Welcome to the Daily Disciple Podcast, where we seek daily to be with and to become like Jesus, our teacher. Welcome to the Daily Disciple Podcasts Travis and we're going to hang out for a few minutes and talk about a guy named J. Biz and this is a very obscure character in the Old Testament, the book of First Chronicles, chapter four. And I think I'm going to title this podcast a selfish prayer question mark because I'm not sure it's a selfish prayer, but I get the sense that it is.
That's why there's a question mark, a selfish prayer, perhaps. So what if I was to pray this prayer every morning, every afternoon and every evening? What if you were to pray this prayer that I'm about to pray every morning, every afternoon and every evening? Lord, I just want you to bless me.
I want you to expand my territory. I want you to give me a lot. I want you to make me totally free from pain. Oh God, oh God, I just want you to bless me.
I want you to expand my territory. I want you to give me a lot. And I'd like for you to just make my life free from pain. Oh God, oh God, oh God.
How do you feel about that prayer? I don't know that it's necessarily a bad prayer. It's not like it's a prayer for anything evil and it's good. I think this needs to be said.
It's good to ask God for what we want and to continue to ask God for what we want. But the prayer I just prayed strikes me as a little bit self focused, a little bit selfish. And of course, we like ourselves. We like our lives and that's really good because we're likable and God likes us.
And I've done podcasts about that. God likes you like yourself and that sets us free to like others. So it's good to like our lives and it's good to like ourselves and it's good to want smooth sailing. It's good to I don't think anyone that wants pain is in a healthy place.
We're not supposed to want pain, but is there actually more to life and more to a prayer life than just wanting more for ourselves. And in first Chronicles chapter four, we meet this guy named J. Bez and we don't know a lot about him. We just know that he has a prayer that made it into first Chronicles.
And so beginning in verse nine, it's his J. Bez was more honorable than his brothers and J. Bez's mother named in J. Bez saying, I gave birth to him in pain.
J. Bez cried out to the God of Israel. Oh, that you would bless me. Oh, God, in large my territory.
Let your hand always be with me. Keep me from any harm so that I will be free from pain. And God granted his request. Now maybe you know this, maybe you don't, but a number of years ago, this actually became quite a popular book, The Prayer of J.
Bez. And I have to be honest with you, I never read the book. Now what's interesting is that it says that J. Bez was more honorable than his brothers.
Now that doesn't necessarily mean much because we don't know his brothers. His brothers might have been disreputable characters and so J. Bez was more honorable than them, but we don't know his brothers. So this really doesn't say very much about J.
Bez unless we know the character of his brothers. What's the meaning of his name? The meaning of his name is coming into the world in pain. Like his mother named him J.
Bez, I gave birth in pain, coming into the world in pain. We'll come back to that. But J. Bez says, bless me and let my territory expand and God don't give me any pain in my life at all and may no harm come to me.
And to me it sounds like J. Bez might be living out of the past a little bit. He came into the world in pain. Maybe he's experienced a lot of pain and so there's some fear and anxiety there.
And so this prayer seems to be really kind of coming out of the past and the pain that he's experienced in the past because there is a connection between what we're named and what we experience in life. And of course we can transcend that or we can walk into our name and into the character in the life that God has for us. And unfortunately sometimes we don't. God, I think it's also interesting that God granted his request.
God granted his request in this prayer. So it seems like those that were observing J. Bez's life were like, man, God granted this request. God blessed him.
God enlarged his territory. God kept him free from harm. God kept him from experiencing any pain. Like God granted this request.
And often God does grant our requests. And if they might be a little bit self-focused, God's unbelievably gracious and he accommodates us. And he's so, so good. I think what's interesting is that J.
Bez is praying for his own will. Like I want my will to be done, God. I mean, he's certainly asking for what he wants his will. He's certainly beseeching God to meet his needs.
And there's nothing wrong with that necessarily. But if that's our approach to prayer, maybe there's more. In fact, think about it this way. What if we took that approach to friendship and marriage and vocation and life, right?
What if in my marriage it's just like, I just want to be free from pain. I just want, you know, my needs to be met, you know, in friendship and marriage and parenting. What if we were taking this approach to other relationships in our life? I mean, how far would that get us?
Not that it's necessarily evil, but is it the ultimate good? Is it where we're to go as we develop as disciples and develop as people in the relationships that we're in? I mean, if we approach other relationships with that strategy, we may get far in the eyes of the world, but that doesn't mean we've gotten very far at all because, see, Jesus, our rabbi has a different program that he's instructing his disciples in. It's not that Jesus doesn't care what we want.
It's not that. But Jesus says, hey, follow me and I'll show you how to lose your life so that you can actually find life. I'll show you how to die so that you can live. I'll show you how to be happy by not pursuing happiness directly.
I'll show you how to have relationship with another person by listening more than talking. I'll show you how to live a life of enjoying a dinner party by actually taking the last seat. I'll show you how to live a life that is not free from pain, but a life that can easily handle pain because you're centered in my will and my desire for you, not your will and your desire for yourself. You see, Jesus teaches us to pray the Father's will.
He teaches us to pray what the Father wants. And sometimes what the Father wants is exactly what I want, but not always. And I think the more that we pray, the will of the Father, the more we will want what the Father wants. And then our will will line up with the Father's will and our wantor will line up with God's wantor.
I think that the prayer of Jabus is a perfect example of what Jabus wanted, but I'm not so sure if that's what God wanted for Jabus. I'm not even so sure if that's what was best for Jabus and God granted it, but just because God granted it doesn't mean that that is what was best to form Jabus into the image that God intended for Jabus to be formed into. Maybe God met Jabus where he was at and Jabus was not willing to go any further than living a life of just pursuing and asking for what he wanted. Jesus teaches his disciples that there's more.
Jesus prayed, not my will, Dad, but your will. Jesus prayed, not my will, but your will. And Jabus is not asking that God's will would be done, but that his own will would be done. Jesus is not asking that God and God's mission will be blessed.
He's asking that his posterity would be blessed and that it would lead to more and more prosperity. And I'm not even saying that the Jabus prayer is a bad prayer. It's certainly not an evil prayer, but is there a better prayer? Is there a place that we can enter where it's not first and foremost about what we want for our life and our prayer life is not first and foremost characterized by what we want, but what God wants for us?
So as daily disciples, let's try praying today for what God's will is. Lord, let your will be done. Your kingdom come. In that friendship, Lord, let your will be done.
And if that involves experiencing a little bit of pain, then I'm in because I trust you. I want to go and pursue your will. And if that involves me partying or losing a little bit of my territory, I'm in. I want your will.
I want to die so that I can truly, truly live. We'll talk soon. Thanks for listening to the Daily Disycle Podcast. We truly hope that you were encouraged by it today.
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