The Real Prayer of Jabez
Any one who knows me knows that I have a huge beef with the Prosperity Gospel. It sickens me to see the Word of God reduced to just another snake-oil self-help scam where you can get anything you want if you just “think positively.” One of the most popular examples of this is The Prayer of Jabez, which misuses a small anecdote found in 1 Chronicles 4:9-11: 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. Many people interpret this as, “If you ask God to...
Hearing the Sacred Echo
One of my favorite authors is Margaret Feinberg. She has an amazing ability to make the Word of God come alive. Tomorrow on my own personal blog, I will write about her latest book Scouting the Divine, but today I’d like to look at her book from last year, The Sacred Echo. Feinberg describes sacred echoes as “those moments when God speaks the same message to my heart again and again. I call them sacred echoes because I’ve noticed that throughout my relationships, daily life, and study, the same scripturally-sound idea or phrase or word will keep reappearing until I can no longer avoid its presence. Is this mere coincidence, or is there something more?” Indeed I’ve have many experiences where several things have come up, and I...