Jason Buffington .com

A couple weeks ago, I added to the core of my daily prayers from just the gratefulness of what I have to asking “What more is there that you would have for me?”, I wasn’t asking for prosperity, but I was looking for opportunities.  Here’s how it turned out.

video transcript

I’ve had some interesting, answered prayers lately

Couple weeks ago, I realized that one of my more common prayers had been serenity: simply an appreciation of what I have. Then one day, I had this instinct to instead ask God, “What more is there that you would have for me?”

In my case, I wasn’t asking for prosperity (not that I wouldn’t mind that), but I was looking for opportunities. After a couple of days of contemplating that,

• I get a letter from Scouting: at face value, it looks like a nice recognition; it’s really an opportunity to serve in a very cool way.
• Around the same time, I had a few client calls where they started as just discussions, but these pivoted into “we have some projects that we’d like your help on”

(it was a good week) 😊

So, here’s the rest of the story: 20 years ago, I read this book: The Prayer of Jabez. Basically in the Old Testament, First Chronicles lists name after name after name in genealogy … and then there’s like 2 lines buried in that list, as if you’ve been reading a roll call and you said “Oh oh wait, there’s this this guy, he did this thing and it was cool”, and then went right back to reading the rest of the roll call.

The guy was Jabez and the prayer was “Oh that you would bless me, enlarge my territory, and that your hand would be with me” — and then the text says “God granted his request” – that’s it.  He asked for more potential to do good (i.e. opportunity) and his request was granted.

This little book, 80-pages, 7-chapters, read a chapter a day for a week, unpacks what that looks like.  To be clear, I am NOT suggesting “If you ask God for money, you’ll get money” – I am not a televangelist. In fact, even if praying or the Bible isn’t your thing, let me suggest this:

• If your disposition is to look for problems, you will find them.
• If you are seeking serenity and satisfaction, you are more likely to find it – because you are unlikely to find peace, if you aren’t looking.
• And, if you are searching for opportunities, you may just very well find more of those too.

See you next Monday