Entire Prayer
Sections of Prayer:
Adoration
Confession
Thanksgiving
Supplication
Gifts/Fruits of the Spirit
Keep Me From Evil (Ten Commandments/"Prayer of St. Francis")
Protect Me From Evil (Armor of God)
Total Surrender
Sections of Prayer:
Adoration
Confession
Thanksgiving
Supplication
Gifts/Fruits of the Spirit
Keep Me From Evil (Ten Commandments/"Prayer of St. Francis")
Protect Me From Evil (Armor of God)
Total Surrender
How It Started
It all started with the Prayer of Jabez. This is a strange little prayer in I Chronicles 4, verses 9 and 10. The book of I Chronicles is not the most interesting book in the Bible, because the first eight and a half chapters are simply a listing of the genealogy of the Israelites, starting with Adam, and proceeding through the various clans of Israel. Suddenly, in the middle of the list of the clans of Judah we find this story:
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, 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.
There is no indication of any connection between Jabez and the people listed before or after this story, and no explanation of why it is there. In 2000, Bruce Wilkinson wrote a very popular little book about this prayer, encouraging Christians to invoke this prayer for themselves on a daily basis, and promising that they will notice significant changes in their lives. While he stated in his introduction that this was not a “prosperity prayer”, he then proceeded to act like it is in the rest of the book.
Expanding the Prayer
I thought it could make a good prayer of surrender, so I expanded it just enough to it to make it totally clear that it is not a prayer for my own personal prosperity, but a prayer of surrender to God, seeking only His will for His glory:
Father - Bless myself, my family, and your Church indeed, and expand our territory for Your Kingdom. May Your hand be with us, guiding us, uplifting us, strengthening us, unifying us and filling us with the joyful fire of Your merciful love. Keep us from any evil, that we might not cause any harm, any pain or any suffering. Also protect us from any evil. I pray this in Jesus name—that it will be in Your will and only for Your glory Father.
“That Goes in the Prayer”
This happened in January, 2001, and I continued to pray this prayer every morning as I started to read through the Bible that year. One morning I got a clear nudge that I should add the verse I had just read to the prayer, which I did. Then it happened again, and again, until at the end of that year when I finished reading the Bible, the prayer had grown to a five page summary of the commands in the Bible prayed back to God, acknowledging that I can’t achieve what God was asking of me in my own power, and putting myself in God’s very capable Hands and asking Him to do whatever was necessary to bring me into conformance with His will. I reorganized the verses into the ACTS format (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication), and also brought together verses that were related to each other, such as the gifts and fruits of the Spirit, and verses about the armor of God.
Praying the Prayer
I continued to pray this prayer each morning, and found that because almost every line in the prayer is a direct quote from the Scriptures prayed back to God, certain verses would jump off the page as an area that I needed to focus on, so it became an important part of my spiritual growth. While I no longer pray the entire prayer every morning, I have found it to be useful in several ways:
- I pray the entire prayer whenever I feel weak in my faith, under some sort of temptation, or just led to do so by God.
- I sometimes pray the prayer over the course of a week, praying one page each morning.
- I pray just a section of the prayer when I want to focus on a particular topic, such as Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, protection from evil, or the gifts of the Spirit. (See above for links to each section.)
- Each verse is followed by its reference, so I have found I can use the prayer to find a verse I am thinking of but am not sure where it is in the Bible.
Group Prayer
Praying God's Word is especially powerful in a small group that is seated in a circle or around a table. One person starts by praying the first sentence, then the second person prays the second sentence, and so forth. Include the headings, but do not read the references at the end of each verse of scripture. Any size group of two or more can pray together this way as long as each person knows when it is their turn to pray.
It all started with the Prayer of Jabez. This is a strange little prayer in I Chronicles 4, verses 9 and 10. The book of I Chronicles is not the most interesting book in the Bible, because the first eight and a half chapters are simply a listing of the genealogy of the Israelites, starting with Adam, and proceeding through the various clans of Israel. Suddenly, in the middle of the list of the clans of Judah we find this story:
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, 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.
There is no indication of any connection between Jabez and the people listed before or after this story, and no explanation of why it is there. In 2000, Bruce Wilkinson wrote a very popular little book about this prayer, encouraging Christians to invoke this prayer for themselves on a daily basis, and promising that they will notice significant changes in their lives. While he stated in his introduction that this was not a “prosperity prayer”, he then proceeded to act like it is in the rest of the book.
Expanding the Prayer
I thought it could make a good prayer of surrender, so I expanded it just enough to it to make it totally clear that it is not a prayer for my own personal prosperity, but a prayer of surrender to God, seeking only His will for His glory:
Father - Bless myself, my family, and your Church indeed, and expand our territory for Your Kingdom. May Your hand be with us, guiding us, uplifting us, strengthening us, unifying us and filling us with the joyful fire of Your merciful love. Keep us from any evil, that we might not cause any harm, any pain or any suffering. Also protect us from any evil. I pray this in Jesus name—that it will be in Your will and only for Your glory Father.
“That Goes in the Prayer”
This happened in January, 2001, and I continued to pray this prayer every morning as I started to read through the Bible that year. One morning I got a clear nudge that I should add the verse I had just read to the prayer, which I did. Then it happened again, and again, until at the end of that year when I finished reading the Bible, the prayer had grown to a five page summary of the commands in the Bible prayed back to God, acknowledging that I can’t achieve what God was asking of me in my own power, and putting myself in God’s very capable Hands and asking Him to do whatever was necessary to bring me into conformance with His will. I reorganized the verses into the ACTS format (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication), and also brought together verses that were related to each other, such as the gifts and fruits of the Spirit, and verses about the armor of God.
Praying the Prayer
I continued to pray this prayer each morning, and found that because almost every line in the prayer is a direct quote from the Scriptures prayed back to God, certain verses would jump off the page as an area that I needed to focus on, so it became an important part of my spiritual growth. While I no longer pray the entire prayer every morning, I have found it to be useful in several ways:
- I pray the entire prayer whenever I feel weak in my faith, under some sort of temptation, or just led to do so by God.
- I sometimes pray the prayer over the course of a week, praying one page each morning.
- I pray just a section of the prayer when I want to focus on a particular topic, such as Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, protection from evil, or the gifts of the Spirit. (See above for links to each section.)
- Each verse is followed by its reference, so I have found I can use the prayer to find a verse I am thinking of but am not sure where it is in the Bible.
Group Prayer
Praying God's Word is especially powerful in a small group that is seated in a circle or around a table. One person starts by praying the first sentence, then the second person prays the second sentence, and so forth. Include the headings, but do not read the references at the end of each verse of scripture. Any size group of two or more can pray together this way as long as each person knows when it is their turn to pray.