Proverbs 30:7-9: How YOU Should Be Praying

"Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die:

Remove far from me falsehood and lying;

give me neither poverty nor riches;

feed me with the food that is needful for me,

lest I be full and deny you and say, 'Who is the LORD?'

or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God."

When's the last time you prayed like Agur did in the verses above? Perhaps it has been a while. Perhaps you've never prayered like this. Perhaps we need to learn how to pray.

Proverbs 30 consists of the proverbs of a guy named Agur. We don't know too much about Agur (other than his totally rad name), but we see from this chapter that he was surely a wise, Godly dude. In his proverbs, he gives us many words of wisdom, one of which we see above, which tells us how we ought to pray. Ultimately, we ought to pray asking for what we need, and nothing more.

Let us note the two sides of Agur's prayer here. Firstly, Agur asks for the Lord to not give him poverty. Here we see that it is okay and even commanded to ask God for the necessities needed for the body. Often, we forget to ask God for these things because we are focused on "bigger" things, and we forget that God is both the Provider of all our needs, big and small. When we pray, we must ask God to provide basic food and health for us, lest we "be poor and steal and profane the name" of God, as Agur says. In other words, we must ask God for our "daily bread" in order that we might be alive and healthy and be able to glorify him all the more!

Secondly, Agur asks for the Lord to not give him riches. So often, I believe that we pray to the Lord for riches, but Agur encourages us not to. If the Lord gives us riches, we are more tempted to "deny" God and "say, 'Who is the Lord?'" Therefore, we ought to not ask for riches, that we might be content in the Giver and not the gifts. For those who have much, praise the Lord that he has blessed you! Yet for those who have little, do not be envious of those who have much. For what great temptations you do not have to endure since you have not many possessions in this world! We all know of the man who loved Christ, got rich, and forsook him. We ought not to be that man or woman. We ought to pray for the Lord not to give us riches.

So, how's your prayer life doing? Have you been asking for the Lord to give you neither poverty nor riches? Surely we ought to be, all that we might have what we need (and not too much of what we want!) so that we may glorify God to the best of our ability. Amen!