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Key Bible Verse: Give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs. For if I grow rich I may deny you and say, "Who is the Lord?" (Proverbs 30:8–9). Bonus Reading:Matthew 6:11

The first few times I read today's Key Bible Verse, I thought it was a good prayer for Agur but anathema for me. My goal has always been to become financially independent, I thought. I can't pray this prayer. Agur's prayer for integrity is fine, but to pray against riches is to pray against everything we've been working toward.

You and I are cursed with the belief that we can handle riches, where weaker men cannot. We think we can handle more money and not forget God. The plain truth is that we already have too much. If we're completely honest, we must admit that the riches we already have, however little they may be, cause us to drift away from the things of God. The time it takes to manage what we already have makes us act as if we don't know the Lord, even if we never consciously say, "Who is the Lord?"

Money is the dominant value of a world that is passing away. Honoring Christ is the dominant value of the world that is coming. I have learned to pray the prayer of Agur (and mean it). It took several years to surrender to the point I could pray for neither poverty nor riches.

—Patrick Morley in Walking with Christ in the Details of Life

My Response: Am I secure enough with Christ to pray the prayer of Agur?

Thought to Apply: We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty.

—Winston Churchill (British statesman, 20th century)

Adapted from Walking with Christ in the Details of Life (Zondervan, 1990) by permission.

Copyright © 2002 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

O Lord, work in my life so that I live by the values of Your kingdom rather than my society's consumer mentality.

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