Last year, it was "What would Jesus do?" Today, the question swirling though pious circles is, "Do you Jabez?"

The "Prayer of Jabez," an obscure passage in a little-known book of the Bible, has leaped into prominence because of a small book by Bruce Wilkinson, who says it is a "prayer that God always answers."

But as book sales topped 6 million copies and the 93-page volume climbed to the head of secular bestseller lists, it has also drawn criticism from people who contend it is the kind of greedy prayer chanted by those who believe they have an inside track to the Almighty.

The prayer is from I Chronicles and is tucked into a long, mind-numbing list of the "sons of Judah."

Translations disagree, but Wilkinson's book quotes this version:

"Oh, that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain."

The next verse says bluntly: "God granted his petition."

The book's breezy assertions that this prayer always works and that God wants to give people material goods has made it popular outside religious circles and a huge hit in the religious book market.

Like the "What would Jesus do?" fad, which produced millions of WWJD necklaces, bracelets, coffee mugs, and other items, "Jabez" has become a merchandising bonanza. There is a leather edition, a video, a teen edition; there are wall plaques, note cards, and T-shirts.

Wilkinson, who runs Walk Thru the Bible Ministries in Atlanta, writes, "If Jabez had worked on Wall Street, he might have prayed, 'Lord, increase the value of my investment portfolios,' " and he tells presidents of companies that it is absolutely right to ask God for more business.

In one chapter, he says he successfully prayed for a flight to be late because he was caught in a traffic jam on the way to the airport.

Wilkinson says that devout Jabez-prayers can be on "God's honor roll" and that God grants "favors to those who ask," sidestepping the issue of whether others might have been praying for that plane to be on time so they would not miss an appointment.

Now, the author contends that the prayer is about spiritual blessings and health, not material goods and power.

Recently, Wilkinson has taken to the airwaves to deny that the book is about "prosperity or Cadillacs." He told an interviewer on CNN last week that "when people just focus on the first part of the prayer, I think they are missing the big idea." He says his organization has received more than 10,000 e-mails on the book and that "95 out of 100 have nothing to do with money."

Although the book has been a hit in evangelical circles, the editor of Christianity Today, a leading evangelical publication, has some serious reservations about how it portrays the prayer.

The book uses "health-and-wealth-gospel" language, says Mark Galli, managing editor of Christianity Today, "which tends to mislead readers and make them think the prayer is about health and wealth and self-fulfillment."

Galli says Wilkinson makes people think the answer to their prayers comes instantly and "that it's all absolutely clear all the time. That's not always the case."

In Ridgewood, the Rev. Lloyd Syvertson at the independent Grace Church worries that what he calls "a great prayer" may be misinterpreted.

So this month and in August, he is using a series of sermons on the book to assert that the prayer is not a set of "magic words" aimed at bringing wealth, but a request that believers be given strength to avoid temptation and help others.

"You have to remember that when God blesses you," Syvertson says, "He seldom has you in mind. He wants you to be a blessing for others."

On Sunday, Syvertson, who preaches dressed informally in a tie-less gray shirt, said the meaning of the Jabez prayer was, "I want more from you, because I want to do more for you."

The minister connected the prayer's mention of an "enlarged territory" to his church's desire to expand its membership. "The blessing we ask is not a blessing for us, but so that we can go beyond our borders to more people," he said. The church's membership has been on a plateau, he noted, adding: "God never intended for us to just survive, He intends for us to thrive."

Syvertson said he fears that if people take the book the wrong way, "there will be a letdown because they thought that if they followed God, they would just get all they want."

Priscilla Hoye Scott, who attends Grace Church, thinks Syvertson's sermons are on the mark and a needed corrective to the popular interpretation of the book.

"For me, to be blessed is to be able to say I have a very close personal relationship with the Lord," she says, "and I'm mature enough in my faith to realize that anything I get is to be used to glorify God."

In Syvertson's sermon on the second part of the prayer, which asks God to "enlarge my territory," he argues that the true meaning of the prayer is to ask to "have a greater impact upon the people around us, to touch more lives for God."

Wilkinson's book also tries to put that spin on the prayer, saying the diligent use of the prayer has expanded his own ministry. He recounts several meetings that he calls "Jabez appointments," when chance encounters with people give him opportunities to preach or counsel.

The Rev. Peter Johnson of Northern Valley Evangelical Free Church in Cresskill -- where Wilkinson was a youth pastor several decades ago -- also has been moved by the Jabez prayer during his 24 years in the pastorate.

"It's not about health or wealth or prosperity," he says. Sometimes, he adds, "God will answer our prayers by adding to our resources, but that's not just for our benefit. It's about being able to bless others with what God gives us."

Operators of Christian bookstores say customers buy multiple copies of the book, which has been No. 1 on the Publishers Weekly non-fiction bestseller list for 19 weeks, to give to friends.

Johnson, the Cresskill pastor, thinks the book is popular in secular circles "because there's this thirst out there for spiritual things."

Those who seek the Jabez prayer won't have a hard time finding it. An Internet search engine turned up more than 29,000 pages referring to the four-line prayer. [ http://www.bergen.com/news/jabez200107091.htm ]