1 Chronicles 4:9-10 And Jabez was more honorable than his brothers: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bore him with sorrow.… These words contain a life's history in a sentence. This brief epitome of human life appeals to universal experience. Its very brevity increases its suggestiveness. I. THE MOTHER'S FAITHLESS ANTICIPATION REMINDS US HOW THE PRESENT OFTEN COLOURS OUR THOUGHTS OF THE FUTURE. Our judgments are biassed, often warped by our circumstances. We interpret even the past by the present, and often fail therefore to make a just estimate of it. We can only form a right estimate of the past by transporting ourselves back into it. This is impossible with respect to the future. We may learn what has been yesterday, but we know not what shall be on the morrow. Hence the especial danger of letting our anticipations be coloured by our present circumstances. God's teaching is the very reverse of this. The thought of the future is to colour the present. As Mr. Canning, when he announced in Parliament the independence of South America, said "that he brought in the New World to redress the balance of the Old," so God gives us the bright inheritance of heaven as a counterbalance to the cares and sorrows of earth. It is only in the light of the future as revealed to us by God, that we can rightly estimate the present. When we reverse God's teaching we unfit ourselves for the future. We go forth to the duties and burdens of the morrow weakened by apprehension, instead of being strong with the courage of hope. II. THE PRAYER OF JABEZ COMBINES WISE RETICENCE AND ORDINARY AMBITION. These are the elements of true prayer — a sense of dependence, the expression of confidence, and unrestrained petition, pouring out the heart to God, leaving to Him the decision as to what is blessing indeed. III. THIS PRAYER ALSO REVEALS THE TRUE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIAN LIFE. It is the outcome of practical piety. Perhaps like Caleb he had to conquer his own inheritance. His dependence upon God did not mean inaction. He had learned the great lesson that prayer and effort go hand in hand, the one inspiring and sanctifying the other. Our great need is to live more nearly as we pray. We can only ask that God's hand may be with us when our supreme desire is to do God's will. Such prayer is both a test and a safeguard. (A. F. Joscelyne.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow. |
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