus does not talk to God as ‘Yahweh’, or ‘Adonai’; but as ‘Abba’ – or ‘Papa’. As I have said, some of us may have been badly abused by an earthly ‘Papa’ and may find it  easier to relate to God as our heavenly ‘Mama’ rather than our heavenly ‘Papa’. But whatever our term of endearment for God might be, Jesus invites us all to try to relate

to God as a committed, caring, kindly, protective, nurturing, loving parent. And if we all relate to God as our same parent, that makes us all siblings. With the intrinsic responsibilities that brothers and sisters have for one another.

The second aspect of this we need to consider is its first request.

The first request Jesus makes is – ‘hallowed be your name.’

‘Hallow’ means ‘to make holy’. It implies that right now God’s name is ‘not holy’, and we as God’s people – are invited to ‘make God’s name holy’.

Jesus seems to suggests that God’s reputation will be only restored when God’s will is ‘done on earth as it is in heaven’.  The only way that we can guarantee that God’s will is ‘done on earth as it in heaven’ is if we do God’s will ‘on earth as it in heaven’ ourselves!

Jesus says to us, ‘Let your light shine before people, that they may see your good deeds and have a reason to praise your Father in heaven’. (Matt 5:16)

The third aspect of this we need to consider is its second request.

The second request Jesus makes is ‘give us this day our daily bread.’

The greatest disgrace in God’s world is ongoing global hunger.

John says ‘This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If any of us has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in us? Dear children, let us not love with words or in speech, but with deeds and in truth.’  (1 John 3:16-17)

The fourth aspect of this we need to consider is its third request.

The third request Jesus makes is ‘forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors.’ Note that word Jesus uses here is not ‘sin’ – but, literally, ‘debt’.

The liberation from cycles of poverty is not possible without forgiveness. We have no right to expect forgiveness, if we do not extend forgiveness.

Jesus says ‘For if you forgive people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive people their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins’. (Matthew 6:14-15).

The word Jesus uses here is not ‘debt’, but ‘sin’. He seems to be saying that in order to show God’s love in the world, we should start forgiving cash ‘debts’, and move on to forgiving all kinds of ‘debts’ – ’sins’. So we can be liberated from cycles of violence as well as cycles of poverty.

Jesus says ‘You have heard that it was said, `Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.  He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on   the righteous and the unrighteous. Be perfect as your heavenly Father    is perfect!’ (Matthew 5:43-48)

The fifth aspect of this we need to consider is its unusual final petition.

The final phrase in this prayer is not an upbeat paean of praise crying aloud: ‘for yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory.’ It is not in the original text at all.

The final phrase in Jesus’ prayer is actually a humble downbeat petition for help   ‘lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.’

Jesus never called us to worship him. He called us to follow him. And he was aware of how difficult it would be for us to follow in his footsteps.

Jesus knew from personal experience how easy it was to succumb to the temptation to give up doing good, and to decide to go along with evil just to get along.

His challenge: ‘not to be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good.’                                                                         (Romans. 12: 21)

Jesus says to us, ‘Let your light shine before people, that they may see your good deeds and have a reason to praise your Father in heaven’.  (Matthew 5:16)