Enlarge Your Territory

1 Chronicles 4:9-10 9 Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” 10 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 in Hebrew means PAIN

Judges 6:11-13 11 The angel of the LORD came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. 12 When the angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon, he said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior.” 13 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? Where are all his wonders that our ancestors told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up out of Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.”

DONT get stuck in the winepress mentality. The winepress mentality of Gideon is barely getting by. There is so much more that the LORD has to offer and you don't want to just get by. People are conditioned quickly and when we get disappointed our expectations shrink. Our expectations can quickly shrink to the size of a winepress. We do not want to limit our expectations in GOD and all the miraculous things that he can do. When we are young and growing up, we have worlds of expectations for ourselves. We want to be fireman or basketball players and things like that. As we grow up our expectations are quickly shaped by our surroundings and drop down a notch. Our expectations from God should not be shaped by the world. My wife had talked to me how this lesson was a reflection on her life. All her life growing up, people around her had told her that she was too stupid to get to college and that she would never graduate. She lived on the streets for a bit and had a rough childhood. She kept believing in herself and has gone on to graduate with a bachelors in psychology. We now live in a house large enough to help out a family of 7 for a bit and still have room for our dogs and kid. Her belief in herself only came from GOD and before she became a stay-at-home mom she helped disadvantaged youth to try and show them this same light. She showed them that there is a world that is much bigger than what they are accustomed to and that they have access to it. Trust in the Lord and know what he is capable of!