I don’t know where you are or how you are as you are reading this blog, but I am trusting that God has brought you to this write-up to bless you in so many ways. We had gathered for worship last Sunday and I sat with a very big heart as my pastor expounded on one of my very favorite passages of scripture. It was taken from 1 Chronicle 1:9-10, where the young man by the name of Jabez was not in a good place at this particular time, and was definitely not feeling good about himself. You see his mother brought him forth out of pain and named him Jabez which meant ‘Sorrow, regret, disappointment, and pain” in his Hebrew language.

How many of us have felt the pain of a name given to us by our parents for whatever reason? If I may make my own confession, I named my second son Tyson after seeing the name Tyson in a magazine when I was pregnant. I often wondered why as a Christian and God-loving mother, I didn’t turn to the bible for a name, possibly Joseph or Paul like his dad, but I named him Tyson. Unfortunately for him, by the time he was seven years old and ready to go off to primary school, Mike Tyson the boxer became very famous in my country.

In the second week of his new school, I went to pick him up and he was sitting in the principal’s office. In her office, she explained to me that he was in a big fight that day with another boy and she pointed to the other boy sitting across the room scowling. As I looked at him I was shocked to see how huge he was. He was taller and bigger than my small framed baby. I looked at the principal and asked what caused the fight and before she could answer, Tyson angrily explained that they were in the grounds playing when the boy (I have forgotten his name) came up to him and said, “so you are Tyson, well I am Bone Crusher” and I’m going to beat you up. I don’t know if you remember the boxer “Bonecrusher,” but he was the boxer who held the WBA heavyweight title from 1986-1987, then came Mike Tyson and defeated him and took away his title. This little boy who was burly as I guess his favorite boxer was, saw my Tyson as a way of getting back at the real Tyson for beating up his idol. Tyson could not get away from that kid and was engaged in a fight every day for the remainder of that week and the next until I had to eventually remove him from that school since the teachers had no control of the situation.

As a grown young man, he informed me that he had to fight his way throughout his school years until high school. That is how a wrong name can negatively impact an individual. For some reason, he kept it from me and his dad all those years, until in New York his dad was called to the school at least once every week. I had caused him so much trauma in his school life.

There is no record of what Jabez’s childhood and teenage years looked like, or what he may have endured, but at this point in Jabez’s life, he seemed to be burdened with the significance of his name of sorrow, regret, disappointment, and pain that caused him to cry out to God for help. Under the influence of his name, he didn’t feel blessed even though the bible states that he was more honorable than his brethren. His honorable status did not alleviate the pain of his life, so he cried out to God that God would bless him and enlarge his territory, his coast, and lay his hands on him. He wanted God to lay his holy hand on him and lift the burden of sorrow, pain, and suffering from him. He asked, “And that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me” (vs. 10b).

Jabez understood what the power of the hand of God upon him would do for him. He understood that it would break the yoke of sorrow, lack, and pain from his life and remove all the evil that came with that name. He was tired of the grief in his life that came with his name and he wanted no more of it and the verse ended with, “And God granted him that which he requested.”

Today what is it that you would like God to put his hand on your life and remove? God can do for you what he did for Jabez. In particular, God wants to enlarge your territory, not only to reverse the weight of a name, sadness, sorrow, pain, and lack in your life but also to enlarge you in very critical areas of your life to make you and me better individuals. God wants to enlarge us in the areas of:

1. Our love walk – A love that is not superficial but where we have the capacity to love our enemies. A love that is not based on how we feel, that has no stipulations. We must understand that because God himself is love and gave love, He looks at love with honor and requires us to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and we do know how to love ourselves, we do know how we would like to be treated and appreciated. Yes, God has placed His love in us and He looks at love with honor. The Apostle Paul admonishes us to, “Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one another” (Romans 12:9-10).
2. Our forgiveness walk – We often struggle in this area of our lives when someone hurts us, but God wants to enlarge our capacity to forgive each other and live in love and a free spirit with each other. When the disciple asked Jesus how often he must forgive his brother, Jesus said seventy times seven. This number of four hundred and ninety times is so large that I am very sure you have not been able to encounter anyone who has been able to hurt you that much in a lifetime, much more in a day. In other words, we must walk in a forgiving mode of life daily.
3. Our patience walk – How is your patience walk today? So many of us don’t have the patience to wait on God, or anyone for that matter. We rush to take over and be in control and very often make things worse, but the Psalmist sets a great example for us when he cried out to God, “Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress, have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer” (Psalm 4:1). King David knew that only God could give him an answer that will work on his situation. It was in his distress that he called upon God and so must we.

Today God wants to enlarge the areas of our lives where we fall short. He wants to enlarge our capacity in those areas where we are weak so that we can become strong in his strength and wisdom. My prayer is that we all call on him in our distress, failings, or weaknesses in full surrender to His will and purpose.

Blessings