Text: 1 Chronicles 4:9-10

Jabez was honored more than his brothers; and his mother named him Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm!” And God granted what he asked.

"I want to teach you how to pray a daring prayer that God always answers. It is brief--only one sentence with four parts--and tucked away in the Bible, but I believe it contains the key to a life of extraordinary favor with God." So begins the introduction to Bruce Wilkinson's phenomenal little book, The Prayer of Jabez. I say the book is "phenomenal" because of it's publishing success. In just over two years, this little book has sold something like 8 million copies! That's an amazing record for any book, much less a Christian book about an obscure reference in 1 Chronicles.

Since I am preaching this series of sermons on prayer, how could I avoid dealing with a book on prayer bought by so many people? And I must tell you that I have very mixed feelings about the Prayer of Jabez. Like any book, there is much good about it. But there are also some things about it that I think are clearly wrong.

The author, Bruce Wilkinson, is the president and founder of Walk Thru the Bible Ministries based in Atlanta. He is a well-known speaker at many evangelical and ecumenical events. Wilkinson founded Walk Thru the Bible Ministries while he was a student at Dallas Seminary in 1976. They now have a teaching faculty today of 120 in North America and 2,000 lay instructors worldwide. He is a very successful minister by any standards.

Someone may rightly ask, "Who am I to critique a book by such a successful minister?" I must admit that I am humbled by the comparison of the success of his book to the success of mine. My book has sold 150 copies; his has sold 8 million. Can 8 million Christians be wrong? Well, I have to say, "Yes, they can."

First of all, I believe the success of this book is merely a Christian fad. I am always a bit leery of Christian fads; and I am often disappointed at the frequency with which Christians have fads. We are not so different from the rest of the population when it comes to being star struck and susceptible to whatever is currently called the "latest and greatest."

But I must say what is right about The Prayer of Jabez. And I must make clear that my criticisms are not regarding the prayer that Jabez prayed, but rather the interpretations in the book by Bruce Wilkinson. It's not a bad book, really. When I studied his examples carefully, I found that he was primarily encouraging people to have a larger ministry for the cause of Christ – more opportunities to witness and more opportunities for service. There is certainly nothing wrong with that. In fact, one might point to other and better Scriptures besides 1 Chronicles to support such an argument. I immediately think of Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Or the words of Jesus in John that his followers would do even greater deeds than he did. The missionary evangelist William Carey admonished, "Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God." I have no problems with being ambitious in the cause of Christ.

My problems are focused on a few statements made in the book and, I guess, the tone. These references tend to make this book smack of the self-help, success and wealth books made popular by the likes of Tony Robbins. The book walks a fine line of almost echoing the "name it; claim it," "God wants you to be rich" theology of Reverend Ike in the sixties. I believe this book promotes a bold selfishness that is contrary to the spirit of Jesus. And there is never a note in the book which would caution one against such selfishness.

The tone from the book reminds me of a story told by Dr. Robin R. Meyers, pastor of Mayflower Congregational Church in Oklahoma City. Once he was invited to a prayer meeting at a country club. He describes it this way, "I assumed that it was going to be some sort of religious event – since after all, it was dubbed a 'prayer meeting.' When I got there I realized that you can call anything a 'prayer meeting' these days. First, these very tall women modeled some very expensive dresses while the rest of us ate cooked grapefruit. Everyone told everyone else how wonderful they looked, and the ladies exchanged a lot of those 'air kisses.'

"I was beginning to wonder what this had to do with prayer. But after the fashion show was over, one by one, these ladies went to the microphone and talked about how God had answered their prayers. One said that she and her husband were just in this financial rut ('plateaued' she called it) – stuck at about $120,000 a year. They were discussing it one morning on their deck over coffee, and she said, 'We realized that if we didn’t' get God involved in this problem, it wasn't going to be solved. So we just got down on our knees, right there in the backyard, and we took it to Jesus! And guess what? My husband is now the district sales manager of his company, we make $200,000 a year, and we've bought a new house and have a whole new set of friends. Praise the Lord.'" (Unpublished sermon, October 19, 1997, www.mayflowerucc.org)

Now listen to a similar paragraph from Wilkinson's book:

"If Jabez had worked on Wall Street, he might have prayed, 'Lord , increase the value of my investment portfolios.' When I talk to presidents of companies, I often talk to them about this particular mind-set. When Christian executives ask me, 'Is it right for me to ask God for more business?' my response is, 'Absolutely!' If you're doing your business God's way, it's not only right to ask for more, but He is waiting for you to ask. Your business is the territory God has entrusted to you.” (p. 31)

The book talks about the "blessings" that God has stockpiled for each of us. I think there are too many American Christians who interpret "blessings" as an increase in their investment portfolios or increasing their income from $120,000 a year to $200,000 a year. In one illustration, Wilkinson tells of visiting an imaginary warehouse in heaven which contains all the "blessings" that God would have given us if only we had asked. What kind of blessings are these that would be in a warehouse? Most people would think that warehouse is full of material things, not spiritual blessings.

He suggests that God is like a parent who has a stockpile of gifts but is waiting for the child to ask for them. I question this picture of God, but even more I question this picture of parenting. I don't know of any parents who like to hear their children begging for things. I see children in Wal-Mart screaming at the top of their lungs that they really need a new toy. Most parents are not happy about that. It's one thing to give your 16 year old a car, if you can. It's quite another when they pester a parent for one and insist that it be a new sports model. Most parents say, "You should be thankful that you can drive the old hoopty."

I am not sure that the prayer of Jabez is the model for prayer that we should adopt. Jabez' prayer says, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm!”

Some of this prayer is good. Some of it is even reflected in the Lord's Prayer; both Jabez and Jesus pray for deliverance from evil. And everyone should pray that the hand of the Lord might be with them. That's good. And there is nothing wrong with asking God to bless you, although the only other Biblical example of someone asking for a personal blessing is found in the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel of the Lord. As daylight came, Jacob declared that he would not let go unless he was blessed.

We will sing a wonderful blessing song at the end of our service:

May the Lord, Mighty God, bless and keep you forever

Grant you peace, perfect peace, courage in every endeavor.

Lift your eyes and see His face and His grace forever,

May the Lord, Mighty God, bless and keep you forever. Amen.

But when Bruce Wilkinson talks about blessings, he cannot keep from making even that prayer selfish. He says in his mind's eye he sees Jabez raising his hands to heaven and crying out, "Father, oh, Father! Please bless me! And what I really mean is… bless me a lot!" I find myself disturbed by the greed evident in such an interpretation.

And I do have a bit of concern about that part of Jabez' prayer that says, "enlarge my border." Other translations say, "Expand my territory." In a agricultural society like that of Old Testament times, more land meant what more money means to us. Jabez was praying for a larger farm. But we don't know just how large Jabez' farm was to begin with. He may not have had enough land to provide the necessities for his family. He may not have been praying for luxuries, but we don't know.

Contrast such a prayer with the Lord's Prayer, where Jesus instructs his disciples to pray, "Give us this day our daily bread." Jesus taught us to pray "us" and "our;" Jabez prayer is filled with "me" and "my." Jabez prays for "my territory" to enlarge; the Lord's Prayer prays for God's territory to enlarge.

And just a few verses later, Jesus says, "Therefore do not worry, saying 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well" (Matthew 6:31-33).

When God provided manna in the wilderness, he provided only enough for each day. If someone tried to hoard a week's supply, it spoiled. God obviously wants us to depend on God for our daily bread.

While Jesus says to ask for only basic necessities like daily bread, Wilkinson says, "Think of it this way: Instead of standing near the river's edge, asking for a cup of water to get you through each day, you'll do something unthinkable - you will take the little prayer with the giant prize and jump into the river!" (p. 17).

Such an encouragement to selfishness was surprising to me. Wilkinson often mentions the Scriptures which say to ask God for anything. Matthew 7:7 says, "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you." John 14:13 says, "I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it."

Wilkinson likes to quote James 4:2, "You do not have, because you do not ask." But he never attempts to balance our tendency to selfishness with the very next verse, "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, in order to spend what you get on your pleasures." He never indicates that there is such a thing as asking wrongly or that it is wrong to ask for our pleasures.

Wilkinson never points to Paul who was in prison when he said, "Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have." When we think of the millions of poor and starving Christians in third world countries, we cannot help but realize that everybody in America is rich. We should thank God instead of pestering God for more and more.

Wilkinson often quotes the heroes of the faith as mentioned in Hebrews 11. However, he never mentions the concluding verses of this great faith chapter which lists these results of faith as well:

"Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented – of whom the world was not worthy." (Hebrews 11:36-38)

I am not the first to charge the book with selfishness. On the Prayer of Jabez website, he responds to this charge by saying, "I cannot be selfish unless I hurt you." I found that to be an odd definition of selfishness.

At one point Wilkinson offers this disclaimer, "This kind of radical trust in God's good intentions toward us has nothing in common with the popular gospel that you should ask God for a Cadillac, a six-figure income, or some other material sign that you have found a way to cash in on your connection with (God)." But that is exactly the kind of message I got from the book. It reminds me of the person who says, "I don't mean to criticize, but you look terrible in that dress." "I would never be one to gossip but did you hear…?" In the same way Wilkinson says, "This is not a health and wealth gospel, but you should pray for God to increase your investment portfolio and pray for God to bless you… and be sure to demand that God bless you a lot!"

I think it is a mistake to portray a one-sided view of a health and wealth gospel. There are certainly people that God has blessed with great wealth. And they should thank God. There are plenty of examples of wealthy and godly people in the Bible (although there were probably more who were poor). But to imply that every Christian can have wealth and health for the asking is clearly contrary to the facts. Some of the most profoundly spiritual people in history have been poor or have consciously forsaken the riches of this world, including Jesus, Saint Francis of Assisi, Mother Teresa and countless missionaries,. Jesus said, "Take up your cross and follow me." The cross is not an instrument one normally associates with health or wealth.

No, I would recommend that we find a better model of prayer. We should listen to Jesus, not Bruce, and prayer the Lord's Prayer, not the prayer of Jabez. In fact, not one other person ever prayed the prayer of Jabez in all 66 books of the Bible. Not once does the Bible ever suggest that we should pray a prayer like his.

Rather we should pray in a sprit of humility like the man whom Jesus commended when he said, "But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Luke 18:13-14)

In one of Robert Fulghum's books, he tells about a man he met in 1965. He had seen the man many times before on the stone bench across from the children's fountain on the town green. From one to two every day them man sat on the stone bench, looking like he was asleep. But Fulghum noticed that his lips were moving. So one day, Fulghum asked him if he was alright. The man replied that he was praying. Then he explained that he wasn't saying an ordinary prayer, he was praying the alphabet. He was just reciting the alphabet over and over for an hour each day, leaving it to Almighty God to arrange the letters into the proper words of a proper prayer. What he was missing in words, he made up for in fervor. He said he figured God could handle it and would understand.

I think this strange alphabet prayer shows much more faith than the prayer of Jabez. And I think God is more likely to honor such a prayer filled with humility and trust rather than a prayer filled with selfishness and personal ambition.

Let's learn from Jesus not Jabez. Let's pray for daily bread. Let's pray "our" instead of "my." Let's pray in humility instead of selfishness. Let's pray a prayer like the Lord's Prayer instead of a prayer like the prayer of Jabez.