Make Room For Your Blessing

Rev. James C. Matthews
"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." 1 Chronicles 4:10

Most people today are familiar with the Prayer of Jabez and how he dared to ask God to bless him indeed. Many of us may have memorized and even recited Jabez's prayer in hopes that God would likewise respond to our prayers and bless us in a like manner.

However, I believe one of the major reasons many of our prayers have not been answered is because we have forgotten or simply do not understand a principle that Jabez understood. This principle is: "God blesses those who have prepared themselves to be blessed".

When Jabez asked God to bless him indeed, he was asking God do something He nor anyone around him had experienced. He asked for something out of the ordinary and supernatural. Recognizing he did not have the capacity to handle such a blessing, He petitioned God to provide him with the necessary capacity by expanding his borders. Jabez said, God bless me indeed, but don't forget to correspondingly increase my ability to handle what You are going to do. This is the key to experiencing God's abundance in your life.

Many of us have asked God to do something extra ordinary in our lives but we don't have the capacity to handle or properly manage what we've asked for. We've asked God to pour out rivers of blessing upon us but only have a cups capacity. If God were to give us what we've asked for much of it would be wasted. God will never give us something that we are not ready for.

There may even be some who have been preparing themselves for expansion but have forgotten God in their preparation. You can't build a barn big enough to hold what God can pour out. Only God knows the measure and integrity of the container needed to possess His blessings.

When God called Abraham and told him that he was going to multiply and bless him abundantly the first thing He told him was to move. God told him to move from his family and go to a place that He would show him. God told Abraham to move for two reasons:

(1) It would remove him from the pagan influences of his family and society, and
(2) to make room for the blessing that He had planned to give him.

Abraham disobeyed God by bring his nephew Lot with him and the first recorded quarrel they had was not over money or theological differences - but space. God had blessed Abraham to the point that the land could not hold both of them. The reason the land could not hold both of them was because the land was given in proportion to Abraham's blessing. God blessed Abraham but also gave him the means and ability to possess and care for his blessing.

What have you asked God to do in your life? Do you believe that God will answer you? Are your preparations adequate and in line with what you've asked Him for? Have you included God in your preparations? I believe if Jabez were here to share with us the key to experiencing abundance in our lives he would say: First, believe that God will bless you, and second, you must be prepared for your blessing before it will comes.

Have you made room for your blessing?