Question: Undoubtedly the hottest selling book at the moment in Christian circles is The Prayer of ...

Question: Undoubtedly the hottest selling book at the moment in Christian circles is The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson. It has sold nearly 4 million copies and according to wide publicity is revolutionizing the lives of thousands all over the world. After reading it I came away with some serious misgivings. What is your opinion?

Response: 1 Chronicles:4:10And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.
See All... tells us, “And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.” This is a good prayer which God answered for Jabez because it was His will to do so, not because there is something special about the prayer itself as Wilkinson would have us believe. Nor is there anything in the passage to indicate that these words should be prayed by anyone else or that it must necessarily be answered for anyone else—much less for everyone as the author insists.

Yet Wilkinson has daily been repeating this prayer “word for word” for more than 30 years and claims that as a direct result his life has been filled with blessing. On James Dobson’s radio program he declared that anyone who prayed Jabez’s prayer for two weeks would see his life transformed. The back cover of the book promises, “...discover how the remarkable prayer of a little-known Bible hero can release God’s favor, power, and protection. You’ll see how one daily prayer can help you...break through to the life you were meant to live.” There is no biblical basis for such extravagant claims which undoubtedly have enticed many readers

Actually, there is considerable good in the book. The author has much to say about being submissive to God’s will and leaving to the Lord what blessings He will provide. Yet the book also contradicts that idea and could easily lead readers to believe that the Jabez prayer is a way of getting what they want from God. Consider the following: “Why not look at the globe and pick an island...then take over the island for God...ask God for Trinidad...and a DC-10” (p. 33). Such demands supposedly will be answered if only you daily repeat the Jabez prayer. Wilkinson points to his own success and declares, “I’m living proof” that the Jabez prayer has extraordinary power (p. 87). The success stories of others are also used as “proof.” But cults and other religions have success stories too!

While Wilkinson gives emphasis to spiritual blessings, nothing of that nature can be derived from the prayer of Jabez. In fact, Jabez asked for purely physical blessings of two kinds: the enlarging of the territory he would possess in the promised land; and to be kept from harm. There are many far more spiritual prayers in the Bible!

Even without turning to the Hebrew, the meaning of the word “evil” from which Jabez asks to be kept is clear because he adds, “that it may not grieve me!” Evil in the sense of moral wickedness can do nothing but grieve the people of God. The evil Jabez refers to is ra in Hebrew, which means affliction, adversity, calamity, personal disaster. Contrast this with the “deliver us from evil [Greek, poneros]” in the pattern of prayer our Lord gave us. There, instead of physical harm or loss, poneros has the meaning of moral wickedness. But Jabez’s prayer has no concern for that. It is obvious which is the more spiritual prayer!

There are scores of at least equally good prayers recorded in the Bible and expressed by many others whom God also blessed. Why single out Jabez’s prayer as better or more likely to be answered by God than prayers by David or Paul, or even Christ? The author offers the appealing suggestion that this prayer allows one to be a bit “selfish” and to ask God for personal blessing and abundance: “I want to show you that such a prayer is not the self-centered act it might appear, but a supremely spiritual one and exactly the kind of request our Father longs to hear” (p. 19). On the contrary, “supremely spiritual” hardly fits.

Even more enticing is the author’s claim that this is “a daring prayer that God always answers...it contains the key to a life of extraordinary favor with God” (preface; emphasis added). This, too, is misleading and unbiblical. There is no biblical basis for the claim that a prayer in and of itself with- out a life of obedience always brings God’s “extraordinary favor.” Consider in contrast what John says: “And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight” (1 Jn:3:22And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his sight.
See All...). Or con- sider James: “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (Jas 5:16). Yet no such conditions apparently are required for this incredibly effective Jabez prayer!

It is extremely captivating to be handed a prayer that God always answers with great blessing. Everyone would want such a prayer, especially since it guarantees personal blessing that Wilkinson says can legitimately be rather selfish. The author offers readers a mantra to be repeated, verbatim, and endlessly. Not God, but the prayer of Jabez automatically brings blessing! Faith is turned from God to a formula. This prayer is guaranteed to work because it is “a brilliant but little-understood strategy for...a blessed life” (p. 63)! Strategy?

In spite of patches of good spiritual counsel in the book, we fear that it promotes false ideas about prayer. Warning against “vain repetitions,” Jesus gave a pattern for prayer: “after this manner therefore pray ye” (Mt 6:7-15) and included an admonition about a heart attitude that would prevent any prayer from being answered. Wilkinson offers a set prayer to be repeated verbatim so often that, though not so intended, it could become meaningless rote.