Prayer

Pain and Prayer

"Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez [Painful], because she said that his birth was painful. Jabez prayed to the God of Israel, “Please bless me and give me more territory. May your power be with me and free me from evil so that I will not be in pain.” God gave him what he prayed for." 1 Chronicles 4:9-10

Before we can go to that famous "if my people will humble themselves" prayer in 2nd Chronicles, there is this lesser known prayer in 1st Chronicles prayed by an even lesser known man whose name means "pain", Jabez.

Nothing else was really written about this man other than that he was "more honorable than his brothers". We can say the same with these other men, who were also more honorable than their brothers -- Joseph, David, and In the New Testament, our Lord Jesus.

Indeed, they are all very prayerful men, men whose prayers were answered by our good, good Father in Heaven.

We are all brothers (and sisters) in Christ. We are all more or less honorable among our peers. So the only thing we really need to know is that God and history is on our side, and believe that when we pray, God hears them and He answers.

The world may have given us a name that we have to live with, our name may mean pain or something else not entirely positive, but when we accepted Christ, we got a new name, Christian  --  followers of Christ, and so when we pray, our Father in heaven listens.

Come boldly to the throne of grace -- pray that the power of the Holy Spirit is upon us, pray that He keeps us away from evil and let us lift all our prayer requests and hold up those of our prayer partners. Let us rejoice that God took away our sins and that He takes away our pain, our worries, our infirmities, our guilt, our shame, and He takes care of our everyday needs and the problems we face.