Proverbs 30:7-9

Here is one of the wisest prayers in the Bible — short, but it reaches the whole of life, and it puts first things first. Agur asks two things before he dies, and the spiritual request comes first: "Remove far from me vanity and lies" — keep me clean of the falsehood and emptiness that is the very air of this world. Then the famous request about money, and notice how rare it is: give me neither poverty nor riches. Most people pray earnestly against poverty; to pray against riches is scarcely the prayer of one in ten thousand. Agur asks only for "food convenient for me" — a sufficiency, his daily bread (and what else is the "daily bread" the Lord taught us to pray for?). Why this golden mean? Because he knew the spiritual danger lurking at both extremes. Riches tempt a man to grow full and forget God — "Who is the LORD?"; the more we receive from Him, the less, somehow, He seems to receive from us. And grinding poverty tempts a man to steal, and then to drag God's name through the dishonor of it. It takes more than a Solomon's grace to come through great prosperity unspoiled, for if a man carries a bag of gunpowder he had better keep his distance from the fire. Whether you have little or much, here is the prayer to pray: not for riches and not for ruin, but for enough — and for grace to glorify God in whatever state He sets you.