THE PRAYER OF JABEZ (9 OF 10)

The Prayer of Jabez (9 of 10)
The Lord's Prayer
Roger Thomas
1 Chronicles 4:9-10
October 7, 2001


Have you read the little book The Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson? If you haven't, you are one of the few who hasn't. Dr. Bruce Wilkinson's book has made Christian publishing history with nearly eight million copies sold. On September 15, The Prayer of Jabez was number 3 on the American Booksellers Association nonfiction list; number 1 on Publisher's Weekly's list; and the number 8 seller in the category on the internet bookstore Amazon.com. World Magazine's combined rankings of all the major nonfiction best-seller lists gave The Prayer of Jabez an overall position of number 3 behind Stephen Ambrose's WWII saga The Wild Blue and David McCulough's biography of John Adams.

This is amazing because never before has a religious book even come close to these achievements. Even more startling is the content of Wilkinson's book. The brief ninety-two page book is an exposition and application of a relatively obscure passage from the Old Testament. The underlying theme is prayer and God's willingness to answer our prayers and bless our lives. Wilkinson, the director of Walk Through the Bible Ministries, claims that he has been praying this prayer for over thirty years and as a result has seen God do some amazing things. Moreover, he insists that anyone who prays this prayer can expect the supernatural.

Tonight I want to examine both the book and the scripture behind it. The book has drawn mixed reviews. Secular reviewers don't know what to do with it. They are often befuddled by its popularity. Some Bible scholars have struggled to take it seriously. They observe rightly that it is very brief and in a sense, very "superficial." It is clearly not the best thing every written on prayer. It is probably not even the best book on the market right now on the topic. But it has caught the attention of our society. And this before the 911 tragedy!

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