A MODEL PRAYER
Part 3


A. "AND JABEZ CALLED ON THE GOD OF ISRAEL, SAYING OF THAT THOU WOULDEST BLESS ME INDEED, AND THAT THINE HAND MIGHT BE WITH ME" - I CHRON. 4:10
  1. The prayer for the hand of God:
    1. This part of Jabez's petition is as amazing as it is revealing
    2. The hand of the God of Israel stands for action all the way
    3. Thus Jabez prays for action by the Lord, that is a daring request, but to the liking of the God of his fathers
  2. The Bible teems with living illustrations:
    1. The arm of the Lord - "Put on strength Oh arm of the Lord" - Is. 51:9; "He hath made bare his holy arm" - Is. 52:10
    2. Jabez must have had a working knowledge of "the arm of the God of Israel" and he sought the Lord in earnest prayer to see this arm in action in his behalf
B. LET US NOTE A NUMBER OF GLORIOUS TRUTHS ABOUT THE ARM OF THE LORD
  1. The creative hand; - man is spoken of as the work of God's creative hand:
    1. "Thy hands have made and fashioned me" - Ps. 119:73
    2. "The heavens are the work of thy hands" - Ps. 102:25; that is true also of the earth. "The sea is his, and he made it; and his hands formed the dry lands" - Ps. 95:5
  2. The hand of the absolute sovereign owner:
    1. "For he maketh sore, and bindeth up; he woundeth, and his hands make whole" - Job 5:18
    2. That was literally true in the earthly ministry of the Son of God - Mark 7:33; Luke 7:14; Luke 22:51
    3. Says the Psalmist, "My times are in thy hand; deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me" - Ps. 31:15
  3. The hand of the perpetual, bountiful giver:
    1. Writes David, "That thou givest them, they gather; thou openest thine hand, they are filled" - Ps. 104:28
    2. "Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing" - Ps. 145:16
    3. This was literally fulfilled in the ministry of the Son of God - John 6:11
C. NOTE FURTHER THE HAND OF GOD IN RELATIONSHIP TO HIS CREATION
  1. The hand of one that delivers, uplifts and upholds:
    1. Said Moses in his intercessory prayer to God, "Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth our of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand" - Ex. 32:11
    2. In Deuteronomy 5:15 the Lord reminds his people of how "the Lord thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm"
    3. And in Isaiah 41:10 the Lord says, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee; be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness"
  2. The hand of the corrector and chastiser:
    1. This was the experience of ancient Israel when they did evil - "Whitersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil" - Judges 2:15
    2. Says the Psalmist, "For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me" - Ps. 32:4. "For thine arrows stick fast in me, and thy hand pressed me sore" - Ps. 38:2; 39:10
  3. The hand of widest sway and sovereign control, of power to rule and power to overrule:
    1. compare, please, Isaiah 40:12 with 42:16-17; Is. 40:25-31
    2. The hand of God, not only rules in the universe, but it often overrules in the affairs of men - compare Is. 40:12 with Dan. 3:17-24; 6:6-28; Acts 12:5-18
    3. Says the preacher, "The kings heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water he turneth it whitersoever he will" - Prov. 21:1
  4. Last but not least - the hand that pledges and secures absolute and everlasting safety:
    1. "I have graven thee on the palms of my hand" - Is. 49:16; "They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them to me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand" - John 10:28-29. Thus we see the wisdom of Jabez's prayer in many ways to the glory of God.


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