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ccording to one humorist, \"God always answers prayer. Sometimes it is \"Yes\" and sometimes \"No.\" Other times it\'s \"Wait a while.\" And sometimes, \"You\'ve got to be kidding!\"

I\'m sure God has a sense of humor, too, and must have various reactions to some of our prayers. Some approach God as if he were a \"Father-Christmas-in-the-sky\" with their \"gimme, gimme, gimme\" requests. Others come to God as if they were using some kind of \"divine Aladdin\'s lamp\" wanting to have their every whim and wish fulfilled.

Many, however, come to God with the right motive. The prayers of these people are the ones that God hears, honors, and answers. One such prayer is recorded in the Bible. It was by an almost unknown man whose name was Jabez. He prayed, \"Oh that you [God] would bless me wonderfully. Please be with me in all that I do. Greatly expand my borders. And keep me from all evil and disaster.\"¹

Apparently Jabez prayed with the right motive because God heard and answered his prayer. Praying with the right motive is one of the keys for getting prayer answered. James, the brother of Jesus, said, \"You have not because you don\'t ask. And when you do ask, you ask with the wrong motive.\"²

Another key for effective prayer is praying truthfully. As David wrote in the Psalms, \"The Lord is near to all who call on him\'€”to all who call on him in truth.\"³

I recently read about one woman\'s near-death experience. Whether this was real or imagined, I don\'t know but I liked her visual concept of prayer. She \"saw\" herself in heaven and, looking back at earth, saw many beams of light reaching up to God. These, in her mind, represented the prayers of God\'s people.

She \'saw\' ... many beams of
light reaching up to God. These,
in her mind, represented the
prayers of God\'s people.

I also like to \"see\" my prayers as a beam of light reaching up to God. Light is symbolic of truth and it is the prayers that come from the heart\'€”that are honest and real\'€”that go beyond the ceiling and reach upward to God and get answered.

Sometimes when I pray for a friend, I ask God to surround that person with a beam of light\'€”like a search light beam\'€”and show that person the way they need to go and lead them to the truth. I pray the same for myself.

And every day I like to pray the prayer of Jabez. I have done this for years and have seen it answered in an unprecedented way. It\'s in four simple parts.

First, \"O that you would bless me wonderfully.\" The fact is God wants to bless every one of us wonderfully. He has a purpose for each of us and when we live in harmony with that purpose, we automatically get in on God\'s blessings.

To do this, we first need to acknowledge that in God\'s sight we have all sinned and consequently, are separated from him, and need his forgiveness. Because God loves and wants to bless us, he gave his Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for our sin (death) so we could be forgiven and given the gift of eternal life. When we receive Jesus into our heart and life we are reconnected to God and can then receive his many blessings.*

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In his book, Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby makes a simple but significant statement in that while it is important that we seek God\'s will for our life, it\'s much more important that we seek to discover God\'s will; that is, where he is working and what his plans are, and ask that we can be a part of his plans. This is a certain way to experience God and receive his blessing.

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Second, \"Please be with me in all that I do.\" When we receive Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior, we have his promise that he will never leave us. He said, \"I will never leave you or forsake you.\"⁴ If this statement were translated literally, it would read, \"Jesus said, \'I will never, never, never, never, never leave you or forsake you.\'\" However, when we ask God to be with us in everything we do, we need to make certain that everything we do is in harmony with his will and then we know that he will be with us.

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Third, \"Greatly expand my borders.\" Having prayed this prayer almost daily for years, as I look back over the past, it amazes me to see what God has done and how he has answered this prayer. In a compressed time capsule, we started ACTS literature outreach ministry in Adelaide, South Australia, in an extremely small way on a shoe-string budget with an old typewriter and a borrowed old-fashioned duplicating machine. We began by mailing our first gospel message, \"How to Be Sure You\'re a Real Christian,\" to high-school students in Adelaide, then to families throughout South Australia and then to families all over Australia.

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ACTS then expanded to New Zealand and then to North America and has been used of God to share the gospel with millions of people around the world. And now throughout North America ACTS literature is being used by other organizations to touch the lives of thousands of business and professional people.

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Jesus said, \'I will never, never, never,
never, never leave you or forsake you.\'

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Furthermore, ACTS gospel messages have been placed on the world-wide Internet which has the potential of sharing God\'s message of life with untold millions of people in the years ahead. Talk about expanding borders\'€”ones I never would have dreamed possible!

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I have just kept praying day after day, year in and year out, the prayer of Jabez and that I and ACTS would be a part of what God\'s plans and what he is doing in the world today.

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Fourth, \"Keep me from all evil, harm and disaster.\" Knowing my human frailty, I know that in my own strength I cannot live consistently in harmony with the will of God. So every day I commit and trust my life to God and ask him to keep me from falling into evil or disaster.⁵

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I encourage you to pray Jabez\' prayer every day, too, for the rest of your life. If prayed with the right motive, you can be certain that God will hear and answer you just as he did Jabez.

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* Note: If in doubt about your relationship to God, click CLICK HERE for the article \"How to Be Sure You\'re a Real Christian.\"

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1. 1 Chronicles 4:10 (Paraphrase).
2. James 4:3 (Paraphrase).
3. Psalm 145:18 (Paraphrase).
4. Hebrews 13:5.
5. See Psalm 56:11.

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