The Prayer of Jabez and Answered Prayers

I love reading the prayer of Jabez. When I was a kid, I read the book “The Prayer of Jabez for Kids” by Bruce Wilkinson, and its accompanying devotional. When I was a teenager, I read the “for Teens” counterpart. Last year, I read the “for Women” counterpart, written by his wife, Darlene Wilkinson. Today, I purchased Wilkinson’s original book on Jabez, and I also purchased the Kindle version of Spurgeon’s sermon on Jabez’s prayer (I am aware of Spurgeon’s anti-Catholic stance, but I’m open to reading this sermon regardless).

Last week, I started reading Wilkinson’s four-week devotional on the prayer of Jabez. Between reading the Bible on the SheReadsTruth devotional app on my phone and reading books from last month’s Christian book haul, I can feel myself getting closer to God. I used to smirk and scoff when I heard people say that, but here I am, feeling God’s presence and the Holy Spirit within me. I can already feel the prayer working because of my belief in both the prayer and God.

On Monday, I had been thinking a lot about the ring I had received as a confirmation gift. I had thrown out a lot of old personal belongings before my last move; I was afraid I had done the same with this beloved item. I wanted to know where it was since it is small and perfect for a day-to-day reminder of living up to my beliefs. I couldn’t remember what happened to it, and neither could my mom. I was sure I had thrown it out, but I held onto hope. Monday morning, I started searching online to see if I could either find a price to buy a new one, or to see if my memory would be jogged to its location. So I prayed about it.

By lunchtime, I went home and searched in the utility room. This room, once thought to be a future area for recreational activities, had turned into a storage room of my boxes that had been left unpacked. I have been searching through them lately to get rid of excess stuff (I will be moving soon, so there is an impending yard sale). As I looked through random boxes, a thought told me that the ring was in the room, in one of the boxes. I continued to sift through boxes, aware that time for my lunch hour was limited.

After having been unsuccessful, I went to step out of the utility room, when a whisper in my heart – that is literally how it felt – told me to turn around and look back in one of the boxes that I had briefly glanced at. So I did. I found the ring at the bottom of this crate and I felt the kind of relief that can only be felt when a prayer is answered.

Two days later, I wear the ring now, and I feel like God gave it to me.

I’m currently falling behind on my devotionals, but I’ll be able to catch up. In the meantime, since I started praying the Jabez prayer last week, two of my prayers have been answered that I can think of off the top of my head. I am extremely grateful. I’ve always loved the prayer of Jabez, and it’s a beautiful moment to see the gifts of answered prayers.