The Prayer of Jehoshaphat
I despise "The Prayer of Jabez." Notice the quotes there. I'm not talking about the actual prayer. The actual prayer is fine. And maybe "despise" is a wee bit strong. But the book, and the philosophy/theology behind it drives me nuts. It paints a picture of a God in Heaven who has a big chest full of blessings that He would love to give us if only we'd ask. Except for a few short paragraphs, the entire book is about getting blessings for...guess who? US! Oh Lord, bless ME. Enlarge MY territory. Very little of the book is spent on interceding for others or on any other aspects of prayer: praise, confession, gratitude, recognition.In II Chronicles 20 there is a different prayer, one prayed by King Jehoshaphat. It gives us a better idea of what prayer should be, what prayer CAN be when we put God in perspective, when we put Him on His throne.
Facing the threat of a vast army, "Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the Lord, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. The people of Judah came together to seek help from the Lord." There are three lessons right away: 1) When need arises, inquire of God first. 2) Don't just pray. Fast. Meditate. Study. Force yourself to focus on God's will. 3) Come together. Pray in community. Lift each other up.
And then the Bible records Jehoshaphat's prayer. And it isn't three verses of bless ME (sorry, Jabez, I'm sure I have you all out of context but sheesh!). He spends some time recognizing God for who He is and what He's done. He shows gratitude. He respects God as the great Deliverer and not just a prescription filler. And after he makes his request -- a specific one by the way, not some rambling "please-help-us" generality -- he ends with a line that we could cut and paste into ALL of our prayers: "We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you."
Awesome. I love that.
One more thing. After they prayed, "all the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the Lord." It's almost as though they were waiting for something. Oh wait. They were. An answer! How much more fulfilling would our prayer lives be if we actually stopped talking when we finished praying? What if we didn't start eating or sleeping or watching TV or any of the other thousand things we distract ourselves with and just stopped? Stood there. Waited. We might actually notice our prayers getting answered. Maybe we'd remember to say thank you. I think we'd make our Father happy...if we would just be still...and know that He is Lord.
posted by Thurman8er @ 2:13 PM
4 Comments:
wow...
good thoughts...
see you at Pismo. :)
Good thoughts ...
But it's so hard to just sit quietly and wait for our prayers to be answered! :)
We want instant results, and our prayers answered exactly as we asked. God answers our prayers, but not always as we might desire.
Preach it brother! I am so with you on this one.
I must be a lousy follower of Christ because I don't have yacht. That whole movement is nothing more than disguised prosperity theology.
Something is definitely wrong when we stop praying the Lord's prayer and start praying Jabez' prayer.
Sorry...I'm commenting again, but I have to say I thought I was not smart enough, or scholarly enough, or close enough to God to "get" the whole "Prayer of Jabez" thing when it was so so so popular. I didn't feel the same connection that others were obviously getting. It just shows me I need to go ahead and have my own thoughts because I'm not necessarily wrong or not "studied" enough. I hate my insecurities sometimes! (why have we never talked about this before?)
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