Well, we've come to the last
message of 2012 and the passing of the year is always a good
time to pause for a moment and take stock and think about things
and look forward to the year to come. Lots of people make
what they call New Year's resolutions which mostly turn out to be pretty
empty things because it's all done in the power of the flesh
that is so weak that they can never keep it up for more than
a few minutes. But for the believer, it's good
to stop and think. It's good to stop and think about
what we would want for the year to come. What would your prayer
be for 2013 and beyond? What would it be? What would
you pray for? Now, if you could, what would you pray for? Well,
in 1 Chronicles chapter 4 and verses 9 and 10, we have the
prayer of a man called Jabez. We know very, very little about
him, but turn it up at the moment. 1 Chronicles chapter 4, verse
9. Let us read these two verses,
verses 9 and 10. And Jabez was more honorable
than his brethren. And his mother called his name
Jabez, saying, because I bear him with sorrow. And Jabez called
on the God of Israel, saying, O that thou wouldst bless me
indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be
with me, and that thou wouldst keep me from evil, that it may
not grieve me.' And God granted him that which he requested."
There's the prayer of Jabez. I've called it a New Year's prayer. We don't know very much about
this man at all, in fact very little. These two verses are
the only two verses in the Bible that mention him. There is a
Jabez elsewhere which is a place. There's a place called Jabez,
but the person, these are the only two verses that mention
him. And it's in the book of 1 Chronicles,
which repeats a lot of what's in the books of Kings, but with
a lot more genealogy. So we're in the sections that
are about the sons of various of the patriarchs. And chapter
4 is about the sons of Judah. And apart from that, we know
next to nothing about this man Jabez. But the Holy Spirit has
had it recorded what he prayed. Let's look at him. Jabez was
more honourable than his brethren. That's something we know about
him. He was more honourable than his brethren. In what respect
was he more honourable than his brethren? In what way does the
scripture say that some people are more honourable than others?
You have to do a bit of thinking. You know, you don't just take
it at face value. You don't think more honorable in the eyes of
the world. You know, there's honor in the eyes of the world.
And you say, oh, so-and-so is a great person, a great leader,
a great... No, it doesn't mean that. Think
about it the way that scripture talks about these things. In
Romans 9 and verse 21, talking about God's sovereign grace and
election, Paul writes this, hath not the potter power over the
clay? You know, a potter with a potter's
wheel gets a lump of clay, and the potter with that lump of
clay can say, right, what should I make today? I know, I'll just
make an old earthen vessel that will be good for certain things.
or another one with the same lump of clay would say, today
I'm going to make something that is going to be a beautiful piece
of bone china that is going to be fired in the kiln and painted
and turned into a really beautiful object that will turn up on some
antique show in years to come. Hath not the potter power over
the clay, because it all starts off the same, of the same lump
to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour. This
is speaking about God in sovereign grace. This is speaking about
God in sovereign grace choosing out people for no other reason
than his love for them. they gave him no cause to love
them before time began there was nothing in them that was
attractive or beautiful in any way whatsoever but God in grace
for reasons known only to himself chose a people in Christ before
the foundation of the world he is the potter, he is the divine
potter the clay is humanity that is made from the dust of the
ground and he makes out of his sovereign will of one a vessel
to honor, and another one, a vessel to dishonor. And this is the
sovereign grace of God. And you can kick and scream and
say, I don't like that. That's not fair. I'm not going
to have it that way. I'm not going to have a God that
does that sort of thing. Well, You do what you want, but
that's what the scripture says. And you argue that out on that
day that we must all face with him who is the judge of all.
And you accuse him then of unfairness. You won't be able to. He is just
and right in all that he does. He's a God of grace, and this
man was clearly one of the vessels chosen out by God from amongst
his brethren to be an object of his grace before the foundation
of the world. For although he was in Israel
along with all these other names we see here, as the scripture
tells us in the New Testament, they are not all Israel which
are of Israel. The true Israel is the Israel
of God, Galatians chapter 6. The Israel of God is the people
of God. The Israel of God was Jacob. Jacob. The sinner, the cheat,
the scoundrel, the one who cheated his brother out of his birthright,
the one who stole his father's blessing from his brother. Jacob,
the sinner, who God makes Israel, a prince with God. That's the
Israel that we're talking about. He was a member of the Israel
of God. And yet, in this life, it looks
as though he didn't have a particularly comfortable ride. It looks as
though his life wasn't a bed of roses. Oh, how much, what
would you pray at this turning of the year? Oh, give me all
these blessings. May all these things financially
go well for me. May all these things turn out
good for me. in my education, in my career,
wherever I am, all these things might turn out well and be a
bed of roses for me. Oh, that every traffic light
of life that I might come across might be a green traffic light
and not a red traffic light. You know, it's not like that.
It isn't like that. His mother called his name Jabez.
saying, because I bear him with sorrow. We've no idea what the
sorrow was, but his mother bore him in a situation of sorrow.
Perhaps there was some poverty. Perhaps his father had been killed. Perhaps there was something that
caused it to be a situation of sorrow. it wasn't a bed of roses
and yet this one is singled out in this chapter of the account
of all these people that just came and went and this one is
singled out as more honorable than his brethren though he was
born with sorrow his name means in a sorrowful situation and
then all we read about him apart from that is in verse 10 the
prayer that he prayed The prayer that he prayed is an indication
of the relationship that he had with God. It says that Jabez
called on the God of Israel. He called on the God of Israel.
He prayed to the God of Israel. This man prayed. Believers pray. What was the sign that Saul of
Tarsus had become a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? They
said, oh, he's praying. He's praying. That was the sign. He was praying. He was praying
to the God of Israel. Look who he called on. He called
on the God of Israel. People pray to all sorts of gods,
to gods of their own imagination. the Athenians in ancient Athens
prayed to the unknown God you know they had a God of this and
a God of that and a God of the other and a God of and just to
hedge their bets and make sure they hadn't missed one they had
an unknown God and they prayed to the unknown God they had a
statue there to the unknown God no not the God the unknown God
of the Athenians but the God of Israel and not the airy fairy
god of creation, oh, I believe there's somebody that made all
things despite what all the scientists are telling us these days. No,
not that god either, not the god of creation. And not the
god of your own idolatrous fancy, because that's what so many people
pray to. They think, oh, well, my god
should be like this, and my god wouldn't do that, and my Jesus
wouldn't act in that way. And they just make a Jesus of
their own imagination, who is an idol. An idol is a figment
of your own imagination. You bow down and worship this
idol. No, this man prayed to the God of Israel. He didn't
pray to the universal God of love and mercy like the Armenians
believe in. They believe in a universal God
who loves everybody and has a wonderful plan for everybody's life. And
oh, isn't that a nice God to have? Isn't that the God that
we want to pray? He's not the God of Israel. This man prayed
to the God of Israel. You know, we need to be careful.
I remember, some of you will remember, in years gone by, when
prayer meetings have been regarded as the most important meeting
of the week. The prayer meeting is the most
important meeting of the week. Sorry, I never really got that.
I always tended to think that the meetings where the gospel
was preached were slightly more important. Because that was God
speaking, the gospel of his grace, by his appointed means. And at
those prayer meetings, we started to get all sorts of people who
wouldn't come and listen to the gospel of grace preached, would
come and pray to the God of their own imagination in that most
important meeting of the week. And I remember, some of you might
remember, a woman who came for several weeks who was a spiritualist.
And she was praying verbally, audibly in the prayer meeting.
And she was a spiritualist. We've got to be careful. This
man prayed to the true God. He prayed to the God of Israel. He called on the God of Israel. This is his prayer. Now, how
did he call upon the God of Israel? Remember, he called on the God
of sovereign grace and particular redemption. He called on the
God who was a God of sovereign choice in election. He called
on the God who said, I have loved Jacob, and I have hated Esau."
This is the God of Scripture. This is the God of truth. He
called on the God who says, Psalm 135 verse 4, The Lord hath chosen
Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure. This is a God of discriminating
grace. Understand what I'm saying. A
God of discriminating grace is the true God, is the God of Israel. This is the God He called on.
But how do you call upon this God? How do you call upon Him?
You see, it says, quoting Old Testament scriptures in Romans
10, Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how shall they call on him
whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe on
him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear of him
unless someone preach to them? And how shall they preach unless
they are sent of God to preach? You see it's how God unfolds
the gospel to his people, to his elect. He called upon the
God who had been proclaimed to him. Somehow, we don't know how,
but that's how, by the true preaching of the gospel of God's grace,
leading to the knowledge of the true God. People call upon a
God that is not the true God. They don't know the true God,
but how do you know the true God? You know him through the
gospel of his son, being preached and proclaimed. And in the knowledge
of the true God is eternal life. That's why the children of God
have eternal life. John 17 verse 3, Jesus says this,
this is life eternal. Do you not want a part in that? Life eternal. This is life eternal. That they might know Thee, the
only true God. This is Jesus the Son praying
to God his Father. That they might know Thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. How do you
know Him? through preaching, through the gospel being declared,
through the word of God being opened up under the power of
the Holy Spirit. This is how you call upon the God of Israel.
You know the true God through the true gospel being preached.
All of this religion that prays, oh, we don't agree on all of
these doctrines, but let's get together and have a prayer meeting.
Who are you praying to? Because if you're praying to
your God, and he's praying to his God, and she's praying to
her God, And I'm praying to the God of Scripture, but you don't
believe the God of Scripture, because you don't believe that
he's the God who said, Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I
hated. Oh, but I believe in Jesus. It's
not the same God. The God of Scripture said, Jacob
have I loved, and Esau have I hated. This is the God of Scripture.
You better get used to it. This is the truth. He called
upon the God of Israel, saying, O that thou wouldst bless me
indeed. Let's look at the things that Jabez prayed for. Let's look at the elements of
his prayer, because these are good themes on which we ought
to meditate and pray, especially at this time of year, but always
throughout the year. There are these elements to it.
O that you would bless me indeed. O that you would enlarge my coast.
Oh, that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me
from evil, that it may not grieve me. Those elements. Let's look
at the first one. Oh, that you would bless me indeed. He called on the God of Israel,
the true God, the sovereign God, the omnipotent God. You know
what that means? He can do everything. There is
nothing he cannot do. He's the God of the universe.
He even now, says his word, upholds all things, holds it all together
by the power of the word of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's sovereign
and powerful over all things. Oh, that this God would bless
me indeed. What would you write down as
the list of things that would happen to you for it to be a
blessing from God? You'd probably write down lots
of good things, wouldn't you? That this would go well for me,
that that would go well for me, that I'd get my own way in this
matter, that everything would turn out well for me. Let me
tell you, what you might consider a blessing may well be a curse
and vice versa. What you might think is a blessing
might well be a curse and vice versa. Think of some things.
Think of your health. Mostly, we live lives of pretty
good health. And when people near to us or
that we know get unpleasant things like cancers and other life-threatening
things, it comes as such a shock compared with how things were,
say, 150 years ago, when the typical sort of winter viruses
going around could so easily lead to pneumonia and pneumonia
could so easily lead to death. You just go around the graveyards
of this country and you read the gravestones and you see how
young so many people were when they died. But now, because of
antibiotics and modern medicine, we tend not to be susceptible
to those things. They tend not to be fatal conditions. And so we tend not to think about
health in the way that it used to be thought about. Good health,
permanently good health, you think of it as a blessing. And
it's a good thing. I wouldn't wish ill health on
anybody. But don't forget this, that good health makes you forget
your mortality. It makes you forget that you
live in a world of death. Like an old lady who was close
to death said in response to a question, somebody came to
see her and said, I see that you're still in the land of the
living. She said, oh no, I'm in the land of the dying still.
I soon hope to be in the land of the living. because she was
going to be with her Lord. No, health makes you forget eternal
realities. It makes you forget how frail
you really are. It makes you forget that your
life can be taken away in a moment. We hear about it in the news.
Two young boys, their lives are taken away in a moment on a day
which should have been filled with happiness for them, just
in a moment. Some kids at school in Connecticut,
their lives are taken away in a moment. Health, you think of
health as nothing other than a blessing. But that which makes
you forget eternity may well turn out to be a curse to you.
Whereas sickness, a bout of sickness makes the world not quite so
attractive. It removes the happiness that
there is in the flesh without God. No, don't necessarily think
that Uninterrupted good health is
necessarily a blessing. Think of money. Who would prefer
more money rather than less money? I bet everybody, honestly, in
your flesh, you'd all say, I'd rather have more than less. But
money, what's it all about? Love of the world. Desires of
the flesh and of the mind. Where is it putting your affections?
Certainly not on God, who gives you all things. No, money, which
might seem such a blessing, riches, material well-being, which might
seem such a blessing, can so often, in actual fact, be a curse. Whereas poverty, poverty teaches
dependence on God. It doesn't happen so much these
days. with the welfare provision we have. But if you read the
accounts of the saints of God of even a couple of hundred years
ago, and you look at the poverty that they went through, read
William Huntingdon's little book, The Bank of Faith, where he shows
there how he was taught total, day by day, dependence on the
living God, on the one who clothes the lilies, who feeds the sparrows,
total dependence on them. We tend to become immune to that. And that which we tend to think
of as such a blessing becomes the very opposite. Think of high
reputation. Wouldn't it be a blessing to
be regarded as so important in your field, in whatever thing
it might be in the world? And it's all because in actual
fact, in our hearts, in our fleshly hearts, we're afraid of a man
that shall die, rather than having the fear of God within us. Whereas
persecution from the world, drives one to God. It drives one back
to God, to do what Peter calls in 2 Peter chapter 1, making
your calling and election sure. No, blessings that we think are
blessings can so often turn around and in actual fact be a curse. And that which seems to us to
be a curse, the curse of ill health, the curse of not having
enough money, the curse of having persecution rather than high
reputation, can in actual fact be such a blessing. Oh that you
would bless me indeed, because he prays that he might be blessed
indeed. What is it to be blessed indeed? It's to be blessed with the fear
of the Lord, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom, the beginning of knowledge. the knowledge of God's presence.
Bless me indeed with the knowledge of your presence. Bless me indeed
with the felt presence of your Son. Galatians 1.16 Paul says
this, that it pleased God to reveal his Son in me. That's
a blessing indeed. Oh that God might reveal his
Son in you. in His grace, in His mercy, in
the power of His atoning blood, that He might bless you indeed
by revealing His Son in you, that you might know, as Colossians
1.27 says, Christ in you, in your heart, the felt presence
of Christ in you, which is the hope of glory. not just knowing
about Christ, but feeling him in the soul. Bless me indeed
by weaning me from idols. The flesh is so prone to idolatry. Wean me from idols. Wean me from
those things. Deliver me as Jeremiah chapter
2 verse 13 says that he's got this against his people that
they've abandoned him the fountain of living waters and they've
sought out their own waters in cisterns you know it's not it's
not flowing in a cistern it's just a tank but they're broken
cisterns that cannot hold water you know like the old hymn says
I tried the broken cisterns Lord but are their waters failed and
even as I stoop to drink They mocked me as I wailed. The broken
systems, oh that we might be weaned from the broken systems
of this world and all that it promises, that's to be blessed
indeed. To be weaned from those things.
To be separated in affection from the world. The world is
so alluring. The things in the world are so
alluring. But to be separated in affection
so that you can enjoy things in the world, You can partake
of things but not be tied to them in a bond of affection at
the expense of knowing the blessing of God indeed. Having your heart
set on things above, these are blessings indeed. Then he says
this, oh that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my coast. Enlarge my coast. Your coast
is the limit of your experience. Think of this island on which
we live. The coast, you know, you can walk or drive in any
direction you want and go as far as you like, but as somebody,
we were living in Barrow-in-Furness on the end of a peninsula many
years ago, and I met somebody from this part of the world,
and he said, where are you living now? And I said, oh, in Barrow-in-Furness.
And he said, oh, I don't know where it is. He said, I'm sure
I've been through it on the way to somewhere else. I said, I'm
absolutely sure you haven't, because it's at the limit of
your experience. It's at the end of the coast. If you go through
it on the way to somewhere else, you'll end up in the sea. There's
nowhere else to go. That's where it is. It's the
end of a peninsula. You can only go somewhere else
by turning around and going the other direction. Your coast is
the limit of your experience. This is not talking about geography.
This is talking about spiritual experience. Enlarge my coast. Enlarge the bounds of my experience. There's various levels of experience. in the Christian faith. There's
various levels of experience of the grace of God. Some know
salvation, but they're still shy, timid people filled with
doubts and fears and guilt and convictions, and they have a
very narrow coast. And others have an extended coast,
in that they rest in Christ's blood, and they know something
of the righteousness of God in Him, but they're not yet brought
into the full liberty of the gospel. And others have a wider
still experience, extend my coast, enlarge my coast, a wider experience
of light and life and liberty and joy and peace in the gospel. As we read in Psalm 16 earlier
on, verse 6, the lines have fallen to me, says the psalmist, in
pleasant places. The lines, the boundaries, the
coast, the limit of my experience has fallen to me in pleasant
places. This is his prayer. bless me
indeed, but enlarge my coast, oh, that I might know more of
the salvation of God. Just as the Lord divided to the
tribes and inheritance and put down boundaries, that there were
their limits, were their coasts effectively. He says that again
and again regarding Israel and the tribes, Isaiah 34 verse 17,
and he hath cast the lot for them, and his hand hath divided
it unto them by line, the boundaries, the coasts, and they shall possess
it forever. Expand my coast. Enlarge my coast. Don't be satisfied with your
limited spiritual experience, but pray, Lord, expand, enlarge
my coast. Give me a larger experience of
the blessings of your grace. For he's blessed his people with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Psalm 119,
32. I will run in the way of your
commandments when you shall enlarge my heart." Enlarge my heart. Enlarge my coast. Enlarge my
experience. As it says in Isaiah 54. You
know what Isaiah 53 is? it's the most clear chapter in
the Old Testament of the gospel of substitutionary atonement
by the suffering servant who comes and bears the sins of his
people and makes them righteous in being that lamb before the
shearers done and the gospel is clearly there and then the
fruits and the benefits of it we see in Isaiah 54 the next
chapter in the first two verses enlarge the place of thy tent
and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy inhabitations.
Spare not, lengthen thy cords, strengthen thy stakes. It's talking
about the same thing. Broaden my spiritual experience. Give me a deeper spiritual experience
of the love of God which is in Jesus Christ. It's not territorial,
this enlarge my coast prayer. This is give me a deeper, more
meaningful experience of the liberty and the blessings of
the gospel. It's a spiritual expansion that he's praying for.
He's praying that he might know the love of Christ more and more
that passes knowledge. It's best summed up by reading
Philippians chapter 3. And you know the words fairly
well, verses 7 to 10. Paul says, but what things were
gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ, all his religion,
all his pharisaical religion, he counted
it loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless. And I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord. You see? All those things are
negligible compared to the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, reputation,
his standing as a Pharisee, the respect that the Jews had for
him, all of those, he suffered the loss of all things, material
well-being, and do count them, but done. The things that the
flesh counts are so valuable, He counts as a pile of manure.
That's what it means. He counts them but done, that
I may win Christ and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness,
which is by the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. the righteousness which is of God by faith that I may
know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship
of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. This
is what Jabez is praying, enlarge my coast that I might know more
of the depths of the knowledge of the blessings that are in
the Lord Jesus Christ for he's blessed his people with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in him. Increase my knowledge
of Christ, is what he's praying. Increase my interest in his redemption. May that be before my eyes. What
would you pray for this coming year? What blessings would you
pray for? This is the prayer of the true
Saint of God. He prays to the God of Israel
and says, Bless me indeed with all things that seem good to
you. Enlarge my coast and then that your hand might be with
me. that your hand might be with me. You're going to embark on
all sorts of things in this coming year. Who knows what it will
bring? Who knows what it will bring in terms of health, sickness,
travels, gain, loss, whatever it might be, but in everything
you do, he says that your hand might be with me. Oh God, do
not let me go anywhere and do anything except your hand be
with me, to guide me, to lead me in everything at its start. in its middle, at the end of
it. If the Lord go not with us, it
would be better if we didn't go at all. If the Lord build
not the house, those that labor, labor in vain. Oh, that your
hand might be with me, that it might be with us in all that
we do, that we might not do anything of our own volition or initiative,
but that you might go with us in all things. Psalm 23 says
this, about the Christian life not
being a bed of roses, but spiritually, green pastures and still waters,
and then he says, Yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Your hand is with me. In whatever
the situation, whether it be what the flesh would regard as
good, or what the flesh would regard as bad, that your hand
would be with me. The sovereign God, who rules
over everything, who causes all things to work together for the
eternal good of his people, which is what he does. He causes all
things to work together. What sort of a life have you
had? One of absolute blessing, because the hand of the Lord
has been with me all the way through. But what if you had
done this? But I didn't, because God ordered it that way, and
this is where we are, and this is how things are. all things
for the eternal good of his people. He directs physical events. He
directs the accidents, the tragedies, the illnesses, the monetary loss,
the gains, the career, the job loss, the job gain, all of these
things. He does all these things. Oh,
that your hand might be with me, because you know the God
whom we serve, this God of Israel, The God who promises to his people,
I will be their God and they will be my people. In Jeremiah
29 verse 11, I love these verses, God says this, I know the thoughts
that I think toward you, saith the Lord. To the people that
he's promised to be the God of. Thoughts of peace and not of
evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall he call upon
me and you shall go and pray unto me. and I will hearken unto
you, and I will not turn away from them to do them good. This
is the God who we pray, O that your hand might be with me. There
is no enchantment against Jacob. Why? Because God's hand is with
him in all things. O let that be our prayer, that
your hand might be with me, that I might be blessed indeed in
the way that God counts blessing on his people, that I might be
directed in all things, and his hand be with me, that my experience
of the salvation that is in Christ might be deepened. And then,
that you would keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me. Oh,
this we pray. The Lord's Prayer, you know,
that which is called the Lord's Prayer. The Lord teaches to pray
and he taught them to pray. Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. And he prays, he tells them to
pray this. Deliver us from evil, deliver
us from evil, keep me from evil. These doctrines of grace that
we believe and love, not for the sake of the doctrines but
for the sake of the one who is the saviour, These doctrines
of grace do not lead to sin, to licentiousness, to open sin. Absolutely not. They do not do
that. Shall we sin? What? Shall we
sin that grace may abound? God forbid, says Paul. Absolutely
not. Oh that we would see the seriousness
of sin. And that we would pray, God,
keep me from evil. Please, Father, keep me from
evil. That your hand might go with me and keep me from evil,
because evil will only cause me grief. It will only cause
me sorrow. Cause us to see the seriousness
of sin. how serious it is. The fact that
in the gospel of grace you're saved from sin by the gracious
application of the blood of Christ does not make light of sin, it
does the very opposite. Paul went through his life and
the more he knew and the older he became in the experience of
Christ, the more he knew, as we saw last week, he was the
chief of sinners. The seriousness of sin. Job said
this, he said, I'd heard of you with the ear and I thought I
knew a thing or two. But he said, now my eye has seen
you. And you know when Job saw God,
In that way, in that way of spiritual enlightenment, do you know what
Job thought of himself at that point? You can read it in Job
42 verses 5 and 6. He said, I abhor myself, I despise
myself in dust and ashes because I see what I am as a sinner. a sinner. Oh, wasn't this man
one who eschewed evil? Wasn't this man one who was regarded
as so much better than all his contemporaries? But when he saw
himself against the holiness of God, he hated himself in dust
and ashes. This is a prayer that you would
keep me from evil. And it's a prayer to God, keep
me from evil. I know I can't keep myself from
evil. This is the prayer, keep me from
evil. Not just from the outward appearance of evil, that might
damage my external reputation. but rather that it won't grieve
me, cause me pain internally. How might it cause me pain? By
barring my access to the mercy seat, because I'll be so weighed
down with the knowledge of the sin within myself. Barring my
access to the mercy seat, or bringing down heavy chastisements
from God upon me. This is how it might cause me
pain. God says when they sin, he will punish them with the
rod of chastisement. They won't lose their salvation,
but he'll punish them. Oh, that it might not grieve
me. Lord, as we go into this new year, that your right hand
might be with me, that you would keep me from evil, that it might
not grieve me. This is the prayer of Jabez.
This is a good prayer. It's a good prayer because it's
in accordance with God's word. It's a good prayer because it's
a prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a good prayer
because it's a prayer to the God of Israel who is the God
of Scripture. And look what the outcome of
it is. Look at the last sentence of verse 10. And God granted
him that which he requested. It's a prayer in accordance with
God's word and God's will. John 14, verse 13. And whatsoever ye shall ask in
my name, That will I do, said Jesus, that the father may be
glorified in the son. If you shall ask anything in
my name, I will do it. Oh, give me a brand spanking
new car. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no. Oh, give me all these
other wonderful, no, no, no. Bless me indeed. Bless me with
spiritual blessings. Bless me in my experience of
salvation. Bless me in being with me in
all that I do. Bless me by keeping me from evil.
I know I'm sin. I know I sin every day, but keep
me from evil that it won't grieve me. And be pleased to grant my
request. I think that's a good prayer
for a new year. Amen.