Give Me Neither Poverty nor Riches

Not an Easy Prayer

…give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: [l]est I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain (Proverbs 30;8b,9).

Prayer: Don’t Give Me Riches

This won’t be an easy prayer to pray for most people- even most Christians. To pray that God grant you your petition, that you never be rich; why would you do that? Lest you begin to think too highly of yourself, your skills, your education, and your business sense, or your keen eye; and too little of our Savior and God.

I would venture to guess most Christians would say, “That won’t happen to me. I will never forget God, that He is the source of all I have.” But scriptures like today’s and stories like that of King Nebuchadnezzar aren’t written in the bible for no reason. At the end of the twelve months he [King Nebuchadnezzar] was walking about the royal palace of Babylon. The king spoke, saying, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?” (Daniel 4:29 NKJ, emphasis mine). It doesn’t take long to fall. It doesn’t take long for forget.

 Do you relish thinking about how well you are doing, how good your strategy was? When someone commends you, is your vocabulary filled with personal pronouns like I, me, and my? There is no room in your heart and mind, for God and the things of God, when your heart is full of you. I’ve heard people use 

the name of God, all the while they talk about how God is using them mightily, how God is blessing them because of their great faith. The squeeze the name of God in, but anyone listening knows it’s not about Him at all.

Prayer: Don’t Give Me Poverty

To pray that God grant you your petition not to be poor; why would you that? Lest your poverty leads you to do something that would not reflect well upon you who bears the name of Christ. When a person is hungry, they will be tempted to steal and possibly consider doing other things, too. So Agur’s humble prayer, is that God will give him this day, his daily bread; that God will provide his needs and He [God] deems appropriate. His heart is not that he be found to carry the name of God (the name of Christ) in vain. Agur (as we) know it matters that we represent our God by doing right things, right ways, and for right reasons.

Conclusion

The reality is, most Christians aren’t going to pray this prayer; and I get it. I, myself, don’t want to just scrape by. I don’t want just today’s daily portion. I like the idea of food in the freezer and pantry. I like decent income that afford me reasonable comforts. I like the idea of having a nice house one day, surrounded by plenty of land, grass, trees, and quiet. But that’s my flesh.  

My heart’s desire is that God will provide no more and no less than what I could steward to His glory. I have earnestly prayed the uncomfortable prayer, “Lord, if it’s not for your glory, please don’t let it prosper or take it away.” It scares my flesh, because He might do it. But that’s okay. My heart is that I do not dishonor Jesus through the temptations that accompany great abundance, nor through temptations that accompany great lack. 

In whatever state we find ourselves, I pray, “May God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ be honored. “