The year 2001 began with a powerful interest in a simple prayer. The Prayer of Jabez became a national bestseller. Many, many have been profoundly affected by this obscure prayer by an obscure person:

Jabez' prayer is followed by the simple statement: "So God granted him what he requested." (1 Chronicles 4:10)

Then on 11 September 2001 we participated in one of the most world-shaking events in recent history. Could God be using this event to grant us what we requested when we prayed in Jabez' footsteps?

God uses what men intended for evil to accomplish His good purposes (Genesis 50:20, e.g.).

And -- most importantly -- God's blessing and His expanding of our territory, our boundaries is not what our world-tainted instincts often distort them to be. These instincts react like that of the foolish farmer in Luke 12:16-21, fatally assuming that to be more blessed is to possess more and that to expand our boundaries means to increase our capacity to hold on to what is given us.

Jesus shows us that God's blessing is something that we receive only by passing it on. His blessing is a mighty river which refreshes and nourishes us as it flows through us -- not to us. (John 4:34, John 7:37-39, Matthew 25:14-30, Acts 20:35, etc.)

And could it be that 11 September 2001 burst our boundaries and showed us this? Could it be that the outpouring of compassion for those devastated by the attacks was in fact an outpouring of God's blessing to us by our letting His blessing flow through us? Could it be that our territory has been enlarged, that we now have an opportunity to let God's grace flow through us to a lost and dying world in ways that we had never thought of before -- flow through us to those Satan has held captive for so very long in Afghanistan, in the entire Muslim world, in the whole world?

Elizabeth encouraged Mary with "Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!" (Luke 1:45) at a time when Mary's blessing was causing her boundaries to be visibly expanded. May we be blessed as we believe that what the Lord has said to us will be accomplished.

May our response to God's proclamation over us be the same as Mary's: "May it be to me as you have said." (Luke 1:38).