“Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, O that Thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that Thine hand might be with me, and that Thou wouldest keep me from evil, and that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested” (1 Chron. 4:10).
Notice how intensely personal is the prayer of Jabez: “Bless me ... enlarge my coast ... be with me ... keep me from evil.” His name, Jabez, means “to grieve,” but he did not want evil to grieve him. Certainly we are to “pray one for another” and “bear ... one another’s burdens” and to “look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” But how good it is that we can take our personal needs to the Lord, asking Him to “remember me, O Lord, with the favor that Thou bearest unto Thy people: O visit me with Thy salvation.” Like Jabez, we can ask the Lord to “bless me indeed,” and “blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust.” We need to request from Him enlargement in our spiritual lives, in our testimony and in our joy, for He asks us that we “be ... also enlarged.” We need that “Thine hand might be with me” continually and to pray for His enablement to “abstain from all appearance of evil.” Our personal needs are His concern, so “cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee.”
He takes our testings and burdens,
When we are weary and frail;
He gives us His grace and mercy,
From His place “within the veil.”
James 5:16; Gal. 6:2; Phil. 2:4; Psa. 106:4; 40:4; 2 Cor. 6:13; 1 Thess. 5:22; Psa. 55:22.