My wife found this prayer many years before it became popular as she had her devotions one morning. All I can say is that it changed her life and as a result, mine too.

But Jabez prayed to the God of Israel, “Bless me, God, and give me much land. Be with me and keep me from anything evil that might cause me pain.” And God gave him what he prayed for. – 1 Chronicles 4:10 GNT

Here are some takeaways.

• Prayer is calling on God. Giving God permission to deliver him from what life was throwing at him.
• Prayer is being passionate about asking for blessing. Yes, for needs and desires, but in praying to Him, I recognize that He is the One who is able to fill all of my wants and needs – and I trust Him to do so.
• Prayer is specific – more land or lots of land.
• Prayer is asking for God to walking alongside.
• Prayer is about asking to be kept from evil – “deliver us from evil.”
• Prayer is about avoiding pain.

It was not so much having the right words as having the right heart/character. When I seek to have the right heart, living the way God wants me to live, the right words seem to come out when I pray. It has nothing to do with having the right “magic” words when I pray.

“There is nothing impossible for man, if he will only join himself in prayer to God!” – President Ronald Reagan

Amos might have been saying this but I think I could be stretching it.

Do two people start traveling together without arranging to meet? – Amos 3:3 GNT

It is my desire to walk with God. Nothing is worse than coming together in prayer where everything is forced, where the fervor labours and where prayer is looked upon more as a superstition.

Praying for the sake of praying does not give us the special blessings we may be looking for. Ever notice the numbers dwindling when our prayer meetings lack passion?

I can pray, pray, and pray and see no salvations and no sense of the Holy Spirit moving. Is there any other way to dishonour the presence of God? Would it not be better for me to ask for mercy for is that not why I feel that my sin has somehow become between God and I and has weakened my prayer? To doubt the efficacy of prayer is to injure my spiritual walk and the church will have lost the ability to pray as prayers remain unanwered. How do we encourage one another if people think their prayers are not needed or are useless. The world thinks this way already.

Happy are those who have the God of Jacob to help them
    and who depend on the Lord their God. Psalm 146:5 GNT

This one thing I do know – God hears a sinners prayer as He heard the prayers of Jacob. My sin does not make me hypocritical when I pray. This teaches me to pray now – I do not need to wait to be a saint in order to pray. It is only by praying that I will ever rise to be any kind of saint at all.

But there is a still weightier reason for this constant, persistent, sleepless, overcoming prayer. It is – prayer occupied a very prominent place and played a very important part in the earthly life of our Lord. – R.A. Torrey