Ask For More

1 Chronicles 4:10 NIV - Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.

Last night when I was laying in bed, I asked God for what He wanted me to write about the following day (today). He said "Tell them to ask for more. I'll do for them, what I did for Jabez."

1 Chronicles 4:10 NIV - Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.

- Jabez cried out to God

- Bless me

- Enlarge my territory

- Be with me

- Keep me from harm

- Free from pain

What makes this prayer so intriguing is it is tucked way in a lengthy genealogy (family tree) covering the first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles. Most of us would not even be aware of the scripture had it not been for the success of the best selling book, The Prayer of Jabez.

So what did Jabez do? Other than this prayer, we don't know a lot about Him. But God decided to showcase this prayer to us.

So what happened? Jabez simply asked God for more than what he had. He wanted more of God's presence and God's presents. He was ambitious. He wanted more than surviving, He wanted God's abundance, spiritually and materially.

Jabez asked for more. God granted his request.

This is what God wants you to have the confidence and boldness to do. God wants you to ask for more. This is such a compliment to God when we see him as the provider of everything, and come to Him asking for more of His goodness.

If you come to dinner at my house I would fix you my best meal, and if you asked, "Gerald, could I have some more?" I would take your request as a compliment. But for some reason we are afraid to boldly ask our Father, our PaPa, for more.

Why are Christ-followers so shy? Perhaps they feel greedy in asking for more because they are unaware of God's desire for us to do so. But God's Word is His will, so let's read what it says.

Matthew 7:7-10 NIV - “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?

In Luke 11, Jesus is teaching the disciples how to pray and He tells a story of a neighbor asking for food. He says they should have a Shameless Audacity (verse 8) when asking.

Luke 11:9-10 NIV - “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Same thing in Mark 11:22-25, and in John 14:13-14, and in John 16:23-24. The message couldn't be clearer. God is challenging us to ask for more.

Look, Jesus said in John 10:10 He came so we could have an abundant life, life to the full. Yet when I look around the globe I see so much lack spiritually and materially.

God wants you to ask for more. More of everything so you can have more to give. Love, wisdom, material provision, more of everything. When we are asking for more, it shouldn't be only about our needs, it should be about having more to give. Selfish people will never understand this. In Jewish culture, God's blessing and prosperity are about generosity. Why do so many Christians struggle with this biblical concept? This was prevalent thinking in the Acts Church. They eliminated systemic poverty through generosity. No one in the Church went without.

So here's the message God has put on my heart for you today. Whatever it is you are asking God to do, for you, others and the nation you live in — it's OK to ask more more. Let these two scriptures get inside you. Meditate on them.

Isaiah 54:2 NIV - “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.

Ephesians 3:20 AMP - Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us.

- Enlarge it

- Stretch it

- Don't hold back

- Lengthen it

- Strengthen it

- Superabundantly more

- More than you dare ask

- More than you dare think

- Infinitely beyond your greatest prayers

- Infinitely beyond your greatest hopes

- Infinitely beyond your greatest dreams

This is exactly what we are asking God to do for CanaGlobal. Instead of equipping thousands into their marketplace calling, we have asked for more, millions from the global workforce and small business entrepreneurs. More people and resources to get the job done.

Go ahead — ASK FOR MORE. What God did for Jabez, He'll do for you.

-Gerald