Two Things

             “Two things I ask of you, Lord; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.  Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ Or I may become poor and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God. (Proverbs 30:7-9)

          If you could ask God for only two things, what would they be? My standard prayer request for years has been “wisdom, direction, and attitude,” but that’s three. As I walk and pray for categories of people (the Church, families, communities, authorities, and enemies,) I tend to ask that I would bless them and they would bless me. That’s a good one, I think. The other day, I came up with my best cheat prayer ever: “Manna!” It’s sort of like making one of the three wishes to be granted by a genie, “An unlimited number of wishes.”

          But the wisdom in this passage that we need to adopt is that when we ask, we ask for neither poverty nor riches because those both tend to lead to idolatry.