FAITH CAPSULE: A change that you need is a change that will meet your need.
1 Chronicles 4:1-12
What you know about who you are will determine what to expect from your world. However, if you are one that does not know who you are, it will be challenging to live fully in the abundance of what has been bestowed upon you by the grace of God. The psalmist stated, “A man who is in honor, yet does not understand, is like the beasts that perish.” (Psalm 49:20) If a man in honor with no understanding perishes, then a man in honor with understanding is bound to appear and excel to the glory of God. Unfortunately, many are in honor and not know to live life as one that is privileged with honor. Are you living life in honor that is bestowed upon you by the grace of God?
It is recorded in I Chronicles 4:9, “Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” How else can the Bible describe a man better than being referred to as honorable? Jabez was an honorable man living a degenerated life by answering to a name which does not identify him for what God called him to be. Jabez recognized the meaning of his name as what needed to change. The Bible recorded, “And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “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!” So God granted him what he requested. ” (1 Chronicles 4:10) God is the only unchanging changer. Jabez (meaning sorrow) called on God and specifically asked God for what could be his blessings as one that is identified honorable by the word of God.
Jabez prayed a specific and direct prayer. Jabez wanted to be blessed, he did not pray “bless me Lord” but he specified the kind of blessing that he wanted. An honorable man deserves a large territory and he asked for the blessing of a large territory. Above that, he prayed for the hand of God to be with him just in case the evil one went after him. He called on God to have himself changed from being a vessel of pain to a vessel of gain. What area of your life needs to be changed for you to enter into what the Lord has called you to be? All it took for change to have its way in the life of Jabez was the ability to ask, and he did not ask a miss. Jesus encouraged us in Luke 11:9, “…Ask and it will be given to you: seek, and you will find; Knock and it will be opened to you.” Is it your name that needs to be changed for changes to locate you?
Prayer for today: Ask God to open up your understanding that you live for what the Lord called you to be.