What God says about you

"What matters is what God says about you after everybody else stopped talking." Bob Gass

In the same way at some point I became close to obsessed to find out why God said about King David that he was "a man after His own heart", I had a similar moment with Jabez. He is very famous with some of my brothers and sisters because of his prayer, you can see it sold on book marks, bumper stickers you name it. I wanted to see what is so special about this prayer, because in my humble opinion, David's prayers in Psalms beat this one every day of the week, so surely there had to be more to it than just the words. Who was Jabez? The Bible talks about him in 1 Chronicles, you go along nicely reading the genealogy of the tribe of Judah, and all of the sudden at verse 9, it stops and states:
"Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez (Pain in Hebrew) saying, "I gave birth to him in pain." Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." And God granted his request." (1 Chronicles 4:9-10)

That's it, then the verses simply pick up from 11 and continues the genealogy of Judah. No mention of who was the father of Jabez, nor who was the son of Jabez.
That seemed very unusual to me because normally genealogies tell who was the son of who and you can clearly see a chronology. In this case it looks as if God literally "interrupts" the genealogy of Judah to mention this man. Why?
Many use this prayer because it ends with "and God granted his request" as if there would be magic formula involved. I personally think, and I am sure I'm not the only one, that Jabez's prayer is about something else. It's about God's relationship with a man in two verses. God was so touched by this man, that he interrupted an entire genealogy to mention him and let us know that He listened to Jabez. I don't think it was necessarily about something Jabez said to God, I think it was simply the fact that Jabez "cried out to the God of Israel", he called upon God. The Bible is not clear on his origins, he might have not been from among the people of Israel, but he called upon the God of Israel. Out of all the things the Bible could have said about this man, it tells us he was destined to pain. In Judaism names are very important, they're not just names given to you because they sound nice, for Jews your name is your destiny, your identity, something your parents desire for you to become. His mother called him "Pain", but Jabez refused to accept this destiny and he cried out to the God of Israel. He understood that if somebody is able to re-write his destiny, that is the God of Israel.
His prayer is not a magic formula, it is actually a list: "Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain." Period. That's all that is recorded. We don't know what else he might have said to God to be granted what he requested. And quite frankly, I don't think God granted him something because of some promise Jabez made Him, that's why is all left somewhere in the air as if ...is due. I believe with all my heart that God granted Jabez what he wanted not because of his prayer, but because Jabez sought God's face, when no one else in his family did. When I first read, Jabez's prayer it gave me a feeling of: "Lord, God of Israel, when I came into this world they called me Jabez (Pain), please You make me Asher (Happy). And God granted his request.
Jabez seems to have found the secret of a transformed life- seek God's face. It really doesn't matter where you started from and the name people gave you. It doesn't matter if they destined you to pain and suffering, you seek God's face, because He is The One who will write the last page in your book, and trust me your epilogue will have nothing in common with your prologue after you lived before the Face of the Mighty One of Israel.

“ I will change your name. You will no longer be called wounded, outcast, lonely or afraid. I will change your name. Your new name shall be Confidence, Joyfulness, Overcoming One, Faithfulness, Friend of God, The One who seeks My face.”

Be blessed.

Emanuela