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.