Defined by Whom? Daniel Fast, Day 23

1 Chronicles 4:9-10: "Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, 'I gave birth to him in pain.' Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, '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.' And God granted his request."

Popularized in Bruce Wilkinson's 2000 book, "The Prayer of Jabez," this oft-overlooked segment of Scripture carries much deeper meaning for us than the unfortunate pamphlet that brought it out of obscurity. Wilkinson takes the angle that this prayer of the character, Jabez, is a prayer we should all pray for our prosperity...that God wants to bless us and that all we must do is ask. In fact, if we pray that prayer, we will be "more honorable than our brethren." It is a good American look at the text, which should tell you everything you need to know about the error inherent in the perspective.

Having dealt a bit with pain yesterday, this subject naturally follows. Jabez was named by his mother with a name that, in Hebrew, carries the same core consonants for a Hebrew word for "pain," or "sorrow." I don't know about you, but being named after my mother's angst in childbirth would not be a great omen for a bright future. Would you like to be named "Epesiotomy"? Certainly, something about his name must have carried with him through his life. This perhaps led to his close position before God, whereby he could cry out to God for blessing, for a reversal of his fortunes.

How many of us live with a name, a label, a stereotype that seems to follow us wherever we go? How hard is it to overcome that reputation, that title? How difficult is it to grow into what God wants to you to be, simply because short-sighted (and sometimes jealous) others are always there to remind you of who you were - or perhaps just who they perceive you to be? This, I believe, is what makes the "becoming" of following Jesus a very difficult thing. In order to be what He has called us to be, we must be crucified with Him, the dead man falling away daily as the new man that He is growing in you raises to life. Unfortunately, there are many people out there - Christians among them - who are more than willing to apply old labels to you to hold you back. Our pain and sorrow continues whenever we look back, listening to those voices rather than the voice of the One who called forth Lazarus and is likewise calling us forth. Take off the death shroud. We are not who we once were.

The greatest lesson for me in this story was immediately the cry of Jabez to be released from his name - pain. So many of us are crying out within to become what we know we are supposed to be. So much around us is trying to suppress that. The greatest thing Jabez did was not to come up with a slick prayer for material blessing, but rather to ask God to come to his aid, to be his protector and provider, so that he may become something more than the labels that were given him before he could even find out the name God had for him. The greatest thing we can do is cry out to God as well. Leave behind those who would define you with their labels. Listen only to the voice of God, who will always call out of you what is not yet, but what He sees coming.

2 Corinthians 3:18 "And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit."