Jabez not only asks God to bless him, but to enlarge his territory. How big is your sphere of influence? Whose lives do you impact and why? Do you just touch the lives of family or are your reaching beyond?

Ask God to give you things only God can. … He can do it! He wants to do it!… to enlarge your wisdom, and understanding, and humility, and patience, and your love and joy… to have good health, to enlarge your physical strength… to enlarge your charisma in the mind, in the spirit, in your character.

1. Oh that you would bless me indeed
2. Enlarge my territory
3. That your hand would be with me
4. That you would keep me from evil
5. That I may not cause pain
6. So God granted him what he requested

And the petition that is our subject for today, "enlarge my territory," is particularly controversial because it seems to be so materialistic. Some of the criticism may be based in jealousy because it has been so wildly successful and prosperous. "That could have been me!" But, there is certainly the danger of the prayer being used in a selfish, materialistic way. "Enlarge my territory, give me more possessions Lord." If that's all there is to this prayer of Jabez, if that's all there is to our asking God to "enlarge our territory," then don't bother. However, there is more to it than that. "If you're doing your business God's way, it's not only right to ask for more, but He is waiting for you to ask." Please hear that clearly. "If you're doing your business God's way, it's not only right to ask for more, but He is waiting for you to ask."

Asking God to enlarge your territory begs the question, For what purpose? For what purpose do you want God to enlarge your territory? What is your intent in such a request? To pleasure yourself with riches and materialistic things? To make life more comfortable for yourself? If that's your intent, then don't bother God with such a request. I don't think He's interested in that. If, however, your intent is to be used by God in bigger and more influential ways for His purposes, and His kingdom, then go ahead and ask. I believe that is a prayer God loves to honor. Not living large for yourself. Not even living large as a Christian. But “Living Large for God”. Prayer with that as its intent and purpose captures God's attention and imagination. Recalling that Jabez was deemed "more honorable than his brothers," one can well imagination...and hope...that behind Jabez's request for more land is the realization that he could do more for God with more land. The fact that "God granted his request," seems to confirm it. "Enlarge my territory, O God, that I might accomplish more for you!"

And so, it seems to me that as a part of the process of asking God to enlarge your territory requires you to do some surveying of that territory. The first purpose in that survey is to discover exactly what is your territory. What is the territory of your work, Can you define it? More than just naming the place where you work, can you define more clearly the boundary lines of your work, can you put names and faces to that work? Include in your survey the territory that makes up your passions for life, your areas of giftedness. What really captures your attention and imagination? What is the "territory" of your passion and gifts in life that you'd be asking God to grow? To make this prayer relevant in your life requires good awareness about your specific territory. Part of the power of this prayer comes from such reflective surveying of your territory—seeing things, perhaps for the first time, in a new way regarding God's will and God's purposes. What about your neighborhood? Is that a part of your territory you're asking God to bless, to enlarge for His purposes? Begin with a survey to make clear exactly what territory you're asking God to bless and enlarge.
Then, a second purpose to the survey is to ask. For whom am I working my territory? Is God even in the picture of the territory of your work.

" Hidden motives play a large part in our everyday behavior. The important question to ask is not merely what a person is doing, but why he is doing it. Certainly no man can know himself until he has honestly asked himself about his motives. What is the driving force of his life? What ambition dominates and directs him? One is our own glory, and the other God's. Jesus Christ's fundamental quarrel with the Pharisees: 'they loved the glory of men,' he wrote, 'more than the glory of God.'" (John 12:43) What is the driving force of your life? What ambition dominates and directs you? Is it for your own glory? Or, is it for God's glory? If it's for your own glory, then don't even bother asking God to enlarge your territory—the Gospel of John makes clear that such a motive is in "irreconcilable opposition" to God's purposes.

But if you can honestly say that God's glory is your driving ambition in the territory given you, then by all means ask God to enlarge that territory. To help keep God's glory and purposes as the focus of your ambition, ask God, not to bless and enlarge what you are doing, but to bless and enlarge what He is doing through you. Then be prepared for Him to bring new challenges and new adventures as He delightfully enlarges your territory.

So if you're prepared to commit the work of your territory to God's glory, then ask Him to enlarge that territory—to do greater things through you than you can even imagine. And get ready for a great adventure.

Get ready to be brought to the edge of your comfort zone...and then taken even beyond that comfort zone. Get ready to be taken to enlarged territory that involves risks and great challenge. Because Jesus calls us to use our talents in new places, new territories...many of which will seem beyond our capabilities. But, that is right where He wants us...in a place that requires absolute trust and dependency—not in ourselves and our abilities, but in Him. He wants us to experience the challenge of serving Him knowing that brings meaning and joy to life.

If You Want to Walk on Water, You've Got to Get Out of the Boat. Comfort alone will kill us. When teachers want students to grow, they don't give them answers—they give them problems

If you want to do something wonderful for God, to serve Him in territory that is enlarged beyond your imagination...be prepared for challenges and changes that move us out of our comfort zone, requiring our trust to be placed in Him, and not in ourselves.

It is in that context—"living large...for God"—that I think the prayer of Jabez can be a helpful tool—to help us grow in our faith, and grow in the always exciting and always challenging work that God has in mind for us in the expanded territory He give us.

So, I put before you the challenge of using the prayer of Jabez as a part of your seeking God's purposes for you as a Christian...and for us as a church. Ask God to enlarge that territory—not for your gain—but so that you might do more for Him. Amen