Having a bad day//words of knowledge series from Proverbs 23:12 which says, "Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge." (I need this as much as anyone does)

So, you're having a bad day; your landlord just issued you an eviction notice; the rent is overdue by three months. Your car won't start and you found out that the engine is seized and you still have three years left to pay on it and the warranty just ran out. On top of all this you just got laid off from your job and to really add misery to your life, your wife just informed you that your mother- in- law is coming to stay for the winter. If you didn't have bad luck you wouldn't have any luck at all. As Jed Clampett might say, "You're lower than a snakes belly in a wagon rut and you'll have to reach up to touch bottom."

Humorous this may seem, there are times perhaps when we have all felt like our world is crashing down around us.

There was an individual in the Bible who was having a bad day also. In fact he no doubt had several of them. As a matter of fact his own mother despised him so much that after a painful birth she named him Jabez, a name that stuck with him all of his life. Jabez literally translated means "He will cause pain" What a terrible thing to do. Can you imagine the pain and the ridicule that Jabez had to suffer? Every time he came near a group of children they would say "here comes Jabez, he will cause us pain" or " stay away from Jabez, he's a real pain". When I read his account I thought of the school yard bullies and they would have a real field day with poor little Jabez.

What did Jabez do about his bad days? Did he whine and complain? Did he blame his mother? Did he blame somebody else? No! He didn't resort to any of that He had made a choice, in fact his whole life was all about choices. You and I have choices also. We can whine and complain or we can follow the example of Jabez; the Bible says that first of all he was an honorable man. He was more honorable than his brothers. Let me read 1st. Chronicles ch. 4 verses 9 and 10, "Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez "Because I bore him in pain". How extremely careful we must be when talking to our children, what we call them and that we do not put them down with bad talk, telling them that they will never amount to anything, etc. This is the reason for so many social and moral ills in our society today.

Verse 10 says, "And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, "Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain! So God granted him what he requested."

Jabez asked for five different requests. #1 You may ask for God to bless your life. #2 You can ask Him to enlarge your territory...your field of influence, your witness, #3 You can ask for His hand upon your life and upon the lives of each and every member of your family...you can claim their salvation and you can claim divine protection on their lives every day. And even though they may wander from their teaching and upbringing, you can expect God to bring them back into His care. #4 We can ask to be kept in the time of evil, when Satan comes around to tempt us we can resist him in the name of Jesus after we have submitted unto God, and He will answer us when we call.#5 We can ask Him to keep us from causing pain to others. Lord, don't let me say something that will hurt somebody else. Set a watch over my tongue today and every day...this is so very, very important. The Bible says that when Jabez prayed this way that God granted him all these things that he was asking for. You need not face your bad days alone...just like Jabez ask in Faith believing that God hears and answers when we call out to Him in our time of need...[and thank you Pat for the Jabez plaque]...RC