Dear Friend in Christ,
More than any other time since I got saved in 1974 have I seen quoted in recent days the famous "Prayer of Jabez". This short but powerful prayer seems to be showing up everywhere. Just recently the Lord showed me why.
Jabez prayed to be blessed so that he could be used by God in a powerful way. Tell me, could being blessed be a necessity if a person wants to be a positive influence in the lives of other people? I believe it does and this is the message we learn from the prayer of Jabez.
Think about it. How can you focus and concentrate on being a blessing to another person if you are continually being distracted by struggling to meet the demands of every day life? The answer is you can't.
I am here to tell you that you will not be able to serve God properly and fulfill your destiny if you are not first blessed by the One Who called you in the first place.
The prayer of Jabez sets the pattern for us. First you get blessed by God and then He'll expand your territory by increasing your influence in the world in which you live. It's that simple.
The more He blesses you, the more He'll use you. The more He uses you, the more He'll bless you. Isn't that exciting?
Tell me, do you want to be used by God like never before here in the last days? The fields are white unto harvest but, sad to say, the laborers are few. It's true, many are called but few are chosen. This tells me that in the big scheme of things there aren't many Christians who are really, truly blessed by God.
I am happy to say that I have answered the call of God on my life. I am one of the "chosen few" and I am truly a blessed man. The fact that you are reading this letter is proof that God has expanded my territory.
How about you? If you are willing to die to yourself so that you can be used by God, then prepare yourself to be blessed in a special way! First comes the blessing, then comes the acts of service. That's the meaning of the prayer of Jabez. Wow! I'm excited just writing about it.
Below is a message I wrote called "The Good Life" and I pray it prepares you for an exciting and adventurous life, the life of a servant of God! Enjoy!
His servant. Your friend,
Randall J. Brewer
The good life is a life where you can daily experience God’s best in everything you do. It’s life with an exclamation point (!) after it and will cause ordinary people to live extraordinary lives. God has unclaimed blessings waiting for all of us if only we would allow our desire to reach out for that good life that will bring honor to Him for all time. How do we grab hold of the good life? Jesus said in Matt. 7:7, “Ask, and it will be given to you.” Following is an example of a man who did just that.
Hidden deep within the endless genealogies of the book of 1 Chronicles is a gem of a prayer that should be grasped and prayed aloud by each one of us. Known as “the prayer of Jabez” it goes as follows, “Oh, that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that you would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” (1 Chron. 4:10).
Jabez was an honorable man (vs. 9) who asked God to bless his life beyond measure. He wanted his life and everything about it to be successful and wonderful. His heart’s desire was to be productive, prosperous, and fulfilled in every way. He wanted his life to be extraordinary. In other words, he wanted to live the good life.
It should be a motivation and encouragement to all of us that God granted his request. Our God is a good God and He once described Himself as “the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth” (Ex.34:6).
This is so amazing! The very nature of God is to have extraordinary goodness in so much abundance that it overflows into our ordinary lives. God’s nature is to bless and if He would do this for Jabez we can have the confidence that He is more than willing to do the same for us.
Paul wrote in Eph. 2:7,8 (MSG), “now God has us right where He wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all His idea, and all His work. All we do is trust Him enough to let Him do it.”
He then goes on to say in vs. 10, “for we are God’s own handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, born anew that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us, taking paths which He prepared ahead of time, that we should walk in them, living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live” (AMP).
God wants you blessed and He wants you to be happy all the days of your life. Paul told Timothy, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, Who gives us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17). The Message Bible says, “Tell them to go after God, Who piles on all the riches we could ever manage…”
God wants to bless you so much that He sent His only Son to live and die so all the world could live the good life and reap the benefits of His ultimate sacrifice. Rom. 8:31,32 tells us, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He Who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
Our precious Savior, Who loves us so much that He bled and died for our salvation, has made available to those who believe a life of joy, happiness, and victory. It’s a life where all our needs are met (Phil. 4:19) and all our desires are fulfilled with glorious splendor (Ps. 37:4). God has so many wonderful blessings in store for us that if we for only a moment could comprehend it all we’d be overwhelmed with His goodness. Indeed, He is a good God and He wants us to live the good life!
David wrote in Ps. 23:1 (NIV), “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” A few verses later we read, “Surely Your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life” (vs.6a). David knew that if he would continue to “dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (vs. 6b) then he would live the good life.
Sad to say, many people never really manage to enjoy their lives and obtain from God all that He has made available to them. They spend day after day, year after year, just going through the motions hoping things will get better. They don’t realize that the good life won’t come to them by chance but instead must be vigorously pursued with everything they’ve got.
Before people can experience the good life they must first “be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height - to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the goodness of God” (Eph. 3:18,19). In the Message Bible Paul desires that “you’ll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test it’s length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.” That’s the good life.
In the above verse the word “comprehend” means ‘to seize, to grasp, to take hold of, to completely understand.’ Living the good life is all based on your ability to comprehend it and it is determined by an unquenching thirst and hunger for God. People need to open their Bibles and obey the Word and pursue with aggressive determination and relentless boldness the abundant life that rightfully belongs to them.
God has promised to give those who believe everything they need to live a joy-filled life where they can become the happy, healthy, victorious champions that God by His eternal grace and favor has already made them to be. In order to escape from the shackles of mediocrity people need to stretch their faith and go beyond where they’re at now.
God said in Deut. 1:6, “You have dwelt long enough at this mountain.” There is more God wants us to have but we first have to get off the mountain we are on. God is ready to take us to the next level but first we must get new dreams and set new goals.
Christians who desire to live extraordinary lives should refrain from setting ordinary goals such as is common in the ordinary world. When people of the world think of the good life they usually think of material prosperity, of pleasure and popularity. For some it’s a comfortable home that’s paid for and having sufficient money for a winter vacation in the sun plus a summer home on some deserted beach. The world is after fame and fortune, the latest fashion of designer clothes, fast cars and big houses, diamond rings and a membership at a high class country club and golf course.
Popular culture today is centered on ones own selfish ambitions and success. People of the world believe that he who dies with the most toys wins. The cravings of this world is ever consuming for there is always the next hottest fashion to get or the latest electronic gadget that you must add to your collection. After all, one must keep up with the Jones’, right?
Sad to say, the goals the world sets are goals which many never achieve. Achievement does not insure happiness and those who fail to achieve their goals are made even more miserable by their failure. Even a casual observer would agree that most wealthy, high-living and famous people are not happy and thus are not living the good life. What good if fame and fortune if you’re not happy? Yet these same people continue to seek after these worldly things without realizing that they are on a road that will lead to their eternal doom.
The desire to live the good life is not new. It’s been the dream of every generation since the dawn of time. It’s been the goal of teachers and philosophers, of kings and common man. Living the good life is a good desire, a Godly desire, but we must take the first step and learn not to make material possessions, pleasures, and fame our goals in life.
Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived (next to Jesus, of course) once wrote, “He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase, this also is vanity” (Eccl. 5:10).
For sure, the pursuit of the good life must originate in the spiritual realm of the heavenly domain regardless of the physical circumstances in which one might find themselves. Jesus taught in Luke 12:15 that there is more to life than material possessions, “And He said to them, ‘Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.’”
The Message Bible says, “Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.” Jesus warns of the folly of seeking after earthly riches (Matt. 6:19) but instead encourages us to “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal” (vs. 20).
The great blessing about living the good life is that once we learn not to make material possessions, worldly pleasures, and self-centered fame our primary goal in life, but to instead make following Jesus and His teachings our main objective, He then steps in and blesses us with an unexpected and abundant portion of these very things. Matt. 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Prov. 10:22 says, “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.” What the world cannot give, Jesus can. He offers a peace which things of the world cannot give and a joy that is complete and full (John 15:11; 1 Peter 1:8). The bottom line is that God wants to be first in your life. Paul writes in Col. 3:2, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”
The Message Bible puts it this way, “Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ - that’s where the action is. See things from His perspective.” Without a doubt, Jesus is the ultimate and only path to the good life.
We read in 1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Without Jesus, the world is a very sinful and wicked place. It can be described as a community of sinful humanity that possesses a spirit of rebellion against God. 1 John 5:19 says, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”
Because of it’s opposition to God, the world values those things that are contrary to God’s will. 1 John 2:16 says, “For all that is in the world- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life - is not of the Father but is of the world.” The attraction of the world and it’s sensual pleasures is amplified by Satan who is head of the world system. He is called the “ruler of this world” (John 12:31) and the whole world is said to be under his power.
The solution to the love of the world is to have a greater love for God. The Christian who seeks daily to please God in everything and who strives for spiritual growth need not fall prey to the seducing temptations of the world. The Message translation of 1 John 2:15-17 says, “Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. It just isolates you from Him. The world and all it’s wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out - but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.” That’s the good life.
More than any other time since I got saved in 1974 have I seen quoted in recent days the famous "Prayer of Jabez". This short but powerful prayer seems to be showing up everywhere. Just recently the Lord showed me why.
Jabez prayed to be blessed so that he could be used by God in a powerful way. Tell me, could being blessed be a necessity if a person wants to be a positive influence in the lives of other people? I believe it does and this is the message we learn from the prayer of Jabez.
Think about it. How can you focus and concentrate on being a blessing to another person if you are continually being distracted by struggling to meet the demands of every day life? The answer is you can't.
I am here to tell you that you will not be able to serve God properly and fulfill your destiny if you are not first blessed by the One Who called you in the first place.
The prayer of Jabez sets the pattern for us. First you get blessed by God and then He'll expand your territory by increasing your influence in the world in which you live. It's that simple.
The more He blesses you, the more He'll use you. The more He uses you, the more He'll bless you. Isn't that exciting?
Tell me, do you want to be used by God like never before here in the last days? The fields are white unto harvest but, sad to say, the laborers are few. It's true, many are called but few are chosen. This tells me that in the big scheme of things there aren't many Christians who are really, truly blessed by God.
I am happy to say that I have answered the call of God on my life. I am one of the "chosen few" and I am truly a blessed man. The fact that you are reading this letter is proof that God has expanded my territory.
How about you? If you are willing to die to yourself so that you can be used by God, then prepare yourself to be blessed in a special way! First comes the blessing, then comes the acts of service. That's the meaning of the prayer of Jabez. Wow! I'm excited just writing about it.
Below is a message I wrote called "The Good Life" and I pray it prepares you for an exciting and adventurous life, the life of a servant of God! Enjoy!
His servant. Your friend,
Randall J. Brewer
THE
“GOOD LIFE”
EXPERIENCING A QUALITY OF LIFE
THAT IS EXCEEDINGLY, ABUNDANTLY
ABOVE WHAT YOU CAN ASK OR THINK
BY
RANDALL J. BREWER
The good life is a life where you can daily experience God’s best in everything you do. It’s life with an exclamation point (!) after it and will cause ordinary people to live extraordinary lives. God has unclaimed blessings waiting for all of us if only we would allow our desire to reach out for that good life that will bring honor to Him for all time. How do we grab hold of the good life? Jesus said in Matt. 7:7, “Ask, and it will be given to you.” Following is an example of a man who did just that.
Hidden deep within the endless genealogies of the book of 1 Chronicles is a gem of a prayer that should be grasped and prayed aloud by each one of us. Known as “the prayer of Jabez” it goes as follows, “Oh, that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that you would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” (1 Chron. 4:10).
Jabez was an honorable man (vs. 9) who asked God to bless his life beyond measure. He wanted his life and everything about it to be successful and wonderful. His heart’s desire was to be productive, prosperous, and fulfilled in every way. He wanted his life to be extraordinary. In other words, he wanted to live the good life.
It should be a motivation and encouragement to all of us that God granted his request. Our God is a good God and He once described Himself as “the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth” (Ex.34:6).
This is so amazing! The very nature of God is to have extraordinary goodness in so much abundance that it overflows into our ordinary lives. God’s nature is to bless and if He would do this for Jabez we can have the confidence that He is more than willing to do the same for us.
Paul wrote in Eph. 2:7,8 (MSG), “now God has us right where He wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all His idea, and all His work. All we do is trust Him enough to let Him do it.”
He then goes on to say in vs. 10, “for we are God’s own handiwork (His workmanship), recreated in Christ Jesus, born anew that we may do those good works which God predestined (planned beforehand) for us, taking paths which He prepared ahead of time, that we should walk in them, living the good life which He prearranged and made ready for us to live” (AMP).
God wants you blessed and He wants you to be happy all the days of your life. Paul told Timothy, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, Who gives us richly all things to enjoy” (1 Tim. 6:17). The Message Bible says, “Tell them to go after God, Who piles on all the riches we could ever manage…”
God wants to bless you so much that He sent His only Son to live and die so all the world could live the good life and reap the benefits of His ultimate sacrifice. Rom. 8:31,32 tells us, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He Who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”
Our precious Savior, Who loves us so much that He bled and died for our salvation, has made available to those who believe a life of joy, happiness, and victory. It’s a life where all our needs are met (Phil. 4:19) and all our desires are fulfilled with glorious splendor (Ps. 37:4). God has so many wonderful blessings in store for us that if we for only a moment could comprehend it all we’d be overwhelmed with His goodness. Indeed, He is a good God and He wants us to live the good life!
David wrote in Ps. 23:1 (NIV), “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.” A few verses later we read, “Surely Your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life” (vs.6a). David knew that if he would continue to “dwell in the house of the Lord forever” (vs. 6b) then he would live the good life.
Sad to say, many people never really manage to enjoy their lives and obtain from God all that He has made available to them. They spend day after day, year after year, just going through the motions hoping things will get better. They don’t realize that the good life won’t come to them by chance but instead must be vigorously pursued with everything they’ve got.
Before people can experience the good life they must first “be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height - to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the goodness of God” (Eph. 3:18,19). In the Message Bible Paul desires that “you’ll be able to take in with all Christians the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test it’s length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God.” That’s the good life.
In the above verse the word “comprehend” means ‘to seize, to grasp, to take hold of, to completely understand.’ Living the good life is all based on your ability to comprehend it and it is determined by an unquenching thirst and hunger for God. People need to open their Bibles and obey the Word and pursue with aggressive determination and relentless boldness the abundant life that rightfully belongs to them.
God has promised to give those who believe everything they need to live a joy-filled life where they can become the happy, healthy, victorious champions that God by His eternal grace and favor has already made them to be. In order to escape from the shackles of mediocrity people need to stretch their faith and go beyond where they’re at now.
God said in Deut. 1:6, “You have dwelt long enough at this mountain.” There is more God wants us to have but we first have to get off the mountain we are on. God is ready to take us to the next level but first we must get new dreams and set new goals.
Christians who desire to live extraordinary lives should refrain from setting ordinary goals such as is common in the ordinary world. When people of the world think of the good life they usually think of material prosperity, of pleasure and popularity. For some it’s a comfortable home that’s paid for and having sufficient money for a winter vacation in the sun plus a summer home on some deserted beach. The world is after fame and fortune, the latest fashion of designer clothes, fast cars and big houses, diamond rings and a membership at a high class country club and golf course.
Popular culture today is centered on ones own selfish ambitions and success. People of the world believe that he who dies with the most toys wins. The cravings of this world is ever consuming for there is always the next hottest fashion to get or the latest electronic gadget that you must add to your collection. After all, one must keep up with the Jones’, right?
Sad to say, the goals the world sets are goals which many never achieve. Achievement does not insure happiness and those who fail to achieve their goals are made even more miserable by their failure. Even a casual observer would agree that most wealthy, high-living and famous people are not happy and thus are not living the good life. What good if fame and fortune if you’re not happy? Yet these same people continue to seek after these worldly things without realizing that they are on a road that will lead to their eternal doom.
The desire to live the good life is not new. It’s been the dream of every generation since the dawn of time. It’s been the goal of teachers and philosophers, of kings and common man. Living the good life is a good desire, a Godly desire, but we must take the first step and learn not to make material possessions, pleasures, and fame our goals in life.
Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived (next to Jesus, of course) once wrote, “He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase, this also is vanity” (Eccl. 5:10).
For sure, the pursuit of the good life must originate in the spiritual realm of the heavenly domain regardless of the physical circumstances in which one might find themselves. Jesus taught in Luke 12:15 that there is more to life than material possessions, “And He said to them, ‘Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses.’”
The Message Bible says, “Life is not defined by what you have, even when you have a lot.” Jesus warns of the folly of seeking after earthly riches (Matt. 6:19) but instead encourages us to “lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal” (vs. 20).
The great blessing about living the good life is that once we learn not to make material possessions, worldly pleasures, and self-centered fame our primary goal in life, but to instead make following Jesus and His teachings our main objective, He then steps in and blesses us with an unexpected and abundant portion of these very things. Matt. 6:33 says, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”
Prov. 10:22 says, “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.” What the world cannot give, Jesus can. He offers a peace which things of the world cannot give and a joy that is complete and full (John 15:11; 1 Peter 1:8). The bottom line is that God wants to be first in your life. Paul writes in Col. 3:2, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”
The Message Bible puts it this way, “Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ - that’s where the action is. See things from His perspective.” Without a doubt, Jesus is the ultimate and only path to the good life.
We read in 1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Without Jesus, the world is a very sinful and wicked place. It can be described as a community of sinful humanity that possesses a spirit of rebellion against God. 1 John 5:19 says, “We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”
Because of it’s opposition to God, the world values those things that are contrary to God’s will. 1 John 2:16 says, “For all that is in the world- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life - is not of the Father but is of the world.” The attraction of the world and it’s sensual pleasures is amplified by Satan who is head of the world system. He is called the “ruler of this world” (John 12:31) and the whole world is said to be under his power.
The solution to the love of the world is to have a greater love for God. The Christian who seeks daily to please God in everything and who strives for spiritual growth need not fall prey to the seducing temptations of the world. The Message translation of 1 John 2:15-17 says, “Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. It just isolates you from Him. The world and all it’s wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out - but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.” That’s the good life.
We hope this post was useful for you, please visit MERCY HEALS regularly for more interesting posts. You may also subscribe to our latest posts via email. Click for Email Subscription to receive updates in your email Inbox as soon as they are posted online.
Like & Share!
Daily Prayers
Search this blog for more interesting posts.
Comments
Post a Comment