Are you desperate to see changes in your life? Do you need to see urgent answers in your family or your health, finances or ministry? You may very well have a desperate need right now. There are so many battles that come up in life, so many challenges. Whether this is in family life or your finances or even in your health. But there is hope for you. There is hope for you even if you’ve actually had a lot of pain in your life.  

We see in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 a well-known prayer from someone whose very life was marked by pain. This was Jabez, his mother had named him saying “I gave birth to him in pain” so all his life was associated with pain. But he came to the point where he’d had enough, and he prayed in desperation to the Lord.  

Perhaps you can’t see how your life can change. But today God wants to show you that no matter your past, your future can be one of blessing, healing, protection, provision and free from pain. We can learn a lot from how Jabez prayed to the Lord despite his painful past and present circumstances.  

1. He prayed for God’s blessing (1 Chronicles 4:10) 

2. He prayed for increase (1 Chronicles 4:10; Ephesians 3:20)  

3. He prayed for the presence and favour of God (1 Chronicles 4:10; Exodus 33:14; Joshua 1:5; Nehemiah 9:19-20; John 14:26)  

4. He prayed he would be kept free from pain (1 Chronicles 4:10; Luke 8; Isaiah 53:5; Psalm 37:4) 

Apply  

1. He prayed for God’s blessing (1 Chronicles 4:10). He took his desperation for a different life to God. He cried out to God for his breakthrough. Jabez was desperate. When you are desperate, you know that it’s not your own abilities, strength or power that can change the situation. When you are desperate, you know that you are all out of options other than to go to someone who has the power bring change. Jabez cried out to God and believed that it was God who had the power to bless him. He believed that God could do the changes needed to bring blessing in his life and that God is the source where all blessing comes from. There is nothing wrong with asking for personal blessing! Today you can call out to God in desperation like Jabez did, assured He wants to bless you.  

2. He prayed for increase (1 Chronicles 4:10). Jabez wasn’t content with the limited prosperity and small portion of blessing he had experienced in his life so far - he knew God had more to give him and he cried out for it. It’s time to stop small living and small thinking. Now is the time to start praying bigger prayers. You may be feeling stuck in a small, overcrowded house, thinking how can I possibly move into a bigger house? You may be feeling powerless by thinking about mortgage rates increasing, living costs rising and lots of other limits in your thinking. There may be a problem in having children and you want to see increase in your family. You might have only a small salary and limited responsibility at work. There is hope! It’s time to pray that God will increase the size your living accommodation. It’s time to pray that God will increase your salary. It’s time to pray that God will increase the size of your family and it’s time to pray that God will increase the size of your ministry. Do you believe God for miracles and to prosper you in every area of your life? God has BIG things in store for you (Ephesians 3:20). 

3. He prayed for the presence and favour of God (1 Chronicles 4:10). Jabez was desperate for the presence of God to be with him. He knew that it was essential to do life with God if he wanted to see his personal circumstances change. The Israelites experienced guidance and favour when they sought and followed the Presence of God (Exodus 33:14; Joshua 1:5). Do you take time every morning to welcome the presence of the living God, your Heavenly Father, as it says in the Hebrew El Shaddai - God Almighty, and seek His hand to be with you? Just as the Israelites were clearly guided by God’s presence in the wilderness, so we can be guided by the hand of God in every part of our everyday lives (Nehemiah 9:19-20). God wants you to be guided by His Holy Spirit in everything you do, every day (John 14:26). There is hope! We have not been left alone to struggle in a desperate state, or to try and figure everything out on our own: God’s presence can be with us if we cry out to Him for it. As we have more of the Presence of God in our personal lives, we will see how God guides us into the right places at the right time, with the right people and with His ease and blessing. This ushers us into His favour in every other area of our lives.  

4. He prayed he would be kept free from pain (1 Chronicles 4:10). Pain is such a familiar reality to many people. And many are very good at hiding it. Maybe you’ve been harmed by a toxic relationship. Maybe you have pain from repeated disappointments, or experienced pain from bad financial deals and debt. Possibly even in pain over losing a loved one. And of course, there are so many who live with very real physical pain on a daily basis. Maybe you are one of them. Well, many people in the Bible also lived with great pain as the norm in their life. In the New Testament we see the woman with the issue of blood who, as Luke 8 tells us, had lived with this painful and socially crippling condition for 12 years, spending all she had on doctors who couldn’t cure her. Yet when she cried out to Jesus, she received her miracle and was instantly healed. Despite his tough start in life, where pain and suffering had been his norm, Jabez knew that the Lord alone could keep him from harm and give him a life that was free from pain. It was God who could change Jabez’s very nature and remove pain from his identity. And God can and wants to do it for you too. Perhaps suffering physical and emotional pain has been normal in your life up to now, but through Jesus being wounded at the cross in our place, we can be healed (Isaiah 53:5). There is hope! It is only with God that we can experience freedom from harm and pain. God’s love is greater than any love you might have experienced in your life, and He promises you a different future as you depend on Him. Like Jabez, it’s time to cry out and to step out in faith that God is doing a new thing in your life, and that the old experiences of pain, harm and suffering and sorrow are in your past - not your future. God granted Jabez’s request (1 Chronicles 4:10), and He is ready to grant yours too (Psalm 37:4). Today, whatever your situation, whatever your need, however much pain you’re in, you can cry out to the Lord.