Bottom line up front: Two (Wise) Things for Which to Ask God

The text is Proverbs 30:7-9 (ESV):

7 Two things I ask of you;
deny them not to me before I die:
8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,
9 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.

What (2) Things: What two things does the wise person ask God for? One was distance between him and falsehood/lying (v. 8a). What a prayer! He’s praying for his own integrity and for his name to not to be associated with anything but honor. I say again, what a prayer. Second, he asked the Lord for “neither poverty nor riches” (v. 8b). How rare is that? Very unmaterialistic. Why does the wise man pray for that? Because he knows his own weaknesses. He knows that man’s default posture is one of idolatry. We want the gifts but not the Giver.

Encouragement/takeaway: I say very often to myself and to those close to me something along these lines: “Some passages are easy to preach but hard to live.” This is one of them. Why? Because we can all be tempted to prevaricate in order to be liked instead of telling the truth and being hated. The lie just seems so easy sometimes.

And second, sinful desires: “For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world” (1 John 2:16) and it is impossible in our own strength to vanquish those desires. Ergo, the Christian is to seek the things of God via renewing his mind (Romans 12:1-2) and delighting himself in the ways of God (Psalm 37:4).