Passion Is Required When We Pray to the Lord

Jabez is a person of substance, a man shaped in the crucible of what may have been a lonely and painful childhood because of the spiritual burden his mother placed on him when she gave him a name that meant pain, on account of the painful childbirth she had endured. She did not realize that by giving him this name, she was, as it were, chaining her son to a life of failure.

Thank God Jabez realized in time that there was an alternative and cried out to God. That is where I want to pick up the thread of our meditation today. Turning to chapter 4, verse 10, the second verse of this little passage tucked among these lists of unnamed descendants of Judah, it says: “Jabez called upon the God of Israel.”

It is interesting that the writer says Jabez “called upon the God of Israel.” It is interesting and revealing because the writer evidently wants to point out that Jabez is appealing not to just anyone, but to a God who is Almighty, a God who already has a relationship with His people, of whom Jabez is a member, a God who has the power, if He so chooses, to change Jabez’s situation and grant him what he wants.

That is to say, when we call upon the Lord, first of all we must call upon Him: that means crying out, calling to Him, addressing God in a specific way. And I also believe this implies a conception of a powerful God, a God who has a prior relationship with us, a God who is able to answer our prayers. This idea of the God of Israel is key: it means the God who attends to the needs of His children. That is why it is so important to emphasize this point: if we cry out to God, we are crying out to a God whom we believe has the power to change our situation. We must have faith and believe that this God is willing to do what needs to be done.

Another interesting thing: here, in the way Jabez addresses that Almighty God of Israel, he says, “Oh, that You would bless me.” I have always been captivated by that “oh” of Jabez. It is an intense exclamation, isn’t it? Jabez’s “oh” is powerful and also revealing of what is going on inside him.

And that leads me to think that passion is required, that intensity is required when we pray to the Lord. Until we reach that level of commitment and urgency concerning our dreams and our passions, it is very likely that we will receive nothing.

I always tell my congregation that we cannot settle for lukewarm, halfhearted, casual prayers. Rather, our prayer life must be passionate, intense, specific, focused. We must envision this God who wants to bless us; we must see Him almost in three dimensions. Our prayers must have texture, must be robust, and often God waits until our prayers and our pressing needs reach that boiling point, so to speak, before answering. And I often believe God waits until that moment to answer our prayers because it means we are ready, doesn’t it?

I have often spoken in the meditations I have shared with you—and this is very important in my own life—about the importance of passion, of intensity, because throughout Scripture we see that this is the kind of person God honors.

Think of the woman with the flow of blood who pushes her way into the crowd, violating Jewish law, and wrests power from Jesus by touching the hem of His cloak anonymously. Think of the Syrophoenician woman who, when the Lord refuses her request the first time, answers Him back and says, “Yes, but remember that even the little dogs can eat the crumbs that fall from the table.” Remember the friends of the paralytic who break through the roof, violating civil law, lower their patient through it, and present him to Jesus, as though putting him right in His face so that He will heal him—and the Lord honors their request.

In all these cases, we see that the Lord is pleased rather than annoyed by their insistence. He is pleased by the desperation, resolve, urgency, and boldness these people display. And so the Bible is full of these desperate figures: Hannah, the Shunammite woman, so many others, isn’t it? They wrest power from God through their sense of urgency, and we must cultivate that sense of focus and passion in our petitions, because I believe God honors that more than anything else.

I will leave it there, and then we will continue with this “oh” of Jabez, which is so revealing for our life of faith. God bless you, and we will talk again in our next meditation.