“Two Things I Ask...”

April 30

Read: Proverbs 30

The Gift of Having What You Need

“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.” (v. 7-9)

What if the greatest gift is simply having what you need when you need it? What if it is in this balance that the fullest life is found? Look at what Agur asks the Lord here in Proverbs: “give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me…” This is a life of dependency on God - having what you need when you need it. There is danger on both sides of this truth. Where do we land?

The danger of being “full”

What is the pitfall of being “full”… of having “riches''? When we have excess resources… money in the bank… more food than we can eat… we become “full and deny God, and say ‘Who is the Lord’?” This is the biblical truth. When we have more than we need we lose our ability to know God. Another way to put it is we act like we don’t know God. We treat God like a stranger. “Jesus? Who is that? I have never heard of him.” We “deny God'' in exchange for self. We become “selfish”.

The danger of being “poor”

We may be tempted to ask God to make us “poor” then. There are entire sections of Christianity that have developed with this thinking. We have monks and nuns who take vows of poverty and commit to have “nothing”. This is not what Christ is asking of us. At first it may seem “spiritual” but in the end there is a “poorness” that leads to “stealing and profaning the name of God.” What does it mean to “profane the name of God”? Whenever we speak falsely about God we are profaning his name. Satan is the “father of lies'', therefore all lies and deception are satanic at their root. (cf. John 8:44) We are lying when we say God wants you to be poor AND when we say God’s primary goal is to make you “rich”. What God wants is relationship and dependence on him! What God promises to do is to bring you what you need when you need it! Poverty can make us start to think that we have to do things on our own. Poverty challenges the notion that God is “good” and “abundant”. As a result we are tempted to “steal”. We take what is not ours in an effort to take matters into our own hands and get what we need that we do not trust God to provide. This act of “stealing” profanes God.

This is why the Agur so wisely asks for these two things: make me honest / remove "falsehood and lying from me” and keep me abiding in you Lord by avoiding the pitfalls of both affluence and poverty. These are the things Agur asked for “before I die”. A dependent life in the middle. Are we willing to commit to the same things? In our lives - we will surely see times of plenty and times of want. In our lives, we will be confronted with many moments where we will be tempted to lie. May God remove falsehood from us - Lord knows we need it taken out of us! And may God help us rest in what HE provides for us. For so many of us, we are “well fed” and have more than we need. We need God to stop us from denying him… and the truth is when we feel “empty” (not “full”) We must turn to him. There is no denying that times of barrenness draw us closer to the Lord. But we must never deny God’s goodness and blessing. He is the giver of good gifts. We must not romanticize poverty, and embrace that God has come to “feed the hungry, restore sight to the blind, and set the captives free.” We profane God when we tell other people that he wants to leave you hungry and empty! God is a “filler - upper” sort of God. Give us the courage to live in the middle with you Lord… Lord, thank you that you give us what we need when we need it. Lord give us courage to be emptied when we need to be emptied. Give us open hands when we need to receive from you. Teach us how to live in full times and lean times. ”Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is needful for me…”

Love you guys! - JDP