1 Chronicles 4:9 &10

Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother named him Jabez saying, "Because I bore him with pain." Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, "Oh that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from harm that it may not pain me!" And God granted him what he requested.

I love these verses. They are written in the front of my journal, and highlighted in my Bible. This morning I'm reading The Prayer of Jabez for Women by Darlene Wilkerson. This line encouraged me: "I began to use the words of Jabez to express the deepest longings of my own heart. I pleaded with God for a better and bigger view of my life, one that would reveal what He had in mind for me." LONGINGS. There's that word again. 2008 is my year of thinking about the LONGINGS of my heart and what they mean.

On the retreat I wove the theme of LONGINGS into our look at Scripture. Instead of squashing our longings, we want to learn to give them to God to sort and purge. And the ones that remain...I have to believe that they are allowed by Him. Allowed to motivate us. Allowed to cause us to want more. To crave abundant life.

There are a few very tender longings very very close to the surface right now in my life. What does God have in mind? Over them all, I want to be blessed indeed. Life abundant is promised. (John 10:10) Yet the key to understanding, as always, is in the context. 1 Chronicles 4:9 tells us that Jabez was "more honorable." Hmmmmmm. And in John 10:9 Jesus tells us, "I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture." That's the pretext to His promise of life abundant.

I wanna find pasture. The peace that passeth understanding. (Phil 4:7) Abundant life. Whew.