There was a man named Jabez who was more distinguished than any of his brothers. His mother named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful. He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and extend my lands! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!” And God granted him his request. 1 Chronicles 4:9-10

A few years ago, there was a popular Christian book titled, “The Prayer of Jabez.” It was based off of the 2 verses above and encouraged everyone to pray the prayer, word for word, as a means of guaranteeing God’s blessings in their life. While I don’t think that there are any special power in these particular words or that saying them in any way guarantees rich, earthly rewards, I do believe that God does desire for us to seek Him and He desires to give us blessings. It is a basic spiritual truth that when we get closer to God, our lives are greater blessed. Now this blessing may not come by means of the things of this world. In my experience, those blessings are merely a secondary result of living rightly and being good stewards of what God has given us. No, our greatest blessings are deep spiritual blessings – a close, intimate, personal connection with Jesus. And when we seek God daily in prayer and choose to open our lives to Him, then He blesses us with greater blessings than this world could ever provide.

God does desire for us to seek Him and He does want to give us blessings, but not by the definition of this world. Our greatest blessing is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. When we seek Him daily, His influence will extend in our lives and then we will know what it is to be truly blessed!