One final reflection on the prayer of Jabez. In the scant bio for Jabez, it describes him as a good man, saying he “was more righteous than his brothers.” Righteous is a word that we don’t use too often nowadays, but means to be morally upright. Jabez then was a good, morally upright person. Now, […]
Leaves Be Gone
After Jabez’s short and concise prayer comes encouraging words of confirmation and affirmation.The Bible simply notes that “God granted him what he requested.” How exciting! Although I don’t know the mind of God, I suspect that had Jabez made his requests for selfish reasons, the results may have been different. Indeed this is something to […]
The fifth and final line in Jabez’s prayer is “that I may not cause pain.” At first glance this is an unclear and somewhat wordy request. However, it can be reworded for clarity. To not cause pain, is simply to do good. Here Jabez is reminding himself—as much as he is telling God—that the purpose of […]
The fourth line in Jabez’s prayer is: “that you would keep me from evil” If this request sounds vaguely familiar, there is good reason. In the best known prayer in the Bible, often called “The Lord’s Prayer,” there is the line “deliver us from the evil one.” Just as Jesus taught his followers to pray, […]
After Jabez asks for blessings so that he could be a blessing to others, he then adds: “and enlarge my territory” In Bible times, territory meant power via increased authority, responsibility, and influence. As, such, a request for “more territory” is not a petition for more “stuff,” as much as a metaphor implying greater authority, […]
This year, I’ve noticed a lot of squirrels in my yard—or at least one squirrel many times over. This is a bit strange, as squirrels like oak trees, walnut trees, hickory trees—seemingly any tree with nuts—and I don’t have nutty trees in my yard. I do have Maples and I’ve never seen a squirrel build […]
After dissing my Maple trees on Monday for turning yellow instead of the anticipated shades of orange or red, I realized that yellow is also pretty, even if not what I expected or was used to. So, I snapped a picture yesterday of one with all its glorious yellow hues. It’s a good thing I did, as even […]
The first line of the prayer of Jabez, is: “Oh, that you would bless me, indeed…” First of all, the word “indeed” is a way of adding emphasis, much like we would do with an exclamation point. It wasn’t enough for Jabez to merely make his request, he made it passionately and emphatically. The request […]
Fall is a colorful time in Michigan. Even so, the colors in our area of the state do not seem to be as vibrant this fall as most. In my yard, for example, is a “burning bush,” which typically turns a deep fire-engine red in the fall. This year the shade is muted, more akin to ruby […]