Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Victor M Mbokola
Abstract
perspective, prayer is addressed to God. In simple words, it is talking to God (Thiel, 2016). In
this paper we will focus our discussion on prayer in the Christian perspective and in
particular investigate the prayer of Jabez in a bid to understand and unearth characteristics of
prayer.
The Prayer of Jabez 3
the sending of a message and receipt of a response. Prayer therefore, being a form of
communication has these two aspects. There are many examples of prayer in the bible that
can be looked at to derive this and other aspects of prayer but that would be beyond the scope
of this paper. The prayer of Jabez will be the focus for this paper. However, other instances of
prayer may be mentioned to emphasize on points emanating from the prayer of Jabez.
The story of Jabez is found in the book of 1 Chronicles Chapter 4 from verse 9 to 10:
“And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren: and his mother called his name Jabez,
saying because I bare him with sorrow. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that
thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which
That is the whole excerpt and consequently all we know about Jabez and his prayer in the
bible. He is not mentioned in any greater detail in another portion of the bible more than these
excerpt has revealed. One would wonder if really anything can be picked from just these two
verses. However it is important to note at this point that to understand any verse in the bible
you must look at the context to fully understand the lessons and intent therein.
The first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles dwells on the family tree of the Hebrew tribe
all the way from Adam and chapter 4 is not any different (Wilkinson, 2000). The unique
thing is that at the point where Jabez is listed as part of the genealogy, more information is
provided about him as well as the prayer he prayed. Why the writer of the book included
more detail about him may remain a mystery but we can draw several conclusions from them.
The excerpt starts by noting that Jabez was more honourable than his brethren, probably more
than those who were also included in the genealogy. Brethren may include his relatives as
well as other Israelites that had faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob whom we
The Prayer of Jabez 4
worship to this day. Honourable in the setting of those days may have meant he avoided all
form of sin and was in good terms with both God and man. He may have adhered to all the
rules that were set for all Israelites to follow and more importantly the Ten Commandments.
For instance, he may have observed the Sabbath to the letter and paid his tithes faithfully. It is
worth noting at this point that in mentioning that Jabez was honourable; prayer must then
have a connection with honour. In my view, a prayerful person is mostly honourable. Though
this cannot be inscribed as law on stone it is a conclusion that we can draw. It is not definite
as it is not out rightly pointed out. We can also further say that a person who receives what he
asks for in prayer is usually honourable. But again it is important to say that it is not inscribed
as law on stone so it is not an existing rule. What do we learn in the character of honour for
prayerful people? It can rightly be concluded, in my opinion, that alongside being a prayerful
person, it is important, if not equally important, that we strive to maintain a high standard of
The next portion of the scripture highlights the meaning of his name and the
circumstances of him being named so. That he was born with sorrow, at least to the mother.
After all children usually are not able to decide on their names during birth. They can
however change them as adults. We can conclude from this that despite the fact that Jabez
was born in sorrow, God answered his prayer. Even the meaning of his name signified
sorrow. It is therefore true to say that despite the background of a person and their history in
general, God can still hear their prayers and answer in the affirmative. When we go before
God we need not focus on the demerits we naturally possess but rather focus on God who is
the one who listens and answers our prayers. It is also important to emphasize here that even
most men of God in the bible were chosen with undeserving credentials in the human
perspective. David for instance was the lastborn in the house of Jesse and in addition the
youngest but God still chose him. Before God therefore we should ignore that we possess
The Prayer of Jabez 5
qualification to earn us the mercy of God and acknowledge that it is only by his mercies and
The next portion highlights what Jabez specifically asked for. Most people argue that
his prayer was as simple and short as is written in the bible. This may or may not be true but
we rely on just the few words included in the excerpt. The words may have relayed the
overall theme of the prayer of Jabez or may also have been just those words. How the writer
knew the words of his prayer is also a mystery as this book is not written by Jabez himself. If
we take for instance that the content is the general theme of Jabez prayer then we would
rightly say that a person may have heard him pray, learnt of the needs he wanted sorted and
watched him to see his prayer being answered by God. It may also have been the case that
Jabez shared his prayer to brethren or family in his old age about his prayer and how God
answered it and the information lived on as a testimony even to its inclusion in the bible. We
can draw a lot of conclusions and lines of thought from this story but what is important to say
is that testimonies of answered prayers are important to share as they encourage the body of
Christ. The fact that the prayer of Jabez is include in the bible and that it was answered is an
encouragement to the church of today that God can answer your prayers by giving you
exactly what you asked. We should therefor pray without seizing as God can answer our
The next and final portion of the excerpt tells us that God granted him what he
requested. This means that all he had asked for was given to him. The question here then is
whether it was immediately or after some time. However that is not important, what is
communication and therefore should have both the message and the response. From the
prayer of Jabez we can see that Jabez prayed and God answered him by granting his requests.
The prayer has both message and response and qualifies as communication. The sender is
The Prayer of Jabez 6
Jabez and the recipient is God. This story is therefore an encouragement to Christians that
In brief, the preceding paragraphs have dealt with the whole prayer of Jabez in a nut
shell. That he prayed and he was granted what he asked is the pivotal point as this paper
mainly discusses the prayer of Jabez and prayer in general. However there are more things
about prayer that are important to mention that may have not emanated clearly from the
prayer of Jabez. One of the things that is important to mention is that in prayer it is not
always that God will grant us our requests. Sometimes our requests may not be the best for us
sine our minds are limited and ultimately carnal. God is all-knowing and knows what is best
for us. We should know that God has our best interests at heart and will supply for us what
we need as long as we trust in Him and pray. We should therefore not get discouraged when
we feel like our prayers are not being answered or have taken too long. We should keep
praying and believe that what he wills for us shall be realized and that it is the best for us.
Others aspects of prayer that may have not been tackled in detail are such things as
how we should pray and when we should pray. Since different schools of thought do not
agree on whether this was the whole prayer or it was a summary I would rather not define the
parts of prayer using this excerpt only. In addition, the time that this prayer was done is not
mentioned and therefore we cannot define when to pray using only this scripture. We know
for example that Israelites had specific times for prayer during the day and they also prayed
on the Sabbath day but none of these is mentioned in the excerpt. In essence what we
conclude is that, the prayer of Jabez in isolation cannot define all the aspects of prayer. This
in consequence alludes to the fact that to understand this and other topics from the bible we
need to read widely within the bible. As earlier mentioned, prayer is a wide topic that cannot
be exhaustively addressed in this paper and probably any other paper. The word of God has
The Prayer of Jabez 7
new revelations every day that cannot all be written down in one paper or be limited to one
In conclusion we can say that prayer is an important tool for any Christian that allows
us to communicate with God. In the generation of today we are even lucky because Jesus
Christ died for our sins and we can go before God boasting of His blood that was shed at the
cross in Calvary. We have a helper who is the Holy Spirit who is still God Himself. All
factors held constant we are more privileged as a church today compared to the Old
Testament days. Our prayers ought to be more effective and bearing results. Every Christian
has a duty to pray for themselves, their family, their friends and every other person that they
may see the light and receive Christ for the ultimate price of salvation which is why Christ
died for us. In the letters of Paul recorded in the bible, he constantly told the congregations he
was writing to that he prayed for them. We should follow his example and pray from one
another including fellow Christians. In addition to prayer, Christians have other duties within
the body of Christ such as reading the word of God that are as important as prayer for any
Christian. Therefore prayer is not the only thing that a Christian ought to do, there are many
more things that we learn through reading the bible and fellowshipping with other Christians.
Finally, prayer is important for every Christian and we should all strive to understand
it and improve on it every day. Pray every day and any time without limitation or fear that
References
Thiel, B. (2016). Prayer: What Does the Bible Teach? California, USA: Nazarene Books.
Wilkinson, B. (2000). The Prayer of Jabez. Oregon, USA: Multomah Publishers Inc.