The Prayer of Jabez: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life

Rating:
Summary: An Inspiration
Review: I have read this book and find its content very inspirational and completely different than what the very negetive reviewers are saying. I would have to assume they either did not really read the book or purposfully have chosen to make it say things it does not say. If you actually read what is written you would see that he says clearly this is not the only thing you pray... but just a small part. You dont stop here .... it is not the answer to everything. Read it, enjoy it and let the grumpy nasayers sit in their corner alone.

Rating:
Summary: one of the worst "christian" books i've read
Review: this is the health and wealth gospel repackaged by a author who supposedly knows how the "Walk Thru the Bible." This is a walk thru a "soft, make you feel good, don't ask for any sacrifice" Bible. By the way, that is not the message of the real Bible that starts with Genesis and ends with Revalation.
I do remember a story in the Bible of a man who wanted to build a bigger barn, etc, but that story didn't end near as happily as the story that Bruce paints.

Rating:
Summary: Hysterics and Histrionics
Review: Many the reviews of this little book might have been influenced by a spirit of jealousy. Perhaps the critics wish they had written such a book!Briefly, Bruce Wilkinson has written a simple explanation about one of the boldest prayers in the Bible. It is for those of us who desire to stretch our faith beyond our feeble abilities to reach the world for Christ. Wilkinson's approach is short, to the point, and very encouraging to the weary Christian pilgrim. All the prayers of the Bible are there for our use as the Holy Spirit leads us. The author does not exalt this prayer above the others, but whets our appetite to search the scriptures for even more.

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Summary: Graze to a new hill because the grass in this book is poison
Review: How an author can take a couple dozen words, from the Old Testament, quote them out of context, and then waste 93 pages on twisting them to mean what he wants is absolutely beyond me. This book flatly contradicts the entire book of Job. The theology is bad, the concept is bad, and the selfishness and greed taught by this book is quite dreadful. I was amazed that Wilkinson could actually write a book that would sell in the Christian market that contains no Christian reasoning, teaching, or thoughts at all, and that actually contradicts the main concepts of the Christian faith. This book really brings back to pasture the reason we are called probaton, (sheep) in the Bible. We really are "things that move forward", whether it is a new pasture that looks greener to us, or if it is a poisonous little book that promises to make us rich if we repeat this magic prayer daily like good little sheep. Wow!

Rating:
Summary: A Better Suggestion: Matthew 6:9-13
Review: I picked up this book recently just to see what all the hooplah was about. The book was short and easy to read (it shouldn't take you more than a couple of hours). Unfortunately, what I read was theologically shallow, exegetically unfounded, and spiritually harmful. According to Wilkinson, the book is "about what happens when ordinary Christians decide to reach for an extraordinary life--which, as it turns out, is exactly the kind God promises" (p. 9).

What does it mean to have an extraordinary life? Apparently, for Wilkinson, this is a life where believers get to expand their territories (whether in their jobs, businesses, homes, etc.) and to be free from evil (and its associated problems). Now, I am not totally against praying for physical needs. In the Lord's Prayer, our Lord did tell us to pray "Give us today our daily bread." There is nothing inherently sinful praying for security, peace, health, and daily nourishment (Christians are, btw, not Gnostics and do not despise the physical life). But Wilkinson seems to make the Prayer of Jabez (found in 1 Chronicles 4:10) as some sort of "magical" formula for God to give us things we want. According to Wilkinson God has this warehouse in heaven stocked up with all sorts of blessings just ready to be showered down to us if we simply ask Him in prayer (p. 27). He then quotes James 4:2 to defend this position forgetting what James wrote right after: "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures" (4:3).

Now I do agree with Wilkinson that modern Christians need to make prayer a pivotal aspect of their Christian life. A prayerless Christian is a powerless Christian, and God cannot use those who will not seek Him in prayer. However, this must be tempered with the fact that God is not some Santa Claus in heaven who will just throw down "a blessing" because we repeat some formula during our quiet times. God is sovereign and He will distribute His blessings as He sees fit.

Also, the spiritual harm that will come about from this book will be significant. What about those people who pray this prayer to be healed from a sickness or to be released from financial difficulties but get no positive response? The spiritual harm that comes is that these people will start thinking that God does not consider them His own. The Reformers, however, always taught that assurance comes from looking to Christ and not from looking at our outward circumstances. In fact, if we look at our outward circumstances, most of the time Christians will conclude that God is not on their side.

There is also this subtle danger that God's constant will is for Christians to live in comfort, ease, and pleasure. However, this kind of belief is not found in the Bible. If one reads the Bible responsibly one will discover that the early disciples were constantly under persecution for their faith. In fact, Paul had a thorn on his side that God refused to remove just to humble him (please note: God is more concerned about building up godly men and women than about providing happiness to his people).

Wilkinson's theology is basically the gospel wrapped up in a Western, materialistic, and modern blanket. And the fact that so many professing Christians give this book four or five stars shows the theological shallowness of the modern evangelical church in general. In fact, it appears that many conservative evangelicals have followed the same hermeneutical path of early 20th century liberals: let one's own desire or outlook determine how the Bible should be interpreted.

Overall, the book is a dismal disappointment. Jesus Christ - the sinless One - gave us a model prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. I urge fellow believers in Christ to use this prayer instead during their devotionals. It is theologically rich and practically sound. Don't give into the hype that this book has caused. For the author of Hebrews once wrote that true believers look for a land that is not of this earth but above and beyond (Hebrews 11:13-16). It is irrational to want to have lots of things during this life when we have everything in Jesus Christ - justification, sanctification, new life, adoption as sons, etc. The only reason why I did not give this book one star is because I thought the chapter "Keeping the Legacy Safe" (chapter 5) was fairly decent.

Rating:
Summary: A light read, but may be helpful
Review: The author has done a commendable job of expounding on a particularly obscure piece of scripture. Although I've read the bible "front to back" several times, the last three times I've skipped the first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles because the long list of "begats" had little interest for me. Mr. Wilkinson has made an excellent point that even the most seemingly uninteresting parts of the bible have the words of everlasting life in them.

The book is easy to read, even in one sitting, and certainly will draw you to prayer. One wonders how helpful the "Prayer of Jabez" actually is, though. I can't recall a single instance in the book of Winkinson mentioning Jesus or the cross and resurrection. What a contrast to Paul: "I purposed to know nothing except Christ and him crucified!" I'm concerned that this book doesn't have enough of the gospel in it, unless you are meaning the "prosperity gospel."

I have to agree with other reviewers who have noted that one is probably much better off reciting the Lord's Prayer each morning, and rereading one of the Gospels each week.

I'm glad I read this book, but I'm not likely to recommend it to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book to draw one closer to God
Review: The Prayer of Jabez leads the reader to a closer relationship with God through a prayer that reveals God's desires for us. The prayer , as discussed by Dr. Wilkinson, does not lead us to ask for "stuff" but blessings that involve interaction with God and experiencing his presence. Dr. Wilkinson's examples of his own blessings from the Jabez prayer all involve ministry and really blessing other people by God working through him. Contrary to several reviews' statements, this book is not about materialism or selfishness.

An example from the author's life is about him leading a youth group to evangelize children and beachgoers. They led many to Christ as they exceeding their own reach and allowed God to "enlarge their territory" in ministry. This is the idea of Wilkinson's book: to live the Bible.

He basis his ideas on the brief passage of scripture, but his expansions of the ideas involve the big picture of living for Christ.

This book is as much a testimony of God's work in the author's life and through the author as it is about a prayer, but Dr. Wilkinson gives all the credit to God and to his own attitude toward God that has been shaped by his adherence to the principles revealed in this brief prayer from the Bible.

Dr. Wilkinson writes simply and profoundly about the context of the prayer and elaborates on each line of it. This book will lead you into a fuller experience of the abundant life Jesus came to give us--if you will follow its guidelines and not try to make them conform to a worldly point of view.

I think people reacting negatively to this book are reacting to something other than is on the pages of it.

This is a book to read on a regular basis as a supplement to scripture. It serves to inspire a renewed vigor in prayers.

Rating:
Summary: The health and wealth gospel repackaged
Review: Though I completely missed it the first time through, this book is nothing more than the health and wealth gospel. Kudos to Wilkinson, though, for repackaging an unbiblical idea in such a manner as to seem thoroughly Christian.

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Summary: Jesus never prayed it
Review: If you haven't been exposed to it yet - you will. The Prayer of Jabez, a book by Dr. Bruce Wilkinson is all the rage in evangelical churches right now. A small and easily readable volume, Dr. Wilkinson says in his preface to it: "I want to teach you how to pray a daring prayer that God always blesses...I believe it contains the key to a life of extraordinary favor with God." Sadly, it is from this point on that we must read with great caution. While I have not a single doubt as to Dr. Wilkinson's great sincerity and love for Christ, nor his zeal for Believers, unfortunately his fictionalized approach to the life of Jabez, and the superstitious manner in which he encourages his readers to pray the prayer of Jabez like some form of Christian charm is deeply disturbing. Perhaps its greatest error rests in the fact that it paints a picture of a God who is not sovereign in His universe, but one who is frustratingly waiting for you and me to untie His hands in order that He might act. As we read on page 29 - "God's bounty is limited only by us, not by His resources, power, or willingness to give." Or on page 48 that "we release God's power to accomplish His will and bring Him glory through all those seeming impossibilities." Or worse yet, page 77 where Dr. Wilkinson imagines what God might say to him if he had not entered upon this Prayer of Jabez course - "Let me show you what I wanted for you and tried repeatedly to accomplish through you...but you wouldn't let me." Beloved, such statements are simply the product of a low view or poor understanding of the sovereignty of God and how He acts within His universe. It makes much of man and his will, and little of God and His will. That is always the beginning of great error.

Spurgeon once wrote: "Depend upon it, there are countless holy influences which flow from the habitual maintenance of great thought of God, as there are incalculable mischiefs which flow from our small thoughts of Him. The root of false theology is belittling God; and the essence of true divinity is greatening God, magnifying Him, and enlarging our conceptions of His majesty and glory to the utmost degree." This is true! The moment we leave this reality and trade the omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent God of the Bible for one who timidly and impotently stands in the shadows hoping that somehow His fallen creatures will empower Him to act - we have made man god, and God less than man. Now I must repeat, that I do not for one second think that Dr. Wilkinson has done so intentionally - but nonetheless, very errantly. And it is this dear one which we must guard our hearts against. The picture painted for us in this book, is far different than the one given in God's book. Where is the God of Daniel 4:35 of whom we read - "All the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, But He does according to His will in the host of heaven And among the inhabitants of earth; And no one can ward off His hand Or say to Him, 'What have You done?"? Or the God of Isaiah 46:10 who is "Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, 'My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure"? This is the God we serve. This is the One whom we can rest the surety of our soul's salvation upon, for He not only can, but DOES act in spite of and contrary to us every day in order to bring about the fullness of His good will toward us.

Now we must be clear here. It is right to ask God to bless us - we are to look to Him in everything. It is right to ask God to be useful in His Kingdom and to bless our efforts to obey. It is right to depend upon the power of God in all things. It is right to ask God to be kept from evil. The danger comes when we superstitiously adopt something like this excellent prayer - as though just repeating it (as we are counseled to do in the book - along with several other steps for 30 days) will magically make things happen. This is little more than a Christianized form of white magic, albeit most innocently enjoined, I'm sure. But think about it for one moment - If Jesus' teaching on prayer (not to mention we are not using the prayer HE taught us to pray) was that we are to avoid vain repetitions as the heathen pray - how do we then, in the
name of Christ, enter upon that very course? Please - do not get me wrong. God indeed answers prayer. But it is not due to the fact that we pray a specific prayer, nor because of how often or how long we might pray it - but because He is our Father and promises to hear us! Period. The heart of any Believer yielded up in seeking His face is met with God's abundant graciousness, whether you even know if the prayer of Jabez exists or not.

In all seriousness, if this prayer of Jabez were in fact "the key to a life of extraordinary favor with God" - we are left with two insurmountable problems. First, apparently Jesus was unaware that we needed this prayer, for we have no record that He ever prayed it, ever taught anyone else to pray it, nor even mentioned it. Isn't it odd that Christ Himself never mentioned "the key"? Nor is it ever mentioned in any of the New Testament writings. Odd. Secondly, it flies in the face of the fact that our favor with the Father is to be rooted in that we are "in Christ." (Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.) If we are looking for keys to the Christian life, maybe we would be better off not worrying so much about trying to find some measure of extraordinary favor which we already have in Christ, and spend more time following things like those Jesus mentions in Matt. 16:24 "Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." There's the Christian life - following Him.