I believe that God has given every person the ability to talk to and hear from Him!  This is an amazing ability that He has blessed us with and we need to be extra careful not to take it for granted.  The best way to not take it for granted is to use it for His glory and everyone’s blessing!

We are learning the steps that we must take, if we are going to use this gift of powerful prayer to accomplish glory and blessing.  We are being “schooled” by “The Prayer Of Jabez!”.  A prayer which was made popular a few years ago by a book written by Dr. Bruce Wilkerson about the prayer which is found in I Chronicles 4:9-10.

This is what those two verses share: “9 Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” 10Jabez 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.”

The first step is the Step Of Integrity! If we are going to pray powerful prayers, then we must be people of honor, people who’s walk and talk match up to bring glory to our Creator and Sustainer!

The second step is the Step Of Godly Focus! When we pray we need to make sure that our prayers are talking to and listening for God and His will for our lives.  God has a plan and it is to bless us, so we need to make sure that we are paying attention to Him!

The third step is the Step Of Request! The scripture says that Jabez cried out to God and asked:  “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory!” He requested the very thing that God was longing to give Him!  God wants to bless you and God wants to give you room to grow and prosper.  The Bible is full of the promises of God and in so many of those promises, God is declaring His love and through that love the desire to do things for you, that you could never do for yourself.

“We have not, because we ask not!”  What is it that God is leading you to request from Him?  Could it be that you don’t have what you need because you have been trying to obtain it in your own strength and power?  Could it be that God is just waiting for you to ask, so that He might respond and bring glory to Himself while giving blessings to you?

Take some time today to listen to God! Look into His Word and discover His awesome and amazing promises and then go to Him with the request that He has laid on your heart and get ready for Him to do a work in and through your life!

You can pray powerful prayers!  I want you to get this truth:  God wants to respond to you and to your needs and this is one of the reasons that prayer conversation with God is so important!

Yesterday we discovered Step One in praying powerful prayers.  The first step is the Step Of Integrity!  If we are going to pray powerful prayers, then we must be people of honor, people who’s walk and talk match up to bring glory to our Creator and Sustainer!

We are taking our learning from 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 where we find “The Prayer Of Jabez!”  This little tucked away prayer was made popular a few years ago by Dr. Bruce Wilkerson in his book entitled by the same name.  The scripture says: “9 Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” 10Jabez 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.”

Today we are going to discover the second step!  The second step is The Step Of Godly Focus!  The Scripture says “Jabez cried out to the God of Israel.”  It is very important when we pray, that we know who we are talking to and listening for.  Our prayer needs to be to someone who can do something about the things that we are praying about!  God is that Someone that can do that something we are needing done in our lives!

Take some time today to talk to and listen for God!  Don’t just say you are.  Don’t pretend you are.  Don’t be satisfied with just going through the motions.  Actually take some time to talk with God, your Creator and Sustainer!  Make some time to listen for His still, small voice.  What is it that you need to say to God?  What is it that God is saying to you?  This is the kind of real conversation that allows God to be powerful in your life and that enables your life to be powerful in this world!  You can do this!  Take some time and have that conversation!  You’ll be glad you did!

Several years ago, Dr. Bruce Wilkerson helped a lot of people to discover a prayer that was tucked away in the Old Testament book of 1 Chronicles 4:9-10.  It has become widely known today as The Prayer Of Jabez!  All Scripture is powerful and meaningful for our lives.  This particular Scripture is very meaningful to us, because it gives us the words that we want to say, but are just never quite sure how to say them!

This is what those two verses say: “⁹ Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” ¹⁰Jabez 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.”

There is much to learn from these two verses of Scripture.  Let’s see if there is anything that we can learn that might help us to grow in our relationship with our Creator and Sustainer!

The first things we see is that Jabez was an honorable man.  In fact the Scripture says that he was more honorable than all of his brothers.  This means that he was a man of his word.  His words and actions complemented one another.  His walk and his talk matched and gave him a reputation of integrity!  If we want to pray powerful prayers we must seek to be honorable men and women, whose walk and talk match!  Take a moment and think about some of the steps that you need to take, so that your walk and talk can match in a way that will honor God and open your life to growth and blessing.

Tomorrow we will take a look at another step that we need to take, if we want to pray powerful prayers.  Until then, work on being a man or woman of honor, by making sure that your walk and talk match up for God’s glory!  Remember James 5:16 “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”