Word For Thought - 6/10/20

Today we hear from Juma, one of the Lead Pastors at Here Am I Bible School in Bugiri, Uganda:
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The song writer said it well “ trust and obey, for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus,but to trust and obey.
The Bible tells us about a man named Jabez who trusted and obeyed. "Jabez" means "sorrow" or "painful." Maybe during his birth his mother struggled a lot and ended up giving him that name.
His story comes in between very many genealogies, and the Bible says he was a honorable man. Chuck Smith said “ ... his prayer was honorable. If you ever want to pray for me, pray this one, lord bless Chuck. Enlarge his areas of ministry and service, keep Chuck from evil. Keep him from hurting others. May God keep us aware of the needs of others. It’s so easy to build walls around our church keeping the riffraffs out - that is the tendency of man. Putting up walls to keep others out But May God help us to always have an open door and enlarge our borders, where people can come in feel warm and accepted." 
Let’s look at the three specific ways Jabez prayed.

1. Lord enlarge my territory - he had a dream of having more land and he asked God to bless that dream.  People have said that when you stop dreaming you lose direction. When we stop setting goals we stopping growing. Let’s keep pushing forward, but if we don’t trust the Lord and keep our obedience to him we are going no where. 
2. Lord that your hand would be with me -  Jabez realized the more territory is more responsibility, more needs, more demands, more pressure, and that would call for Gods help in his life, otherwise it would be trouble. That is why he asked God to be with him. It’s very bad to grow away from God to pleasure. Many times we begin with God and keep moving away from God. We have all we asked and forget Him. We need to keep our trust and obedience to God.
3. That you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain - Jabez prayed for God's protection because the more he owned, the more influential he would become, and that would make him a target. Just like me and you today, we need God’s protection in the work and ministry of God. Also, we need to learn to be a blessing to others instead of causing pain to others. Let’s be a blessing to many. Jabez trusted and obeyed the Lord - we need to do the same, and he prayed to not cause pain.

Prayer is wonderful, but how we pray matters. In Luke 11:1 it says, “ Now it came to pass as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of his disciples said to him Lord teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. “ Our Lord Jesus Christ, after He had prayed, His disciples asked Him to teach them as well. It must have been an amazing awesome wonderful thing to see Jesus praying!
The disciples did not ask Jesus to teach them to teach, or do miracles, or anything else, but they asked Him to teach them how to pray. I believe it was a prayer of trust and obedience to God.
May you pray for your family, pray for the church, pray for the missionaries, pray for the church leaders, pray for Here Am I Ministries in Africa and the United States, and pray for the world over the COVID-19 pandemic and those affected. 
May the Lord Almighty bless you. 
Juma