The Prayer of Jabez - Bruce Wilkinson

Published by Multnomah Publishers: Oregon, 2000.

This little book was very popular in Christian circles when it first came out, and I remember hearing about it, but I'm not sure whether I read it or not. It doesn't really matter if I did read it; it was so influential that I got the gist of what it was about anyway!

The titular prayer is found in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10, where 'Jabez' makes his only appearance in the Bible, in the midst of a long genealogy. Wilkinson stresses: "Something about this man Jabez had caused the historian to pause in middrone, clear his throat, and switch tactics. "Ah, wait a minute!" he seems to interjet. "You just gotta know something about this guy named Jabez. He stands head and shoulders above the rest!"" (page 14) After repeating the two verses to us that contain all of Jabez' life, Wilkinson then uses the rest of the book to break the prayer into chunks and talk about why he thinks it is so effective.

For context, this is the passage in 1 Chronicles that mentions Jabez (in Wilkinson's translation): "Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jaabez, 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."

A prayer like this can easily be caught up in "Prosperity Gospel" teaching - a very unbiblical view of the Bible that says God exists to meet all our material needs and give us gold-plated jets or something. Wilkinson, though, emphasises that if we are serving God, it is not wrong to ask for blessing, as long as we are asking for the right reasons, and open to God blessing us how He sees fit.

It is a short read - only 92 pages - and is fairly easy going, but it is worth thinking about. Particularly as Wilkinson testifies that this is a prayer he has prayed for over thirty years, and he has seen God's outworking of it in His life as well.

Completed 1 July 2026.

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