Break Me

Another of those ‘easy’ prayers I pray from time to time is ‘Lord, Bless me. Lord, Protect

me.’ What I mean when I pray that is ‘Lord, give me more of what I want (Bless me)

and keep away those things I don’t want’ (Protect me).

I’m not the first to pray these prayers of course. A man named Jabez prayed this prayer

many centuries ago. You may have heard about Jabez and his prayer from a book written

by David Wilkerson. Jabez is a relatively obscure character in the Bible with only one

mention in scripture. His mother named him Jabez which means, ‘I bore him in pain.’

Perhaps that's why Jabez prayed his particular prayer: ‘Oh, that you would bless me and

enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will

be free from pain.’ (1 Chronicles 4:10) We're told God granted him this request.

What a simple prayer. Enlarge my territory. (Bless me) Let your hand be with me and

keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain. (Protect me) This is the type of

prayer we all want to pray, right?

While I've prayed different versions of this prayer too many times to count, I've been

forced to recognize this prayer is limited. It focuses on what I want, not necessarily what

God wants. It's safe. It's comfortable. Someone could even argue that it's somewhat

shortsighted - even selfish.

Keep me from harm and free from pain makes sense. Who wants hardship? Who wants

to struggle? But I wonder if we might as well be praying, "God, don't let me grow. Don't

let me get stronger. Don't allow me to trust you more."

Even though trials are never fun or easy to endure, God can often use them for his

purposes. In fact, James, the half-brother of Jesus, was bold enough to tell us we should

be thankful for the way God uses hardship to perfect us: ‘Consider it pure joy, my

brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that

the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that

you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything’ (James 1:2-4).

If we pray only for protection from trials, then we rob our selves of our future maturity.

‘Lord, keep me free from pain’ feels like the right thing to pray and often is. But if that's

our biggest priority, then we may miss the perseverance that our trials produce.

God, ‘protect me from harm’ seems wise to pray and can be. But it's the challenges in

life that help us mature and draw us closer to Christ.

It's fine to pray for safety and blessings, but what if you want more? What if you desire

power from the Holy Spirit, strength from heaven, unshakable faith, genuine intimacy

with your Father?

Instead of just asking God to keep you safe, give you more, and protect your life, you

may have to pray the dangerous prayer, ‘God break me.’ Break me from wanting what

I want and give me a desire for what you want. This prayer can lead to difficult days.

But those days may very well lead us to where God wants us to be.

Pastor Marty