This is part four of an ongoing series on prayer and evangelism prompted by a meeting with the Grace Cov, Bremerton leadership team and Pastor Grant Christensen. It was a very ordinary monthly meeting with ministry reports, budgets, and decisions made. What I was not expecting was their monthly rhythm of individually checking in with each other about their evangelism “temperature,” a practice learned at the evangelism cohort. It was refreshing to watch how they are choosing to keep sharing Christ front and center as a leadership. As often stated, “you cannot lead where you have not gone yourself.” After they shared, Pastor Grant then walked through evangelism related Bible studies that he created. I asked Grant if he would share his material and he graciously said that his only requirement is that it would never be sold. So much for the conference fundraiser! I include it below to encourage and to stir. May we walk as those full of the Holy Spirit as we share Christ today.
Greg Yee
By Grant E. Christensen, Pastor, Grace Covenant Church, Bremerton
1 Chronicles 4:10 (nkjv) 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.[1]
When Bruce Wilkinson’s book, The Prayer of Jabez, was first published in 2000 it became a very popular, albeit little book. At the same time Mr. Wilkinson took much criticism from those who thought the book taught a very self-serving message. Our own Director of the Board of Ministry half humorously, half seriously, wrote to Covenant ministers not to include the book as one of their books read for continuing education.
Because of the popularity of the book, I purchased a copy and read through the short book. Prior to reading Mr. Wilkinson’s book, I was unaware that there even was a Prayer of Jabez. When I read the book, I looked up this very obscure little prayer which—oddly enough—is situated in the middle of a genealogy in 1 Chronicles, chapter 4. Why, in God-breathing this text, did Yahweh see fit to include this prayer, and to include it of all places in the middle of a genealogy? Did He mean to hide the prayer away in an obscure place, making it difficult to find?
Nevertheless, as I have reflected on this prayer since, I sense that this prayer has—as do all of the promises of God—a New Covenant application. In the Hebrew Scriptures, the covenant of Circumcision and Law for the most part promised temporal blessings, blessings of prosperity and wealth. Within that context of material and physical blessings (see Deuteronomy 28:1-14), Jabez’s prayer was in harmony with the expected blessings that God promised in that day. However, in the New Covenant in Ephesians 1:3, Paul states that we as believers and followers of Jesus have been “blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies.” The blessings of the New Covenant are—for the most part—spiritual blessings.
When Jabez prayed his prayer, he meant to have God enlarge his physical territory; he was asking for more land. In praying that God’s hand would be with him, Jabez was praying that God would prosper him. Praying to be kept from evil was a common Hebrew prayer to be kept from temptation. Lastly, Jabez asked that as God increased his land holdings, prospering him along the way, that this venture would not cause others pain. So often one’s wealth and prosperity can be another’s poverty and shame.
Yet, when I ponder this prayer through the lense of the New Covenant and in view of the primary mission of the body of Christ within the Covenant of Grace I see something quite different. To pray for increased territory is to pray for increased evangelistic territory. What is wrong with asking God to increase my or our evangelistic territory—whether personally or corporately as a church body? Secondly, to pray that God would be with me, is to pray that as I go out into this increased territory, God would be the One who accompanies me on the mission—prospering my witness along the way. Thirdly, to pray that Yahweh would keep me from evil, is to pray that in the midst of the inevitable spiritual attack that comes to those who actively seek to share the gospel, that Yahweh would keep us from falling to the many temptations of sin and from the onslaught of the enemy’s spiritual attack on all those who would share their faith. The enemy is always gunning for those who seek to share Christ with their world, attempting to soil and destroy their witness through hypocrisy and sin. The desires of our own flesh also, when given into, drastically harm our witness. Lastly, to pray that we would not cause pain is to pray that, as we evangelize, our witness and our approach to witnessing would not cause others undo pain. When I have sought to share my faith with others largely motivated by my own flesh, I have caused people pain in the past—through conversations eroding into argument, through bashing them with a confrontive approach, through pushing when the Holy Spirit isn’t leading me to do so.
This obscure, little prayer of Jabez then, applied to evangelism, is more than appropriate! Is there not much wisdom in praying this prayer, applying it to our witness whether individually or corporately as the church? Applying the prayer to evangelism becomes a heartfelt prayer for a greater reach for our witness, and that as we go, God would prosper our evangelistic efforts, keeping our witness unsoiled from temptation and from the attacks of the evil one and from our own flesh, while also keeping us from causing others undo pain from our overstepping the Holy Spirit’s guidance while sharing our faith! We have not because we ask not…
© 2019 by Grant Christensen. “Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:8b niv) You are free to share—copy and redistribute in any medium or format—as long as you don’t change the content, don’t use commercially without permission of the author or author’s family, and include attribution with the following Creative Commons License:
[1] The New King James Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.
Prayer and Evangelism
[Click Here] for part one of the series titled, “Asking for the Holy Spirit”
[Click Here] for part two of the series titled, “Praying for the Power of the Holy Spirit for Witness”
[Click Here] for part three of the series titled, “Praying for the Spirit’s Leading”