Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Prayer of Agur

New Series  (Biblical Prayers for Today!)


It has been a few weeks since I wrote anything. But while I was stumbling on the internet, I can across a prayer that rang so deeply in my mind. Because this prayer was so fascinating  I wanted to share it with everyone and make this prayer the first in my Series of Biblical Prayers.
Additionally since this is  my first installment of the new year, and the first installment of my series on prayer  I wanted to challenge us with a prayer that would bring us to new levels. I therefore challenge you to pray this prayer until you mean it.

Series 5 Prayer 1

The Prayer of Agur

( I dare you to pray this prayer)
I would say 95% of all Christians have heard of the prayer of Jabez, but only about 5% of the those Christians would tell you where it's located in the Bible. This is just the opposite with The Prayer of Agur,  of the very few Christians that have heard I would guest that nearly 100 % of those Christians knows where it can be located in the Bible. Why this is so, we will address later, right now lets look at the prayer. That's right there is a prayer in Proverbs written by some guy name Agur. 
Proverbs 30:7-9
Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die:   Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:   Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.(KJV)
In this prayer a man named Agur ( identified in proverbs 30:1) ask God for two things,
1.      That God’s sustaining Grace will keep him from falling into sin because of his vanity and lies 
2.      And that God would meet his needs; 
a.      but not so abundant, that he will forget that God is the source of all good things in his life.  
b.       .and not so sparingly that he has to steal to meet his own needs. 
This is a difficult prayer to pray it deals with our vanity and pride, the lies that we tell, and that others may tell us, and our lust for money and fear of poverty. However Agur does not ask God to help him stop lying, but to keep him out of the situations and circumstance that may tempt him to lie,  or that may cause him to act in vanity or pride; to keep him out of circumstances where others are likely to have him as a subject of their lies.
We are cursed with the false belief that we can handle riches in our life , but this is far from the truth. When the options for large amount of money becomes a subject of our interest we almost universally see it as an opportunity to to get more things. I heard Christians who would never play the lottery, say things like “if I won the lottery I would buy…” you fill in the blank. The fact is, the natural man desires the gifts, and blessing of God greater than he desire God. It is for this very reason that God will not answer a prayer that would take us from his presence.
James 4:3 (Amp) says “ [Or] you do ask [God for them] and yet fail to receive, because you ask with wrong purpose and evil, selfish motives. Your intention is [when you get what you desire] to spend it in sensual pleasures.”
Agur was a man of wisdom, he knew his own fear of want, and the temptation that being impoverished has on mankind. So he prayed God don’t hold your substance from me so much that I, out of my lack will steal and defile your name.

The question we must ask ourselves are we willing to admit that we are unable to subdue our vanities, and pride ? Are we willing strip ourselves bare of the curse of plenty, so that we may live upright in the presence of Christ?  Or will be continue to lie to ourselves believing that in our abundance we will more abundantly seek God?


Soli Deo Gloria
Your Brother in Christ 

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