When we pray to enlarge our territory, expand our borders, give us more ministry, we are asking God to give us some meaningful experiences for ourselves and some experiences that will cause the Kingdom to grow. For Jabez, the petition may have been purely physical. He may have been praying for the Lord to give him more territory. He may have been asking for a larger farm, greener pastures, to include some creeks or wells for the livestock. God may have done just that for Jabez, but He also included more people, more ministry in the proposition.
More territory means more help is needed.
More territory may include the neighbor s land. The help and the neighbors needed a witness for the Lord. Jabez had to accept the responsibility if he were to accept God s gift of enlarged territory. To enlarge one s territory means to expand the borders from where you are now to include more people that you will influence. My guess today is that some of us need to move our borders within our homes to where our influence will be greater upon our families.