Jabez and Talents – Grow Your Territory

In his book “The Prayer of Jabez,” Bruce Wilkinson explores the short prayer of Jabez and how it was answered. Bruce uses it as a guide for leading people to pray to have their spiritual territory expanded. Jabez’ prayer was short and comes during a line of kings given in 1 Chronicles 4.

Given that the author of 1 Chronicles breaks from the line of kings to mention Jabez shows that he was held in high regard. He cried out to God for his territory to be expanded and God granted his request. No details are given as to how much the territory was expanded nor what the original limits were, so there is no way to measure God’s providence. But were there any conditions?

Flip over to Matthew 25 to the Parable of the talents. Seems like a break in flow from Jabez, but it isn’t. In the parable, a master gives three of his servants portions of his property measured in talents. To one he gave 5, another 2 and the last 1. The first two immediately put the talents to work and both doubled what they were given. The last however, buried the talent given him.

Upon returning, the master rewarded the first two servants and punished the third. But why? The third servant was not a good steward of what he had been given, so it was taken from him. The other two, just like Jabez, were good stewards and their territory was expanded. And there is a key to expanding your territory.

If you are not responsible with what little you have already been given, you will not be given any more. If fact, what you have may be taken from you. It doesn’t matter if what you were given is a job making $10,000 a year or a business returning over a million, not taking care of what you have will lead to you loosing it.

Are you placing all manner of ads and getting nothing? Getting leads, but none are converting? Take stock with what you have. Are you using it properly? Getting the most of it? Be honest and thorough. If not, start there. Unless you are not using what you have effectively, why would you want more? Burning through money and credit now? Getting more sales will only lead you to dig a deeper hole.

Most people want more, but few take stock of what they have now. Use your current resources to their highest potential before trying to reach for more. Are you taking stock of your activities? Are they leading you to make more money or costing? Why would you want more activities that cost?

Don’t get ahead of blessings to come. Use what you have from the start and then look to expand your territory. Remember Jabez and user your talents effectively. Your territory will expand and lead you to success only when you expand from full use, not from full waste.