Two Requests for My Lifetime Prov. 30: 7-9 CLICK TITLE FOR AUDIO
In Prov 30:7-9, there were two prayer requests that Agur made of the Lord. He asked the Lord to, “Remove far from me vanity and lies,” and “Give me neither poverty nor riches.” Both of these are excellent prayer requests, as you will see.
Remove far from me vanity and lies. To remove vanity and lies far from you:
Requires the devil to be put away (which will happen during the millennial reign of Jesus) Jn 8:44, Rev 12:9. As long as the devil is still around, he will overshadow the truth of God’s words with vanity and lies.
Requires that you seek out those who speak the truth – God hates liars Prov 6:16-19; Rev 21:8; 22:15 and so should you Ps 31:6. Too often men are too lazy and too complacent to seek out the truth. To this day, many people watch the “news” and think they are listening to the truth about what is really going on. For the most part, they are listening to lies. They go to college to get educated. They end up getting indoctrinated instead. The truth is found in your old King James Bible.
Requires that you know enough truth to be able to spot the lie (you get that from the Bible; but watch out for verse 30:6. There are many who have corrupted the words of God 2 Cor 2:17). We used to spot counterfeit currency instantly because we were so familiar with the “real thing.” If you concentrate on the truth you won’t have any trouble spotting the liars.
Requires that you cut off those who lie to you – Ps 119:29, 163. Americans are hooked on their televisions. They aren’t willing to turn them off even though they know that everything produced in Hollywood is a lie. The stars are “acting;” they aren’t real characters. And much of what is reported is fabricated.
Requires that you recognize that everything “under the sun” is vanity – Solomon concluded after careful examination and experiment that everything down here is vanity – Ecc 1:2. Therefore, set your affection on things above and on those things that come down from the father of lights. For instance, a prudent wife is from the Lord, children are an heritage of the Lord, the words of God are pure words and they are all true, and wisdom comes from God.
Give me neither poverty nor riches.
Not poverty – or else I might steal (and break the 8th commandment) and take the name of the Lord in vain (and break the 2nd Commandment) .
Not riches – or else I might deny God. Agnostics like Pharaoh ask, “Who is the Lord?” The Laodicean church in Rev 3 says, “I have need of nothing” and yet they were wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. 1 Tim 6, the love of money is the root of all evil. It obscures faith. When you trust in uncertain riches, Prov 23:5, you need to be certain that they will fly away.
Rather feed me with food convenient for me – Paul thrived on contentment in Phil 4 – Jesus commanded contentment in Matt 6 – Heb 13:5 says that we are to be content with such things as ye have – millions of people in the world would be happy with a roof over their head, food in their bellies and clothes on their backs and that’s it – that would be a luxury to them – but not us in the USA – covetousness will bring us to our knees.