Paul's New Testament letter to the church at Ephesus was inspired as a directive on strengthening the very core of Christianity: Love first of all, truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the Holy Spirit/God's Word. These are the bedrock of the Christian faith, and as Jesus showed before Paul we are in a spiritual battle not one of flesh and blood.
On the other hand, Jabez' prayer for God to bless him is just that. But through the miracle of book deals and modern marketing it is now the way, the truth, and the life for many people. That's unfortunate. God could have chosen to answer Jabez no matter what he prayed, even if he was misguided in his prayer. And he may have been misguided, or else specifically guided by his spirit for that time in his personal life. And God can answer the many sincere but misguided "Jabez prayers" today as well, even if they aren't what God would want for a person at the time.
That's why it's best to be guided by the spirit in every situation we face. In prayer, follow the outline of commands to Christians in the New Testament and go from there. But Jabez' prayer was never before and shouldn't now be elevated to the pattern given to the Church by Jesus or a Pauline Epistle, just because Bruce Wilkinson wants to rake in the cash with a new fad.
The point of my post was that the site that you recommended talked about vain repetitions of prayer. My point was how many Christians are taught to daily put on the armor of God and visualize and go through the motions, of actually doing it. Any prayer can become vain any daily activity can become vain and repetitions. At the end of my post I stated that I use the prayer as a guide and add to it as the Spirit leads. I believe another person had done a book on the Lords prayer and turned it into a 60 minute outline call Can you not tarry one hour? Did they vainly say to pray repetitiously? No they used it as an outline for a deeper prayer life.
re post #50....I don't think Bruce W. wrote the book expecting it to be elevated to the level it is. Nor do I, IMHO, think that all the hype is on his account. Having read the book, I don't believe he sounds like that type of character.
I agree with the first paragraph.