Jabez Prayer: What labels do you wear?

A few days ago I wrote a message about the Jabez Prayer on the church facebook.  I'd like to take a few weeks to examine the prayer more fully. There are many powerful prayers that can aid us in coming to the Lord with bold prayers of faith.

1 Chronicles 4:9
9Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother named him Jabez saying, "Because I bore him with pain." 10Now 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.…

Let's take the next few days to examine labels placed upon us by others or our own perceptions.

Labels
Jabez is found in a genealogy of Judah.  His life is summed up in two verses of the Bible and could easily be overlooked.  Many people skip over the Bible's records of descendants that hold names that we can't properly pronounce and whose lives seem to be just fillers in a long list of who begot who among the ancient Israelites. 

Jabez was said to be more honorable then his brothers but for some reason his mother named him Jabez which means, sorrow, trouble and pain.  We don't know why his Mother put such a permanent label on him.  She said she bore him in pain.  One would think it would be more than the pain of childbirth.  Perhaps her circumstances  at the time of his birth were less than ideal.  The name may explain why Jabez ends his prayer with asking God to keep him from pain.  Jabez grew up with a hurtful name and label, yet turned out to be an honorable man. 

Judges chapter six tells us about another man with a label.  Gideon grew up with an inferiority complex.  His country needed someone to lead them and bring victory over a formable enemy.  The angel of the Lord came him a mighty man of valor,but he saw himself as little and insignificant. The Word tells us that his mindset was stuck in wondering where the God that his ancestors had described was because he hadn't seen victory in his life.   He didn't see God in his everyday and questioned the evidence of God's love and provision.  He felt alone and abandoned.  God moved through the Angel of the Lord  to change his mindset because he was chosen to bring deliverance to his people. Shaking the label he grew up with was the first step to becoming what God called him to do.  Letting go of feeling like God didn't care about him or his people was absolutely required in order fulfill what God planned for him.  He felt little and without resource.  Jesus wants to call us by the name he has called us to not a false label put there by man or even by our perceptions of our circumstances.  He speaks our name, the character He has determined and bids us to shed the limitations of the label we've worn that seeks to keep us from His call and belittle the potential He's placed in us to accomplish His will for the Kingdom of Heaven in our life. Are you brave enough to examine the things that have hindered you?  What labels do you wear from childhood, from life experiences, from the past, from failures, from the screams of others?  Truthfully some of the labels may have validity in that you've acted a certain way, went a certain path, believed a lie, or accepted a label as fact.....but the God of the universe whispers your true identity in Him and my friend His Word changes everything if you allow it too. He is our righteousness.