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Summary: Forcing God to do your will
Review: Christianity today is after power and self fulfillment and to corner that market we have a book here that offers us a magical incantation in which all you have to do is to repeat this prayer over and over and SHAZAM.....God blesses you.Does this sound like vain repetitions which many think that they will be what it takes to get from God what they want. HMMMMM. Jesus had no place to lay his head, Paul was a prisoner in a dungeon who paid with his life, early Christians were killed in the lions den. To bad they didnt pray this prayer.They could have had health and wealth and all the good stuff that God will surely bless us with!
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Summary: The Most Powerful Little Book I've Ever Read
Review: I have been an excited, believing, on fire Christian for 30 years. This little book has given me more direction, joy, power and know-how than anything I've read except the Bible. Wilkerson takes you through a journey that supercedes space and time, because what happens, DAILY, is so supernatural, yet natural, that you wake up with a feeling, "what is my adventure going to be today?" I start my morning by asking God to "make me an appointment" AFTER I have asked for His blessings, of course. Then, I look for people to help, to encourage. I email people boldly with hope and joy. It has aided my ability to share the Lord, with which everyone often have trouble. It is soooooooooo simple. Buy a bunch of copies. You will be giving them away like hot cakes. And, the joy outweighs the small expense. The blessing connections are awesome. And, the Devotional is a must. It even explains further. Wow! God keeps His promise to bless.
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Summary: THE PRAYER OF JABEZ: One Reader's Opinion
Review: Relying on a perversion of the Christian gospel message, Dr. Wilkinson seeks to establish that greed, rationalized as a prayer for enlargement of territory, a la Jabez, is perfectly okay. The book is selling, I believe, because it appeals to new age selfishness, a sense that the world revolves around ME. The Christian message is that our worlds revolve around service to others. It is this love and unselfishness which creates contentment in the human being and, if we believe in Jesus Christ, is the greatest commandment in service to God.The books has redeeming virtues, but the nagging question is "Why this Scripture? Why this insignificant biblical character?" I'll take the Beatitudes. I'll even take the prayer of St. Francis: "Make me an instrument of Thy peace....." But the prayer of Jabez is hardly the one I would choose to repeat daily for decades, as Dr. Wilkinson claims to have done. There has to be a reason. I think it is a revival and justification of the old right-wing "prosperity gospel," now in disrepute among main-line Christians. That world-view confused ancient Hebrew theology with Christian theology, just as Dr. Wilkinson does here, in falling at the feet of the self-centered Jabez, whose confidence swells with the notion that he has God in his pocket to use as needed to advance his purposes. Call me old-fashioned; I believe our prayers should be for others and that God will bless the "poor in spirit." Rev. Dr. Bob McAuley
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Summary: A Blessing!
Review: This was an easy reading book. Wilkinson used a lot of illustrations to break down the four parts of the verse. I would highly recommend this book for those who want to increase in their prayer life and reep blessing in return. I can testify that it works. God wants to give His people more. This is just one of many prayers found in the Word that God has given us to pray. Why else would it be in there? If you want to experience God and His rich blessings, read the The Prayer of Jabez and pray it.
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Summary: Most Excellent Training Book
Review: Unlike Alamosa, CO, I think this is excellent training material for the *mature* Christian. These are the end-times and anyone who is a serious student of eschatology can tell you that we're well along on the timeline. As such, there are new moves of God forthcoming - some even have begun. The prayer of Jabez is a challenge because the mature Christian knows that the increase spoken of brings with it increased responsibility as well. Not everyone is up to such a challenge. Indeed, some have been deceived into believing that they are what they really aren't.. and they won't even "get it". Thus, the view of the prayer being selfish. There is nothing less selfish than one who's willing to shoulder the increased responsibility - and the accompanying persecutions :-) in order to become a willing conduit for the Lord's work. D!
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Summary: True Christians will cringe...
Review: The "Prayer of Jabez" is the most perverted, twisted formula-book to come out of the self-centered health & wealth sect yet. This is the complete opposite of the self-denial we are called to in the Sermon on the Mount. Jabez devotees have put their faith in worldly treasure and as Jesus said, "they have their reward". But it's in the Bible, they say. Or, this is "for God". Satan twisted scripture too. This is just another abomination that promises to make God work for you. Wake up. God is never the object of man's designs or purposes. God is never the object of man's measure. God is the only subject, the great I AM - and we, unprofitable servants. Better to be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.
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Summary: The Devine Prayer
Review: This is a modern day version of the our father who art in heaven for people of every single catugary like the unix language of the computer today you can use three simple phrases to control endless ellaberate functions of the most powerful IBM computer and is a great blessing and simple for me because these three key words makes it just within the limited margins of my attention span now that I have an easier version of " how great thou art"and the our father that takes me nearly one our to recite......
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Summary: Knock and the Door Shall Be Open Unto You
Review: What a wonderful little book to read. Considering that I am not an advent reader, this book held my attention and gave me peace and understanding of our Lord's desires for us. I learn that it is alright to ask the Lord for what you want. You can be direct with your requests. The prayer for financial blessings does work!!!
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Summary: Life Changing
Review: "The Prayer of Jabez" has certainly changed my life. My Christian walk is certainly not the same as it was two months ago when I purchased this book. By following the example of this unknown man's prayer found in I Chronicles 4, God has brought blessings into my life as He has expanded territory by bringing strangers into my life who just needed someone to talk to, to share with and to pray with. I have been blessed! Thank you, Bruce Wilkerson, for "The Prayer of Jabez!"
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Summary: Fastfood Christianity
Review: Much that is wrong in the Church today can be summed up in this book. It is me centered Christianity, it's formulaic, vague in it's descriptions and misapplied because of this. The opening statement that God always answers this prayer should send up extremely large warning signals. The God and Creator of the universe is not a divine bellhop at our beckon call waiting to shower us with blessings and expand our territory, (and wallets). This book is shallow at best and falls in line with much of the formulaic Christian approach, (books by Hybels, Barna, Maxwell and those of the purpose and seeker driven mentalities) that is so popular today. I would avoid this book for the following reasons. This book lacks the understanding of true spirituality and devotion to God. To say that - seeking God's blessing (p. 49) is our ultimate act of worship - is really the ultimate act of selfishness and flies in the face of Romans 12:1, Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy , to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Excellent books that promote a deeper devotion to God are; Seeing God by Gerald McDermott, A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly, and Leap Over a Wall by Eugene Peterson. This book is me centered. The application to this prayer revolves around self, Lord increase my territory. The illustrations are sometimes material and one is particularly insulting. Wilkinson supposes that had Jabez been a woman she might have asked for the Lord to add to her family. I know many couples personally that are unable to have children. What do you say to those couples when they have prayed this prayer over and over and yet nothing. The answer to this can be found at the end of the book (p. 87), You can hang the prayer on the wall of every room in your house and nothing will happen. It is only what you believe will happen and therefore do next that will release God's power for you and bring about change. His answer really is a lack of faith. Sometimes God says No, my grace is sufficient. He said it to Paul. There are inferences in the book that God waits on us to ask for a blessing before acting, the divine bellhop notion. This could not be farther from the truth. This book is extremely vague in its description. I often asked myself, what does the author define as a blessing, is it right to challenge God with this prayer, who gauges what a - profoundly important and satisfying life He has waiting - is? I could go on and on. I worry that because this book is so shallow that many people will become shipwrecked spiritually when the formula doesn't pan out. What of trials? They are a blessing also, though we don't think of them as such. They draw us closer to Christ. They allow us to identify with his suffering. They increase our dependency on Him and they allow us to minister to others that experience similar circumstances (James 1). And yet do we view trials as blessings or are blessings always positive as inferred by Wilkinson? A completely different prayer is the prayer of the apostle Paul. I want to know Christ and the power of His Resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming more like Him in His death (Phil 3 :10). A much deeper prayer that has context. Not one that must have a context built around it. Lets not have a prayer life that puts God in a spiritual fast food diner waiting for us to swing by and order up some blessings and having God reply, would you like me to supesize that?
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