Your prayers must be on the scale of God's heart

RESUMEN: Jabes, who was given a name associated with pain, prayed to God for a better life, asking for blessings and protection, and for his territory to expand. His prayer was specific and comprehensive, covering both positive and negative aspects. God was pleased with his bold and creative prayer, and granted him everything he asked for. We should also have ambitious prayers that challenge God and honor Him.

1 Chronicles 4: 9 and 10 includes two of the most interesting verses in the entire Bible. There we are told of the prayer made by a young man named Jabes, whose destiny in life seemed less than promising. "And Jabes was more illustrious than his brothers, whom his mother called Jabes, saying:" Because I gave birth to him in pain. " And Jabesh invoked the God of Israel, saying: 'Oh, if you would give me a blessing, and expand my territory, and if your hand were with me, and would deliver me from evil, so that it would not harm me!' asked ”.

Apparently, a painful childbirth when Jabes was born motivated his mother to foolishly give him that name associated with pain in Hebrew. A dark cloud hung over the life of this young man due to the name he had received. His destiny seemed to be heading towards what his tragic name augured. But something in the spirit of Jabes, a certain nobility of heart that distinguished him from his other brothers, perhaps born in a lonely and sad childhood, prompted him one day to cry out to God. He envisioned a different life. He saw himself blessed by God. He envisioned a beautiful vision of greatness, prosperity, and influence. He imagined himself accompanied by God throughout a life of abundance, protected from evil by the beneficent presence of his heavenly Father.

That splendid vision of personal greatness exploded within Jabez through an evocative exclamation: "Oh, if you would bless me, and expand my territory!" Jabes was expansive and specific at the same time. His prayer was simple but comprehensive. It covered the positive and the negative. He asked for blessing and protection, expanded territory and the ability to preserve it. God was pleased with the scale of Jabesh's prayer, and granted him everything he asked for. His life was dramatically transformed because he dared to dream far beyond his narrow present and ask God in a way that would honor him — boldly and creatively.

God loves prayers that challenge him and provide an opportunity for him to display his love, power, and splendor. How ambitious are your prayers? Check them out, and make sure they are on the scale of His generosity, and the great purposes He has for your life.