Good News #88: God Loves to Answer My Prayers to Bless Me and Enlarge My Territory!

What makes the Holy Spirit suddenly stop in His tracks and happily interrupt His order of things…is interesting.

We know the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God who is The Divine Author of the bible, inspiring human secretaries to pen His words down.

2 Timothy 3:16 says…
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God…

The Holy Spirit is systematic, orderly, perfect and definitely does not make mistakes.

In the book of Chronicles, He spends the first nine chapters recording genealogies and family trees.

Yet in chapter four, something interesting happened.

We find a sudden pause from the flow of genealogies…as the Holy Spirit records the prayer of one man — Jabez, whose name means pain, affliction, grief or sorrow.

What was it about Jabez’ prayer that made the Holy Spirit include it in Scripture?

Was his prayer exemplary in listing God’s glorious titles?
Was it for world peace? …for Israel? …for the people around him?

None of the above.

Jabez prayed for his own self that God would bless him… would enlarge his territory… that the Lord’s hand would be with him and protect him…
so that he would not be a pain.

Religion would tell us this prayer is not in line with the will of God…
Yet quite interestingly, God granted Jabez what he requested.

Wow!

Think about it.
Jabez was a man under the covenant of the law… where all transactions were by the blood of animals.

If God did it for Jabez, how much more would God do for those who believe in Jesus and are now under a superior covenant cut by the eternal blood of no other than the Son of God Himself?

Much more!

The Holy Spirit is drawn to the boldness of one who sees the grace and generosity of God despite one’s unworthiness. This kind of boldness is a happy break for Him…and as the Holy Spirit is, so is God for They are One.

The gospel is this — we can come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. [Hebrews 4:16]

Whatta wonderful work Jesus did…tearing the veil that separated us from God.
We can pray more boldly than Jabez.
✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨

And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested.

1 Chronicles 4:10