That Your Hand Would Be With Me

Have you ever experienced something in your life that was a real "God Thing?"  You know, something that would have never happened if God hadn't made it happen?

Those are the moments in life when your inside-out approach to living is affirmed in the Lord!  Those are the breathless moments when heaven touches earth.  Those are the moments when you experience the power of God in your life, or the life of someone close.

That was the experience Jabez was seeking when he prayed, ... "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.

In Scripture, the hand of God represents power, or the power of God.  So what Jabez was asking for was the power of God for himself, to accompany the blessings and enlargement of territories, and for the ability to see the power of God at work everywhere around him.

Jabez was interested in more that the "natural" order of God; the flowers in bloom, a new baby, etc.  No, what Jabez wanted to see were miracles!  Flat out miracles where no way, no how, could that have just happened except by the personal touch of God!

Our challenge is believing that God wants to do for us today what He did for those in the Old Testament.  We seem to think that the rules were different then they are now.  But the lesson in the Prayer of Jabez is that God is not different now and He does want to give you greater miracles than He gave the saints in scripture!  We just need to ask, believe, and anticipate those miracles in our lives.  If we ask, believe, and anticipate, we will not be disappointed by God!