The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson

Author:Bruce Wilkinson
Language: eng
Format: mobi
ISBN: 9780782485899
Publisher: Antioch Publishing Company
Published: 2002-10-27T22:00:00+00:00

5

Keeping the Legacy Safe

Oh, that you would keep me from evil!

Afull-page magazine ad depicts a Roman gladiator in big trouble. Somehow, he has dropped his sword. The enraged lion, seeing its opportunity, is in mid-lunge, jaws wide. The crowd in the Colosseum is on its feet, watching in horror as the panic-stricken gladiator tries to flee. The caption reads: Sometimes you can afford to come in second. Sometimes you can’t.

After asking for and receiving supernatural blessing, influence, and power, Jabez might have believed that he could jump into any ring with any lion —and win. You would think that a person with the hand of God upon him would pray, "Keep me through evil."

But Jabez understood what that doomed gladiator didn't: By far our most important strategy for defeating the roaring lion is to stay out of the arena. That's why the final request of his prayer was that God would keep him out of the fight:

"Oh...keep me from evil."

Jabez's last request is a brilliant but little-understood strategy for sustaining a blessed life. After all, as your life transcends the ordinary and starts to encroach on new territory for God, guess whose turf you're invading?

In the previous chapter our prayer was for supernatural power to work through our weakness; in this one our petition is for supernatural help to protect us from Satan's proven ability to make us come in second.

His last request is a brilliant strategy for sustaining a blessed life.

The Perils of Spiritual Success

Without doubt, success brings with it greater opportunities for failure. Just look around at the Christian leaders who have fallen into sin, dropped out of ministry, and left in their wake untold numbers of shaken, disillusioned, and injured people. As someone once said, blessedness is the greatest of perils because "it tends to dull our keen sense of dependence on God and make us prone to presumption."

The further along in a life of supernatural service you get, the more you'll need the final plea of Jabez's prayer. You are going to experience more attacks on you and your family. You are going to become familiar with the enemy's unwelcome barbs— distraction, opposition, and oppression, for starters. In fact, if your experience is anything but that, be concerned.

I'll never forget overhearing a conversation in seminary between a fellow student and my mentor, Professor Howard Hendricks. The student was excited to tell Dr. Hendricks how well his life was going.

"When I first came here," he said, "I was so tempted and tested I could barely keep my head above water. But now—praise God!—my life at seminary has smoothed out. I'm not being tempted hardly at all!"

But Hendricks looked deeply alarmed—not the reaction the student was expecting. "That's about the worst thing I could have heard," he told the surprised senior. "That shows me that you're no longer in the

battle! Satan isn't worried about you anymore."

We were redeemed and commissioned for the front lines. That's why praying to be kept from evil is such a vital part of the blessed life.

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