July 7 “BLESS ME LORD”

THERE is a lot of stats about sons and tribes that might just cause you to doze off in our text today, but you can miss a great nugget of truth and revy (revelation) in the midst of it. Verse 10 "Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "oh that you would bless me and enlarge my territory!” I would say that request is a number of things ....#1, it's pretty gutsy, #2, it's pretty self-serving, #3 it's pretty honest, maybe too honest or maybe not! Because surprisingly, God doesn't rebuke him for being so self centered and audacious to ask that God bless him and his family. What about the rest of the world, there's people starving all over the world and all your concerned about is that God bless you and your family, c'mon! So what is God's response...."And God granted his request!" What are you serious?! God granted him his request......well why don't I pray that then, why can he ask that and I can't? Who said you couldn't??? Why are we so afraid to ask God to bless us and enlarge our territory? Jabez was given a piece of land, property and he has the nerve to ask him to enlarge it. But yet God does.
By and large, most Christians I know are struggling financially, have very little money and practically none to bless others with. Just recently I was approached by a brother who had brought someone out to church, knew the individual was looking for fellowship, rather than just be driven home, but yet, in the end, he drove him home because he had no money to take himself out to eat, not to mention having to pay for another person. Is it just the group or sphere of Christians I run with or is this the norm? Are many Christians broke and impoverished? I don't think it's fair for me to speak on behalf of Christians all over the world (and I will not) but I can speak for Christians in my neck of the woods. I once worked with a Real Estate Mortgage Professional who told me often Christians were his worse clients, with the least money and often the worse credit. Should that be? Now there can be many factors contributing to this, it could have been traumatic circumstances that brought them to Christ in the first place and now they are having to deal with baggage from the past, so I do acknowledge, often we don't have or see the whole picture, so I understand that, BUT, that does not write off, or explain for the many, many Christians who serve Christ (supposedly) and yet are impoverished. Are we called to be rich? Not necessarily, at least not monetarily...BUT (there's lots of "buts" today) is it a shame for us to ask that God would bless us and enlarge our territory? If you are serving God truthfully and faithfully why not ask God to bless you and in so doing make you a blessing to others? There are Christians that are in such impoverishment that they do not get involved in helping others, do not entertain in their homes, cannot give people rides, cannot bless others, cannot take someone out to eat or help them out and they cannot even imagine or conceive being involved in helping others, surely this is not the way it's supposed to be. Some Christians beleive it spiritual to make a vow of poverty (though I've never found that principle in the Word of God) and Jabez did the opposite. Does poverty glorify God? Does it glorify God for new Christians or the world to see that we are in financial distress, impoverished, begging, having are lights turned off, empty fridges, credit agencies calling, bankruptcy filings, not able to pick others up, not able to bless, not able to take someone out to eat, not able to put some money in someone's hand, not able to buy groceries for a struggling single mom.....is this really spiritual, is poverty really something God relishes in? Our text today is not a one time incident, it is available to all who would DARE to ask, it is available to all that would be trusted with blessing, it is available to all that are serving God truthfully and faithfully, it is available to all that God knows would pass the blessing on. Now....do you DARE to ask, I double dog DARE YOU!