The Prayer of Jabez Audio

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Summary: FROM ONE AUTHOR TO ANOTHER - INCREDIBLE!
Review: ...[This author has]...captured the biblical inspiration for the very heart of what all Christians, or more importantly all those seeking any spiritual motivation at all, need to know before they can confidently stand tall and stake their claim to make this a better world for themselves and all those around them....

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Summary: A Blessing of a Book
Review: I received this book as a gift, and have shared it with others. It's a short reading and opens up an entirely new way of talking with God, and finding the blessings in life. I highly recommend it for you, your friends, and your family.

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Summary: A Concerned Pastor Responds
Review: Wilkinson provides some helpful Christian exhortion about prayer in this book, but often his underlying assumptions are not as biblical. To be sure, most of us as Christians have a continual struggle with faithlessness, and we need to hear Wilkinson's reminder that an almighty God delights in our boldly leaning on his might through bold prayers. Wilkinson has especially and rightfully focused on God's determination to use his people as his tools of kingdom growth-- so shouldn't we pray boldly that he so use us? Indeed we should. Not as helpful is Wilkinson's assumption that boldness in prayer is the same as determining what sucess in ministry should look like. Should we set specific numerical goals for our work, and then declare that "if we don't have one hundred kids in each club by the end of the week, we should consider it a failure"(p.57)? We would only make such a statement if we believed that success in ministry is primarily in our hands, and God is merely waiting for us to reach out and bring souls into the kingdom. Largely, though, this is Wilkinson's teaching. For him, saying the prayer of Jabez is the way to "release God's power for you" (p.87)so that your bold ministry goals may be met by a God who is willing to grant your prayer if only you would ask. Yet, our goals are not always God's. The result of Paul and Barnabbas preaching in Psidian Antioch was that "all who were appointed for eternal life believed" (Acts 13:48). Conversely, those who God did not appoint did not believe. What if Paul had said "unless we have one-hundred Gentile conversions, we have failed" while God had only appointed to eternal life fifty that day? The only numerical goals in the Bible seem to be God's. Certainly, there is a place for goal-setting in ministry, but we should never be presumtuous enough to declare that such goals are also God's. Primary in our minds should be that God brings souls to himself and delights to use us as a means, how and when he will, not the reverse-- that through the right kind of prayer we can release God's power to meet our goals (even when the goals are noble). A related concern is the books assumption that God wills each Christian to touch limitless numbers of lives for Christ: "God wants your borders expanded at all times with every person" (p.78). Does the Bible say that God wants this? Have I failed God's intentions for my life if I'm not seeking ministry opportunities at all times with every person I meet? Biblically speaking, this is an over-individualizing of the Great Commission, as if it is each believer's duty to personally carry out a command that Jesus gave to the whole church. Practically speaking, to assume that we are all called to influence everyone we meet leads to paper-thin, agenda-driven human relationships. Non-Christians sense this and rightly resent it. How much time will I spend with any given person if I'm determined to get one-hundred more decisions for Christ before the week is out? Better would be to say that God calls each of us to different kinds (and degrees) of influence with other people, based on our our gifts, type of career, personality, etc. Speaking as a pastor of a church, I sometimes feel there are limitlness numbers of people in my congregation and neighborhood who are eager to have a conversation about Christ. It is my duty, and my pleasure, to have such conversations. However, even as a pastor at times I must say no to some people so that I can say yes to others. Jesus himself exhibited this kind of ministerial selectiveness in focusing on twevle men, and, in most cases, even ignoring Gentiles (he would appoint others for that task). Wilkinson is right that we should pray boldly that God use us for the expansion of his kingdom. Let's let Christ be the King of his kingdom and determine how to best use his subjects.

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Summary: Should you buy just because everyone else is?
Review: I work in a Christian bookstore and held off buying this book for the longest time. First off, it's small. It looks kind of dinky and more like a nice little feel good gift book. Plus, I hate buying things just because everyone else is. But as our sales informed me we were selling around 700 of them a month, I finally at least took a peek at one that was sitting on hold in customer service for a church bible study. Within just a couple minutes, I could understand why this book is captivating so many people. I can understand why its message is spreading like wildfire and I can understand why Jabez's prayer can change lives. More importantly, after buying and reading the book (which is still a quick, but wonderfully in depth read) I am glad so many people are buying it. For if we all learn to pray like this, what abundance our lives shall have! *The only reason why I didn't give it 5 stars is because I so enjoyed reading it I wish it were much much longer although it didn't need to be to get its message across*

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Summary: What about the Prayer of Jesus?
Review: Although Dr. Wilkinson's book has some value, the doctrinal errors and several misconceptions about God and prayer keep me from reccomending this book.

Dr. Wilkinson's misconceptions are four-fold: 1) Misconception of Prayer Prayer is to focus our minds to embrace the eternal, not to get God to give us more things.

2) Misconception of Christian Relationship w/ God God doesn't play hide and seek with us.

3) Takes Scripture out of Context

4) Incompatible with Christ's prayer - "bless me" vs. "hallowed be thy name" - "expand my territory" vs. "your kingdom come" - "your hand be with me" vs. "give us our daily bread" - "keep me from harm" vs. "deliver us from evil"

I have given a cursory overview here. I invite anyone who would like more information or who has questions (which I *will* personally answer) to e-mail me ([e-mail]).

I have made a complete, Biblical review of The Prayer of Jabez, which is freely available to anyone who would like to read it (e-mail me at [e-mail] and I will send it to you). I discuss the book and the problems with it in great detail.

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Summary: OK, heres the deal people!
Review: This is a good book that simply encourages people to pray to God not only to give him praise and ask for his mercy & forgiveness, but also to ask him for any & every blessing he has for us. God obviously has no problem with the prayer, because the last line of 1 Chron. 4:10 is 'AND GOD GRANTED HIS REQUEST'! I hardly think God would ANSWER a prayer that was somehow evil! If you had a present for your child and he or she asked you for it, would you be offended or angry? Of course not. God is many, many things but one thing he definitly is is a loving father. This prayer is not meant to be an Aladins Lamp where you just make a wish, pray & get what you want, its simply another layer to add to your prayer life, that God might give you every gift he has for you - and that doesnt mean just material things either. Gifts from God come in many, many forms. In closing Id like to add that Jesus did say that 'If they are not against us, they are for us'. This book is only trying to bring people closer to God, and thats something we can all rejoice in. Praise God!

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Summary: There's nothing Christian about this prayer
Review: As a Christian, I am very disappointed with the selfish, self-righteous, egotistical theological attitude that is found in the "Prayer of Jabez." This book teaches that if you pray this prayer, God will be more inclined to answer your prayers as opposed to someone else's. Inevitably, all of this selfish praying will pit us against each other as we try to win God's personal favor and will destory any sense of community that Christianity might foster. Idealistically, prayer should work towards unity, not divisiveness. The Pharisees would love the Prayer of Jabez! Unfortunately, Jesus condemned the Pharisees and their selfish, haughty attitudes.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson writes in "Self Reliance", "Prayer that craves a particular commodity, anything less than all good, is vicious. Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view. It is the soliloquy of a beholding and jubilant soul. But prayer as a means to effect a private end is meanness and theft. It supposes dualism and not unity in nature and consciousness. As soon as the man is at one with God, he will not beg. He will see in prayer all action."

I therefore believe that the "Prayer of Jabez" is not something that is compadible with Jesus's message of unity, love, and inclusion for all people. Although the book may be written well, I advise readers to avoid it. We don't need people to tell us how to pray, much less how to pray selfishly.

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Summary: The Prayer of Jabez
Review: As in all Christian beliefs no one line of the Bible can stand on it's own. The prayer that Jabez prayed reflects the balance life all Christians look for within it's four lines. The author never claims that this little prayer is all you need. But, the prayer is a powerful one and should be known to all Christians. This is what the author has accomplished in this clear and concise little book.

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Summary: For the most part... I think I liked it
Review: I read this book with a questionable eye, and am still digesting it's contents. However, I admit that I did learn a lot from the author's explanations of the different portions of the prayer. I'm going to try praying the prayer, but at the same time ask God to give me insight and wisdom as to whether or not it's "proper" to ask these things. I don't know. This book gave me a deeper yearning to exercise faith, and trust that God is capable and strong enough to handle all things. So that's definitely a good thing...

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Summary: This book is a lie based on a lousy translation.
Review: "The Prayer of Jabez" is based on the following rendition of I Chronicles 4:10: "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!"

Note the final phrase, "that I may not cause pain!" This makes it appear as if Jabez is less selfish than he might otherwise seem. Think about it--he already has "territory"; he already is wealthy and powerful, and yet he prays to God for MORE. That final phrase, however, makes it APPEAR as if Jabez wants more so that he will not "cause pain," that is, it shows Jabez as being concerned about others as well as himself.

The problem is, virtually all other biblical translations render this passage quite differently. For example, the King James Version says this: "Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!"

"That it may not grieve ME"--see the difference? In the KJV version, there is absolutely NO evidence of selflessness on the part of Jabez. The same is true for other translations, which have the following in verse 10: "keep ME from hurt and harm" (NRSV); "don't let anyone hurt ME. Then I will be free from pain" (New Century Version); "let ME be free from pain" (Revised English Bible); "help ME and make ME free of misfortune, without pain!" (New American Bible); "keep harm away and MY distress will cease" (New Jerusalem Bible); "work deliverance from evil, that it not pain ME" (Jewish Publication Society Version); "keep ME from harm so that I will be free from pain" (NIV).

I could go on, but you get the picture. Bruce H. Wilkinson has taken his text from what may well be the only biblical translation that doesn't depict Jabez as totally selfish. "The Prayer of Jabez" is rotten at its core.

I should also add that this is a bad book in other ways as well. It is shallow. It is basically feel-good fluff, and not much fluff at that--Wilkinson has so little to work with he has to pad it out to make his tiny little book. Finally, of course, there's the fact that this book appeals to our greed--and to that extent it's simply not a Christian book at all.

Don't waste your money.