Rating: 
Summary: Spiritually Astounding...
Review: I don't know how anyone could criticise this book. Jabez's best interest was to please God, we he asked for his territory to be enlarged, he was actually asking the Lord to broaden his ministry opportunities, which in turn will honor God. have you noticed the most faithful begin their prayers or at least include somewhere in the prayer, they ask God to bless them? The bible says ask and you shall recieve, knock and the door will be opened. Jabez used his blessings to honor the Almighty Yahweh. God gave him blessings knowing that he would be praised in return. As long as you ask for blessings in a Godly way, there is no problem. It's not selfish, as long as you use the blessing to honor the Lord. And because jabez did these things he was more honorable than his siblings. God wants us to ask him to give us more ministry opportunities, afterall that is what we are called upon to do. He wants to give us more and more Godly blessings, but it is our job to ask. God will do nothing but give people the desires of their heart, or protect his people. So we must ask, and he is faithful to answer. So the book the prayer of jabez is fantastic. Jabez was a gimper for God, he always strived to be more for God than what he was, and thats why God answers his prayers. Because he begged God for his gifts, and God gave them to him. And he strived more and more to be a servant for God. Thats the way we should all be. Jabez is a great example of a servant of the Lord...
Rating: 
Summary: God keeps his promises
Review: To get the impact of Jabez's prayer and the later annilahion of the Haminites and the Amalikites one must refer to Gen.9:18-29, Ex.17:8-15 and Lev. 18:1-29. Ham (Noah's son)didn't just see his Dad (Gen.) There was a shame, a perversion or lust. Ham received a curse for the pervertion. Shem avoided the temptation by not even looking,thus gaining a blessing. The curse and blessing was to remaining generations. Shem's generations of decendants include Abram, Judah, and Jabez. IChron4 says Jabez was honorable (godly). Because of Godly obedience he was blessed. It continued from Shem's blessing. God chose to do this. Ham's decendants included the people of Cannan. (Hamites, Amalikites). These people practiced perversion, having sex w/sisters, mothers, animals, and same gender sex. (homosexuality). See Lev. 18:1-29 particularly v.24,29. Also see God's promise to Amalikites in Ex. 17:8-15. The Isralites were just passing through as many other travelers did at that time and were doing no harm. God promises sin brings destruction
Rating:
Summary: Insightful
Review: Taking the word and making it come alive, this book renews your mind and heals your soul.
Rating:
Summary: For Tracy from Indiana
Review: I will make this really short - and truly from a gentle and loving heart. One cannot understand the Bible with a natural comprehension. It was written supernaturally - and must be interpreted supernaturally to us as we read it. How you interpreted Jabez' prayer is not at all what God was saying. I guess that I would say that I truly desire for you to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ - then God, the Holy Spirt will reveal to you the Scripture. Dawn, from Providence
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Little Encouragement
Review: In this book based upon two verses of the Bible, Pastor Bruce gives his personal testimonies and experiences of praying the word and waiting for God to bless you. It's a must read for anyone who is either discouraged or doesn't feel they know how to pray.
Rating:
Summary: Upbeat and Inspirational Little Book
Review: If it were not for Bruce Wilkinson's book, I'm quite positive I would have never heard of Jabez. Hidden within a boring geneaology is a beautiful one sentence prayer of a guy named Jabez, which Mr. Wilkinson has sort of developed into a thirty year daily mantra. The prayer, found in First Chronicles 4, verse ten, reads, "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain." Simple and straight to the point. Like a self-help motivational speaker, Wilkinson is relentlessly upbeat and optimistic, and quick with anecdotes. Though I am not always used to donning the rose-colored glasses, I did find this book to be an easy read and very inspirational. The ninety-something pages flew by rather quickly, and most readers will probably finish it in one sitting. Wilkinson does an excellent job talking about the wonderful exhiliration in receiving God's blessing and having ones borders expanded in terms of ministry. Lest we think we can achieve this on our own, Wilkinson stresses the importance of relying on the hand of God, not just in receiving blessings and help in our ministry, but also in keeping us away from evil, temptation, and deception. If we pray this prayer, or one like it, in earnest, we are on our way to living out an honorable life before God. I did, however, feel uncomfortable at certain points, wondering how some readers might take Wilkinson's interpretation. I'm not certain that this prayer should be given so much emphasis as to start organizing an "Operation Jabez", or expecting on a regular basis the "miracle of Jabez" to occur. The daily dose of "Jabez praying" that Wilkinson prescribes is definitely not a bad idea, but it might give one the impression that it is a quick fix to any problem we may encounter. Some may also get the impression that if we wish for something specific and say the magic Jabez words, our wish will, POOF!, be granted. Wilkinson writes of "challenging God's power" by asking, for example, for things like more revenue for the businessman, asking that ones flight be delayed because you are running behind and don't want to miss the flight, or for the entire island of Trinidad. I'm afraid that some may find that no matter how earnest and genuine their personal request may seem, God's intentions may not exactly mesh with your petitioning for a DC-10 in order to expand the outreach of your ministry. You may be setting yourself up for disappointment if you get too specific in your requests of God, because God sometimes has a peculiar way of answering your prayers. Neither the Lord's prayer, nor that of Jabez, contain any specific requests for a particular detail in life. Should Wilkinson be disappointed if, say, he recruits only 100,000 Bible teachers for his ministry WorldTeach, when his actual prayer was for 120,000? Or, perhaps a more pertinent question would be, should the reader be disappointed if he is only able to minister to one or two people in a week, instead of the one or two thousand he reached in the example he gave about his youth ministry outreach program? What God intends for us might not always coincide with what we think God intends for us. The life of Job would have still been the same, even if he excercised daily in Jabez-prayer. The Christian life is not always an easy path. Wilkinson probably would not deny this, but some of his readers may not interpret his book in this manner. Maybe I am being too picky in voicing these concerns, but I felt I should say something. Bruce Wilkinson's book is an excellent and inspirational work for which I will still give a high recommendation. I am looking forward to reading his next book, which I believe is already out, entitled Secrets of the Vine. Another book I'll recommend trying is one of my own (shameless plug, I know), entitled A New Beginning (Eric Westra).
Rating: 
Summary: What would Jesus say...
Review: I am surprized that when ask by the disciples, "Lord, Teach us to Pray" Jesus just didn't refer them to the Prayer of Jabez. Instead he taught them what we've come to know as "The Lords Prayer" and in doing so instructed that prayer is to be directed to God, in Praise and Worship as opposed to commanding the God of the Universe to do simple things for the Plyaint.
Rating:
Summary: a disquieting bestselling riff on a biblical sentence
Review: With over 4 million copies of this book sold, I decided to purchase one. A slim book by a minister and author, a leader of Promise Keepers. In it, Wilkinson takes a four line prayer from the Book of Chronicles I, Chapter 4, and discusses why people should pray for wealth and all that is coming to them, professing that it is no sin to ask for more. It was slightly interesting to see how his interpretation of the four lines differed from those of classical Jewish commentators - commentators who wrote that the man was nicknamed Yavetz (Yud, Ayin, Bet, Tzaddik) by his mother, a Reversal or play on the word Atzev (Ayin, Tzaddik, Bet), meaning sadness or loss. Maybe he was born after the death of his father or someone else? Maybe it was an allusion to Benjamin, a name based on Ben-Oni, or son of my painful birth. Chronicles with a sly smile had Yavetz, nicknamed sadness, pray for a life that would not be sad. The text of Chronicles was important to those returning from the Babylonian exile, people who wanted to redeem, resettle and reclaim Israel. Wilkinson's take on the prayers is as follows: Bruce Wilkinson, reprints the four line prayer of Jabez (1 Chronicles 4:9-10) in the first chapter. Wilkinson recites it daily, and implores Christians to use it to change their lives. In the successive chapters, Wilkinson comments on each line of the prayer. Chapter 2 is a discourse on the first line. Quoting Matthew and James, Wilkinson writes that it is permissible to ask for blessings without feeling greedy and self centered (ask for the presents that are in the warehouse waiting for you). In Chapter 3, Wilkinson looks at the line of "enlarging my territory..." Wilkinson interprets it to mean that it is acceptable for Christian men to pray for more business or larger portfolios; Christian women may ask for greater influence for their households. Giving examples from his own life as a evangelist, Wilkinson writes about how the prayer allowed him to reach out to a conflicted man while on a cruise and save a woman from her fear of the Antichrist and its deceptions while on a train trip. In Chapter 4, Wilkinson directs his attention to the feeling of abandonment and fear that those Christians who do the work of God will feel. They shouldn't fear dependence. He then gives examples from his own life, such as the time he lead dozens of teens to preach on Long Island beaches to save the unchurched. In Chapter 5, Wilkinson discusses how to immunize oneself from evil through the prayer. He narrates the time he flew on a plane after preaching and counseling for a full week, and discovered that seated to his right and to his left were men reading pornographic magazines. He prayed and suddenly both men closed their magazines. In Chapter 6, Wilkinson recounts how his daily recital of the prayer aids his ministry and being a Christian messenger. Once he was in a taxi, on the way to an airport, when an accident delayed traffic. He prayed that the flight would be DELAYED so he would not miss it (hmmm... one would think that he would have prayed for the health of anyone injured in the accident.) Well, the flight WAS delayed, the passengers were milling about waiting, and he got to counsel a woman and convince her not to divorce her cheating husband. Finally, Wilkinson closes the slim book by recommending that the reader pray the prayer, keep a journal of their daily prayers, and record the expanded number of people they influence each day.
Rating:
Summary: One sentence prayer
Review: I've read several of the reviews of this precious little book and I've found one in particular I can agree with. I, too, feel that this little book is to be used to teach us about faith in our walk with the Lord. Bruce Wilkinson didn't write it with the intention to have believers get greedy! He wrote it to guide and advise us. I've spent time in Chronicles and this one sentence prayer is about growing in faith. Jabez wanted to learn how to walk WITH the Lord, FOR the Lord. He wanted to be used by God; he didn't want to hurt others. Take a lesson from Jabez - be willing to be used by God!
Rating:
Summary: Give Me a Break
Review: After reading several reviews, I'm sadden to realize how many people just didn't get it! First of all, the Prayer of Jabez isn't a glutenous, selfish, greedy prayer. It's a prayer that asks God to stretch us and challenge us so that we may be of more use to Him! That's why we are here...to glorify Him! Of course this was a good prayer. God made it a point to include the name of Jabez, and the fact that he was honorable, in His Word. Some have complained that Wilkinson's "thoughts" were too long and shouldn't have been included. I think the author was only trying to share his perspective and what God has laid on his heart about the passage. I highly reccommend this book. God has a purpose for everything included in His Word, including this little known prayer.
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