Praying to please God.

I Chron. 4:10  He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and extend my lands!  Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!”  And God granted him his request.

While I believe that we need to be careful about how we latch onto prayers and promises that are directed to a specific people in a specific time and place, I do believe that there are things we can glean from them that can certainly benefit us in our walk with the Lord.

It is good to desire blessings from the Lord so that we can better serve Him and reach more people for Him.  I shy away from asking the Lord to bless me for my sake so that my life will be easier, more comfortable, or more pleasurable to me.  I don’t hesitate in asking the Lord to bless me if it means more people are touched by my life.

I want the Lord to be with me in all that I do.  When we live on our own and neglect to ask the Lord to be with us, we are opening the door to all kinds of trouble and pain in our lives.  I want to know that the Lord is with me.  If He is with me, I can face anything and do anything through Him because He enables me to do it.

I don’t like trouble or pain.  They are a part of life, but I don’t like them.  I especially don’t want to be the cause of it.  We need to ask the Lord to help us to not be a pain in the neck to others.  Some trouble and pain we bring on ourselves because of wrong choices we make.  We need to constantly be on guard against them by bathing in prayer the daily choices we make. 

May our heart’s prayer be like Jabez’s.  Let us pray not for personal gain, but that our gain may be used to be a blessing to others.  Let us pray that the Lord will keep us away from trouble caused by our own bad choices and the ensuing pain it causes us and others.  Let us pray that the Lord will be with us always in all we do.

When we pray like this, the Lord will grant us our requests.