Christian Living II - Lecture 14 - Petition

Petition is that aspect of prayer given over to asking God for specific personal things. Page 81

Matthew 6:6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

Rather, We should meet with God in our room (or “closet”). The idea is of a private place where we can impress no one except God.

The specific ancient Greek word “room” was used for a storeroom where treasures were kept. This reminds us that there are treasures waiting for us in our prayer closet.

Let’s look at a famous petition in the Bible.

(Sermon I preached June 2023 at Mount Zion Tabernacle Silver Springs, NY)

Bigger Borders

1 Chronicles 4_9-10

9 And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow. 10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.

We know very little about Jabez. In 1 Chron. 2:55 it indicates that a town of scribes was named after him.

i. Admirable (Person) (v. 9 – “And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren…”)

a. He was more honorable than his brethren.

i. Though he was just a man.

b. He was a sorrow to his mother. (“…his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow.”)

i. It seems that he was born with pain.

ii. “It was her pain but it was made his name.” Mine.

ii. Audacious (Petition) (v. 10a)

a. He asked for:

i. Blessing. (…bless me indeed…)

1. He asked to be blessed indeed.

ii. Enlarging. (…enlarge my coast…)

1. Jabez prayed for enlarged territory. Virtually all older commentators agree with Matthew Poole that Jabez called on the God of Israel “when he was undertaking some great and dangerous service,” in particular the conquest of the land of Canaan. Therefore, when he prayed “enlarge my territory,” it was to “drive out these wicked and cursed Canaanites, whom thou hast commanded us to root out, and therefore I justly beg and expect thy blessing in the execution of thy command.” (Poole)

2. Adam Clarke quotes a Chaldean translation of this prayer, with the line: and enlarge my borders with disciples. This, together with the scribal city associated with his name, indicates (but does not prove) that Jabez’s desire for more territory was not only to displace the wicked; but also to advance the cause of godliness through the multiplication of disciples.

iii. Favor. (…thine hand might be with me…)

1. Jabez asked that the hand of God would be with him. “The ‘hand of the Lord’ is a biblical term for God’s power and presence in the lives of His people.”

2. In Psalm 77:10, the Psalmist wrote: I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High.

a. Here Jabez prayed in advance for something to remember later – to see the hand of God with him now.

iv. Holiness. (…keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!)

1. Jabez asked to be kept from evil and that he would not cause pain. Some other translations render this with the idea that pain Jabez did not want to cause was his own.

2. Poole said, “He used this expression in allusion to his name, which signifies grief; Lord, let me not have that grief which my name implies, and which my sin deserves.”

a. In this Jabez recognized the evil in this world, no doubt because he had lived through much pain in his life.

b. In this Jabez recognized that he needed God to keep him from evil.

c. In this Jabez recognized that the hand of God to bless us can transform the evil and pain of life.

i. He did not want to be a TRANSGRESSOR.

ii. He needed God to TRIUMPH.

iii. He knew God could TRANSFORM!

1. God could transform the pain he went through!

2. God could transform the rejection he felt!

3. God could transform the grief he experienced!

iii. Answered (Prayer) (v. 10b)

a. The Bible says, “God granted him that which he requested.”

b. What does that mean?

i. Better Blessings!

1. At First I thought it was a pretty vague request. “Bless me…”

a. But He focused it in:

i. Bless me…Enlarge me…Thine hand with me…keep me from evil…keep me from grief.

ii. Bigger Borders!

1. It was a pretty scary request. “enlarge my coasts…”

a. Take me out of my comfort zone and get me to where YOU want me Lord!!!

Isaiah 54:1-6 1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD. 2 Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; 3 For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. 4 Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. 5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. 6 For the LORD hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.

The Lord wants to bless His children!!!

ILLUS: A dear Pastor friend of mine, …has some wonderful members in his church, one of them is a grandmother that is raising her grandson. One Sunday morning, the grandmother showed up without her grandson, and told the pastor she couldn’t wake him up. Something came over that Pastor and he did something that I have wanted to do so many times, but have never had the courage to do. He went to their house, went to the boys room and made him get up, and come to church. He said the young man was mad (probably from embarrassment). But the Pastor told him, “This is the Lord’s day, you don’t make excuses, you get to church!”

That morning they had a guest speaker, and He spoke of how they were on God’s mind. He told a story about when he was a young man, he grew up in foster care, and poor. But someone had given him a present of Jordan’s. For a poor kid to get a present of Jordan’s it was huge deal. (Which was kind of the young man’s story). That guest speaker pulled out a pair Jordan’s and looked at the young man who was made to come to church that day and made to sit on the front row. He said, “Young man what shoe size are you?” The young man responded and said, “size 10.” The evangelist replied, "Well the Holy Spirit put you on my heart and told me to give these size 10 Jordan’s to you.”

God’s wants to bless you… Just ask.

E.M. Bounds – “Prayer is the language of a man burdened with a sense of need. Not to pray is not only to declare that there is nothing needed, but to admit to a non-realization of that need.” Page 82

Keys to Petition: (Page 83-84)

1. A Petition Should Be Specific.

a. Andrew Murray “Let your prayer be so definite that you can say as you leave the prayer closet, ‘I know what I have asked from the Father, and I expect an answer.’”

2. A Petition Should Be Complete.

a. Pray carefully through each request.

b. The more specific and complete the petition, the more faith is generated when we bring it to God.

i. Adrian Rogers – “Tragically, many of our prayers are so vague that if God were to answer them, we wouldn’t know it.”

c. Especially be careful that your petitions do not become sermons pointed heavenward.

i. D.L. Moody “We hear a good deal of praying that is just exhorting God, and if you did not see the man’s eyes closed, you would supposed that he was preaching. Much that is called prayer is not prayer at all. There needs to be more petition in our prayers.”

3. A Petition Should Be Sincere.

a. Unknown source - “We are to ask with a beggar’s humility, to seek with a servant’s carefulness, and to knock with the confidence of a friend.”

4. A Petition Should Be Simple.

a. Eloquence is not necessary for effective praying.