What's the Cry Inside of You?

Today's post is not my own. A great friend of mine. Greg Lathe, writes a devotional everyday, and today's really captured my heart, and so I thought I would share.

The Prayer of... You
I Chronicles 4:5-5:17, Acts 25:1-27, Psalm 5:1-12, Proverbs 18:19

"Reading through the one year bible, I've been forging my way through the beginning of I Chronicles. It is easy for us to pass over these lists of names w/o meditating on what God can tell us through this section of scripture. One such profound thought that came through my mind was... "I wonder if they have alphabet dice and that's what they name their kids..."

Anyway, that's not where we're going today. I Chronicles 4:10 is the Prayer of Jabez. This has become a very well known scripture over the past number of years. Bruce Wilkinson wrote a book on it, there have been songs, etc.

In the middle of this genealogy, there's a pause. It's for a man named Jabez. "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."
Much of what I've heard regarding this prayer has to do with the content of the prayer, but the meditation today is, in the genealogies of heaven, what happens when it gets to your name? What is your prayer? What is your passion? What is your heart's desire?

It can be easy that our prayer is reactionary to the needs around us, "Lord, bless this food..." "Help me deal w/ my mother in law...." "Help me find a new job..." "Deliver me from this pimple the devil gave me..."

I'm challenged today to pray the prayer that marks my life. "Lord, this is my greatest desire... this is what consumes me.... Have your way..."
For each of us it will be different. It's not like there's a formula. It's about diving in with all our heart. It's about crying out. It's about getting to know God and let him have complete control. It's living in radical surrender.

As you cry out today, my it be like it was for Jabez, "And God granted his request."