1 Chronicles 4

1Ch 4:10 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.

We are plunging ahead into 1 Chronicles. Like Tommy shared, these lessons may seem repetitive at times yet it is for our benefit. This chapter begins with genealogy. Genealogy is exremely useful for and critical to the Jews because they knew the Messiah would come out of David's line. This is why the Gospels record the genealogy of Jesus.

As we dig in, we notice that there are scattered insights into some of these random people. As our verse states above, we see this man Jabez praying to the Lord. Jabez prayed for an enlarged territory, for God's presence, and to stay away from evil. The reason these things came true were because Jabez' prayer fell in accoradance to the Lord's will.

Compare:

Our Father who art in heaven, blessed be Thou name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done. On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our tressapasses, as we also forgive those who tresspass against us. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Jabez' prayer included some of the principles Jesus gives us in the model prayer. Jabez, prayed only for what God had already promised Israel. In a sense he was just praying for his daily bread, what God had said he would give. Jabez prayed for nothing more than which was promised. Therefore, he prayed for God's will to be done. Finally, Jabez prayed for deliverance from evil that he would not hurt Israel as others had. Do not confuse the prayer of Jabez with the idea that you get what you pray for. Instead observe the model. Jabez prayed, that God might be glorified. Therefore God granted his requests.