Neither poverty nor riches
"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." - Proverbs 30:7-9
What a crazy prayer, right? Give me only what I need, no more, no less. Help me to stay dependent on you. This so goes against my ideas of, 'put enough away in case of emergencies', because surely there's wisdom there. How to balance this? God provided for the Israelites manna each day, only what they needed for the day, in order to show them each day that it was He who provides for them. I heard a pastor say that this is like telling God you want to live paycheck to paycheck.
God provides for me, it's not my employer, my customers, the government, but God. It is to him I will look in hard economic times, when business isn't going well, when I lose my job, when I feel compelled to give away the money I had saved to help someone else who doesn't have enough for today.
Am I willing to do hard things, to put myself, my family, in a place where God has to provide or else we're in trouble? I say willing, because maybe that is what God is calling me to and maybe it's not. But maybe, just maybe, he's not calling me to store away as much as I can (or go buy that new must have...whatever) while my brother wonders if, not what, but if he is going to eat today.
Everything we have belongs to the Lord. Everything we have must be "on the table" for God to use as he deems. He has given it to me, he can take it away. How can I best steward that which the Lord has given me? What has he called me to buy, to spend, to save, to give?
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." - Proverbs 30:7-9
What a crazy prayer, right? Give me only what I need, no more, no less. Help me to stay dependent on you. This so goes against my ideas of, 'put enough away in case of emergencies', because surely there's wisdom there. How to balance this? God provided for the Israelites manna each day, only what they needed for the day, in order to show them each day that it was He who provides for them. I heard a pastor say that this is like telling God you want to live paycheck to paycheck.
God provides for me, it's not my employer, my customers, the government, but God. It is to him I will look in hard economic times, when business isn't going well, when I lose my job, when I feel compelled to give away the money I had saved to help someone else who doesn't have enough for today.
Am I willing to do hard things, to put myself, my family, in a place where God has to provide or else we're in trouble? I say willing, because maybe that is what God is calling me to and maybe it's not. But maybe, just maybe, he's not calling me to store away as much as I can (or go buy that new must have...whatever) while my brother wonders if, not what, but if he is going to eat today.
Everything we have belongs to the Lord. Everything we have must be "on the table" for God to use as he deems. He has given it to me, he can take it away. How can I best steward that which the Lord has given me? What has he called me to buy, to spend, to save, to give?
posted by Aaron at
8:26 AM
1 Comments
