Jabez was more honourable

Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, a saying,"Because I bore him in pain." 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 4v9-10

I have to admit that whenever I get to 1 Chronicles in my Bible reading I am less than excited. I understand that it is the word of God, and that every word is important, but I have a hard time getting thrilled about reading nine chapters and begats.

But, there are still things to learn. Here, out of nowhere seemingly, we read about a man named Jabez.

A few years ago Jabez was all the rage. Someone came across him and his prayer. A book was written that suggested that anyone who prayed Jabez’s prayer for thirty days would see amazing results. The Prayer of Jabez became the Prayer of Jabez for Teen and the Prayer of Jabez for Mothers and the Prayer of Jabez for Teachers, and so on and so on. There were Prayer of Jabez journals and Prayer of Jabez study guides. It was quite a phenomenon.

I don’t like Christian fads and phenomenon. I think they are a distraction at best and destructive at worst. But I don’t think that should allow us to learn something for Jabez.

I am not going to focus on his beautiful prayer. That has been rehearsed and rehashed enough. It is a lovely prayer and one that we might consider adapting into our prayer lives.

I want to just take a quick look at the description of Jabez – he was more honourable than his brothers. In this massive list of names we come across a guy who prayers a beautiful prayer and of whom it is said that he was more honourable.

I like the picture of honour. The picture is that Jabez had a good reputation, better than all his brethren. Our reputation as believers should always be above reproach. We should strive to live the kind of lives that men may say of us that we are honourable people.

When we do not live honourable lives we bring reproach to our Saviour. May our lives ultimately bring honour to Him.