One of the things Jabez prayed was ‘enlarge my territory’. That can be confusing when we first read it. We’re used to being told not to desire material things or crave loads of possessions. Luke 12:15 says, ‘Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own’ (NLT), and Hebrews 13:5 says, ‘Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you”’ (NLT). And then here we find Jabez asking for more. Not only that, but we’re told that ‘God granted him what he requested’. So the meaning of Jabez’s prayer can’t be as straightforward as we think. He wasn’t simply asking for more land, or more money, or more possessions out of greed or of feeling entitled to them, otherwise God wouldn’t have granted the request. God knew that Jabez could, and would, use his possessions to grow God’s spiritual kingdom. In other words, Jabez was saying, ‘Please give me the tools I need to do even more for You’. Jabez must have had the potential to achieve amazing things for God, so God gave him what he needed to achieve that potential. So what can we learn from this? 1) We should be looking at the things we own, and thinking, ‘How can I use this for God’s glory? How can I use this to bring more people to Him?’ 2) God will give us exactly what we need to fulfil our potential and our role in His kingdom. We can trust Him to provide for us.

What Now?

Think about the gifts you got for your last birthday, or Christmas. Choose one of them, and see how you could use it to bless others and further God’s kingdom in some way.