My Two Request Unto God

Two things I ask of you, O LORD;
do not refuse me before I die:

Keep falsehood and lies far from me;
give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.

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.

(Proverbs 30:7-9)

This is the only prayer that is in the book of Proverbs; it is the prayer of Agur. It is something very simple, yet is something that I personally will begin to be praying for. I feel in someway that it is the prayer that I want for my life. Notice that in this prayer, there is only two requests that is asked of the Lord.

The first request is "keep falsehood and lies far from me." I think this means two things. It means that he wants to be a person of integrity, who has no lies and deceit come from his mouth. I think in someway it is saying "Lord keep me from spreading false truth about you and everything in general." I think it also means "God protect me from false truth that is around me." It implies both that he doesn't want to be lair and that he doesn't want to have lies around him. He is not only asking to not spread false truth, but also that he will be delivered or protected from any false truth that may be in this world.

The second request is "give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread." This second request is two fold. Give me neither riches or poverty. He is saying God don't give me riches, because I know that if you do give me riches then I will probably forget God and be completely satisfied in myself. God don't give me poverty, because I will probably steal and cheat, and that will only dishonor and profane the name of God. Instead of asking for either he insists that God only give him his "daily bread." The bare minimum, the living pay check to pay check. He was literally praying "God don't give me too much, only enough to survive for the day." Saying this means that he wants to stay totally dependent in God alone!

My prayer for myself is that God will only give the daily necessities so I am still completely and utterly dependent on God. I hope you as well will read this and challenge yourself to pray this and to rest solely in the goodness and grace of Christ.