Proverbs 30:7-9
7 “Two things I ask of you, O LORD;
do not refuse me before I die:
8 Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
9 Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, ‘Who is the LORD ?’
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God.
These three verses have intrigued me for a number of reasons. It jumped out at me because of the statement that is so counter cultural to us, “give me neither poverty nor riches.” The myth needs to be debunked that wealth is something good Christians should aspire to.
As I read this further, I noticed that there are three things that Agur (the person this passage is credited to) saw as very dangerous to his walk with the Lord: poverty, riches, and a lack of personal integrity. It seems that these three things are seldom put on the same level, but all three have the same destructive potential.
Prayer:
Re-read these verses, and make them your prayer.
thank you tomdunn! great choice.
I, too, am weary of the “prosperity gospel” stuff. God provides all things (alleluia!) but there is sometimes a misunderstanding that the “market” is something given by God to provide us with all things. It is dangerous for us to confuse the abundance of the Lord with the abundance of material things.