The Greatest Blessings

"Oh, that you would bless me..."  1 Chronicles 4:10 NIV

"God, please bless my children to make good grades in school."

"God, please bless me to sell this house."

"God, please bless me that I might get that new job."

"God, please bless my mother that she would be healed of cancer."

"God, please bless this food to the nourishment of my body."

Ever asked God to bless a certain area of your life? God loves for us to ask Him for blessings. As I read the Scriptures, and even now, as I study this Jabez character, I am firmly convinced that God expects, even longs for us to ask Him to bless us. Isaiah 30:18, one of my favorite verses, says that "God longs to be gracious to you." The King James Version says the Lord will "wait" that He may be gracious unto you. God wants to bless us.

The interesting thing about Jabez asking God to bless him, is that he doesn't fill in the blanks. He didn't say, as I have listed above, "God bless my children" or "bless my house." He just ask God to bless him.

Do you know what this says about Jabez? First, it says that Jabez was going to allow God to fill in the blanks. "God bless me as you see fit," in other words. Jabez was allowing God to determine how he should be blessed.

Second, and most important, this prayer indicates that Jabez put full confidence in God's ability to bless him, and that Jabez trusted God to do the right thing in his life. Jabez counted on God to bless him in a way that would be best. He trusted God to work all things for his good.

I know you and I ask God to bless us in specific areas of our life every day. Can you and I trust God to bless us as He sees best? When we place ourselves completely in His hands, allowing Him to work His will, we will see the greatest "blessings" in our life.