Rating: 
Summary: The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life
Review: This book was received as a gift. While reading the book, my thoughts about prayer were changed from just talking to something or someone I could not see, to Someone who listens and cares for us. It is very uplifting! It is exciting to learn what the author has discovered about the power of prayer, what God has waiting for us, if we but ask for it. The content is very plain and easy to understand, yet very deep and powerful. In putting to use in my life, the Prayer of Jabez, my life has changed for the better, and that is exciting to me. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in talking to a real Friend.
Rating: 
Summary: Expand God's Borders First
Review: I realize that everyone is looking for a way to expand their borders (e.g. to become successful), but this book offers only a formula that is "self" driven. God isn't needed to overcome the obstacles in life, only the way we pray is highlighted as the source of power for change. There is a temptation here to think that if I change the way I pray, then God will expand my borders. This is not only wrong, but misleading. The prayer of Jabez is absolutely encouraging, but it only works for those Christians that are truly living out the Christian life with a real passion and love for Jesus Christ. This book does not describe the more important aspects that are necessary for the prayer of Jabez to actually come to fruition in a person's life. There are at least 2 conditions that must be met before the prayer of Jabez will actually work. First, you must believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins on the cross and rose 3 days later having defeated death. By God's Grace He sent Christ to die for our sins and through faith in what Jesus did a person can have eternal life. Jesus said, "You must be born again". Second, once Christ takes hold of your life you must be willing to change with His help, and only through His Resurrection Power can you change the inner character to match that of His. If you do that, your borders will expand, I promise you that. This book, while encouraging, misses the opportunity to tell everyone the Good News about Salvation. Be careful that you are not changing your prayer life without truly changing your character with Christ's help. IF you do the first and not the latter, Jesus has one word for those people..."hypocrites". God help us all to do more to Expand God's Borders First!
Rating:
Summary: Encouraging and Uplifting
Review: After 3 encounters with the Jabez book-in conversation and seeing it lying on a table at my in-laws home-I knew that I would be reading this book. Since, I have been more encouraged and hopeful in my walk with God than I had been in a long time. I have since begun reading the Jabez devotional. Another winner. Read them and seek His blessing indeed!
Rating: 
Summary: The Prayer of Hope
Review: This book has been very helpful in the way of helping me to understand that it's alright to ask God for more and that it's God's good pleasure to bless you. It's a shame to think that there are blessings that we never receive simply because we do not ask. Who doesn't want to be blessed by God (those who believe) and why should we think that God doesn't have enough to bless us with? What I appreciate about Bruce's prayer "that you would bless me and enlarge my territory", is that it's not just about a financial blessing that most of us may desire, it's about enlarging his territory to help others and to do God's will for him. The bible says we don't receive because we don't ask. Some people don't ask because they don't have enough faith to believe that God will answer their prayers and some people don't ask because they don't believe that they deserve to be blessed. Doesn't God bless us so that we can be a blessing in other people's lives? I know there is a lot of suffering in this world and nobody knows your own sufferings more than you and God. We can ask "why?" this one has and this one doesn't and "why?" this one suffers and this one doesn't from here until eternity and never get the answers. Rather than criticizing and blaming God for the things that we perceive to be wrong in this world maybe the answer is to thank God when it's not you who is doing the suffering and doing without and asking God to "bless you and enlarge your territory" so that maybe He can use you to be a blessing to people who are less fortunate. I am thankful for the Prayer of Jabez and I hope it is a blessing to everyone who reads it!
Rating:
Summary: God has a blessing waiting for you....
Review: This book is a MUST have for all christians as they walk with God and learn the importance of claiming all that God has in store for you. I was given the book by my mother and encouraged to read the book. After completing it, I passed it on to someone else who needed to again be reminded how good God is, and how many blessing he has in store for his children.
Rating:
Summary: Totally inspiring!
Review: I was moved by the very spirit of this book! I have been praying for direction in my life and God sent it through my friend in this book! I will begin teaching the teenage edition to a youth class in my church this fall....our goal??? To take our entire community for Christ!
Rating:
Summary: Be prepared for changes after you read this book
Review: I was curious and frankly a little skeptical about this little book because my religion is intensely personal. I figured "Hey, what can it hurt to try what he says?" So, I did. After the thirty day "trial period" I slowly realized there had been some changes in my attitude toward people, my willingness to speak out regarding my religion, and even in my reading habits. No one was more surprised than I. I do recommend the little book and hope it brings a blessing to others as it brought to me.
Rating: 
Summary: A Formula that is Not Jesus Centered
Review: The one good comment I can make about this book is that the author emphasizes daily prayer and contact with God. This of course is a good thing! My major concern is that the book is definitely God centered but is NOT Jesus centered. It also concerns me that it appears to offer a "formula" to get blessings from God. Near the beginning of the book the author tells a fictious story about a man who gets to heaven. St. Peter shows him a box of all the blessings he did not receive because he did not ask God for them. This seems to be flawed theology. Yes, the Bible does say, "ask and you shall receive", but the fact remains that there are many blessings in our lives that we did not consciously ask for. Being born in a Christian home is a blessing, but certainly those of us who exprience this did not pray for it, as we could not pray before we were born! It also says in the Bible that God knows what we need before we even ask Him and also that He will answer before we finish praying! (Matthew 6:8, Isaiah 65:24)
Rating: 
Summary: Pastors need to read this book
Review: As a pastor I read this book because so many of my parishioners have read it. It is a quick, light read that will teach you more about the people you love in your congregation than it will about prayer. Ask yourself: why is this book so phenomenally successful? Will this book make you a better prayer? Probably not...but it will make you a more effective pastor if you take its message to heart and share it with your church.
Rating:
Summary: Great prayer. Great book. But read with a Spirit-led mind.
Review: A number of friends at my own campus Christian club recommended this book. I did not give the book much thought.So when I first got the book using my graduation gift money, I feel, "Will this book get me anything?" Then I prayed 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 - which is the focus of this book - and then, suddenly God revealed to me that He wants to bless me, but I had to "let Him", because there were a few things in my life I did not want Him to touch, later revealed after I prayed the prayer of Jabez. Although I cannot disclose them on a public site, I prayed He will give me power to deal with these. The fact He revealed them showed that God will bless you, but sometimes you need to allow God to work in your life so that you can experience even more blessings from Him. The prayer is not necessarily material blessings, as it might look on the surface. It's only two months since I got the book and I'm already experiencing results. But where the results come from? The Lord, of course. Get the book - but read it with a Spirit-led mind. It will be money well-spent. And, do not worry about those who criticize the book. Even Christ Jesus had his critics when He first opened His ministry 2,000 years ago. And I am 100% sure that this prayer will do a lot in my own life as it will do in yours.
|
