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And granted, Wilkinson encourages his readers to "let God work in your life regardless of what He chooses," as "it will always be for your best."

But there is no hint in this book that that "best" might sometimes seem less than a blessing to our human eyes. We are to expect clear sailing, as long as we don't sin and depart from "God's agenda." This is a feel-good message. Wilkinson assures his readers, "if you're like many who use the Jabez prayer … you'll come to times in your life when you feel so blessed that you stop praying for more, at least for a while."

What about those times when our prayers seem to hit a brass sky, or we struggle with pain, disappointment, or grief? We get no hint in this book that such times exist for people who "use" this bold prayer of Jabez. Spurgeon, though, had every reason to know that they did. For he was a man who experienced not only great "enlargement of territory," but great suffering as well.

Throughout Spurgeon's life, he experienced bouts of depression. He also endured gout, kidney inflammation, and other illnesses that laid him out, incapacitated and in excruciating pain, for weeks and even months at a time. Thus when he came to meditate on the fact that Jabez was named for the exceptional pain his birth had caused his mother (1 Chron. 4:9), he counseled, "To a great extent we find that we must sow in tears before we can reap in joy . …You may expect a blessing in serving God if you are enabled to persevere under many discouragements."

Wilkinson's brand of evangelical activism requires a pragmatic, business-like approach to the Christian life. It regards interruption—any suffering or delay—as intolerable. Indeed, Wilkinson writes: "Do you believe that a supernatural God is going to show up to keep you from evil . …? Jabez did believe, and he acted on his belief. Thereafter his life was spared from the grief and pain that evil brings."

Spurgeon's approach to the Christian life, on the other hand, leaves room for pain and delay. Focusing as he did on the formation of Christian character and on intimacy with God in Christ, Spurgeon could tolerate and even welcome suffering. As he thought about what Jabez might have meant by "blessing indeed," he reminisced on his own life: "I have oftentimes looked gratefully back to my sick chamber. I am certain that I never did grow in grace one half so much anywhere as I have upon the bed of pain." In light of his own experience of growth through suffering, Spurgeon could affirm that pain may bring the greatest possible blessing—eternal fellowship with a loving Christ.

This does not mean, Spurgeon added, that we should all pray for pain. Not everyone needs this kind of discipline. Indeed it "ought not to be so" that any of us need it. "Our joyous mercies ought to be great fertilizers to our spirit." But given the lingering effects of sin in us, "not unfrequently our griefs are more salutary than our joys. The pruning knife is best for some of us," and in the end "this light affliction may work out for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory," a "blessing indeed."

For Wilkinson, sin appears as a temporary interruption, requiring nothing more than a hurried reconciliation before the joyous flow of blessing continues. "When you sin after experiencing the Jabez blessing" you should "rush back into God's presence and make things right . …Don't squander even for a minute the miracle that He has started in your life. Indescribable good still lies ahead for you and your family."

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August (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46