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1. We should seek to be blessed, "throwing ourselves entirely into the river of his will and power and purposes for us. All our needs become secondary to what we really want—which is to become wholly immersed in what God is trying to do in us, through us, and around us for his glory." In other words, we should desire the blessedness that Jesus assumes, in the Beatitudes, is a reasonable human yearning: the yearning for comfort, righteousness, sonship—the kingdom of heaven.

2. We should seek greater "territory," which Wilkinson renders as "O God and King, please expand my opportunities and my impact in such a way that I touch more lives for your glory. Let me do more for you!" In other words, "Not my will, but thine be done."

3. We should depend on God's power to achieve significant ministry through us: "As God's chosen, blessed sons and daughters, we are expected to attempt something large enough that failure is guaranteed. … unless God steps in." Or, as God told Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness."

4. We should flee temptation. "The further along in a life of supernatural service you get," Wilkinson notes, "the more … you're going to become familiar with the enemy's unwelcome barbs—distraction, opposition, and oppression for starters." We should therefore pray not only for the power to resist temptation, but especially "to keep away from temptation," as in "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

In other words, Wilkinson exegetes Jabez's prayer using the larger themes of Scripture that have perennially comforted and encouraged believers.

Wilkinson, good teacher that he is (he is founder of the popular Walk Thru the Bible ministry, which since 1976 has helped over a million people gain a better grasp of the Bible's content and teachings), has also grounded his lessons culturally. The book is imbued with a boundless optimism characteristic of American religious literature, from Puritan John Winthrop's dream that New England would become "a city set on a hill" (that is, an example that would eventually convert the world) to Robert Schuller's possibility thinking. All such literature assumes the inestimable value of the individual and the ennobling idea that God uses ordinary people to do his extraordinary will.

This individualistic optimism pervades Jabez from sentence one ("The little book you're holding is about what happens when ordinary Christians decide to reach for an extraordinary life—which, as it turns out, is exactly the kind God promises") and continues throughout: "How would your day unfold if you believed that God wants your borders expanded at all times with every person and if you were confident that God's powerful hand is directing you even as you minister?"

Throughout the book, there is no example of enduring faithfulness at humble and thankless tasks—like counseling a troubled couple for years, or caring for an elderly parent in one's home, or daily visiting a dying aids patient for weeks, or toughing it out for three decades in Saudi Arabia, where a lifetime of conversions can be counted on two hands.

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June 11 2001, Vol. 45, No. 8