The next few days our readings are lists of names. If you need more inspiration, I suggest that you also read the following passage for your personal devotions today.

Psalm 103" href="http://biblegateway.com/bible?version=31&passage=Psalm+103">Psalm 139

SCRIPTURE: 1 Chronicles 4
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
There was a man named Jabez who was more honorable than any of his brothers. His mother named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful. He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!” And God granted him his request. [1 Chronicles 4:9-10]
A few years ago, people talking about – and praying – the Prayer of Jabez.
A book by that name lifted this prayer from the genealogies of 1 Chronicles and suggested that it was a template for prayer for all believers.
It seems to me that the focus is too much on technique, on how to get God to say ‘yes’ to our prayers.

Compare Jabez’s prayer to this petition by a blind man: He shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” “Lord, I want to see,” he replied. Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight; your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised God. [Luke 18:39-43]
Or to Paul’s prayer: So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. [2 Corinthians 12:7-9]
These prayers are desperate pleas from desperate men.
For Jabez it was pain, for this man it was blindness, for Paul it was a thorn.
Did Paul not follow the right technique?

Prayer is not a technique, it’s a sincere coming to the Lord just as we are – our fears, desires, struggles, sins – pleading for mercy and strength.
And He decides how to answer each one, how to manifest grace in our lives.
He always answers with grace, but not always the ‘grace’ we ask for.
Pray from the heart, pray with the confidence that God is God, that God is God, that He will do what is right and beneficial.
This faith will ultimately bless and heal you.
He will not always give us the grace we ask for, but His grace will always be enough, and in the end it will be what we really needed.

PRAYER:
Lord, may I experience Your all-sufficient grace, whether I get what I ask for or not.