“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
This past Sunday, Pastor John preached about man’s tendency to believe that the next thing will make everything worth it — the next stage of life, the next paycheck, the next answered prayer.
Proverbs 30 meets this mindset head-on, showing us where contentment is truly found.
Some people flip open their Bible randomly, hoping God will speak through whatever verse they land on. You wouldn’t want to try that method and accidentally turn to Proverbs 30:2-3:
Surely I am too stupid to be a man.
I have not the understanding of a man.
I have not learned wisdom,
nor have I knowledge of the Holy One. — Proverbs 30:2–3
At first glance, it sounds like self-flagellation, but it’s more like radical humility. Agur knows how small he is compared to God. He doesn’t fool himself into thinking he’s the master of all things.
In verse 4, he points to the One who truly holds all authority:
Who has ascended to heaven and come down?
Who has gathered the wind in his fists?
Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is his son’s name?
Surely you know! — Proverbs 30:4
The answer is simple: God.
No human shares His authority. Everything does not rest on our shoulders.
And that truth is the first step toward contentment.
That’s why Agur’s prayer is so remarkable. Instead of chasing the “next thing,” he simply asks for what is fitting for each day. It is a prayer shaped by humility and dependence. Agur’s prayer is a call to receive just enough—no more, no less.
Wealth carries the danger of forgetting God; want carries the temptation of dishonoring Him. Agur longs to be spared from both.
From Prayer to Promise
The apostle Paul discovered this same truth centuries later. Writing from prison in his letter to the Philippians, he testified:
Philippians 4:11-13 — “I have learned, in whatever situation I am, to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”
The connection is striking.
Agur asked to be spared from poverty and riches; Paul learned contentment in both.
Agur feared what extreme want or abundance might do to his faith; Paul’s faith remains strong regardless of his circumstances.
Agur prayed for protection from spiritual dangers; Paul found that Christ’s strength enables him to face any situation without compromising.
What Agur requested as protection, Paul achieved through Christ. It’s like seeing an ancient prayer answered centuries later through the gospel.
Living the Prayer
When I read Agur’s prayer in Proverbs 30, it immediately brings to mind the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread,” and reminds me how I’ve learned to pray for just that in everyday life.
Before every Uber shift, I pray over the people I’ll meet that night, asking God to help me get them safely to their destinations and to use me to share His Word should the opportunity arise. But I also pray that God would grant me exactly the amount of “bread” I need that shift to contribute well to my family.
This summer has been especially slow for rideshare drivers. There have been nights where I’ve sat in parking lots wondering if I’d even get a single ride. My old self, the one who dropped out of college, who lived much closer to hunger and desperation, might have panicked. That version of me knew what it meant to truly need.
But here’s what I now know: even during the slowest summer that I can remember, our family is doing well. Not because we’re rolling in money — we’re not. There are plenty of things I’d love to have but can’t afford. But when I look around at my family, at the life God has given us, I realize I have an embarrassment of riches in the things that actually matter.
I’ll be honest. If someone had told my younger, desperate self that I was “rich in what matters,” I probably would have rolled my eyes. When you’re actually hungry, those kinds of platitudes sound like nonsense from people who’ve never missed a meal before.
But that’s what I’m starting to get about Agur’s prayer. He wasn’t asking God to make life easy or to never struggle, but for help to keep trusting God no matter what happened.
And maybe that’s what’s been happening to me without me even realizing it. I didn’t learn contentment by avoiding hard times. I learned it by going through them and somehow finding that God was still there.
Final Thought
Tonight, when I pray for daily bread during my Uber shift, I’m not asking to get rich. I’m asking for exactly what my family needs .
No more, no less.
And time after time, God provides precisely that portion.
In a world that constantly pushes for more, Agur’s prayer reminds us to pause and reflect. Trusting God’s provision means recognizing that His ‘enough’ is always exactly right.
And He knows precisely what we need.
Let me know what you think.