Neither Poverty Nor Riches

The Treasure

This prayer names a specific, unusual request: neither poverty nor riches, deliberately avoiding both extremes rather than praying simply for abundance. This is a striking petition, recognizing genuine spiritual danger present on both ends of the financial spectrum, not merely the dangers of poverty alone.

Notice the specific danger named for riches: lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD. Abundance carries its own genuine risk, self-sufficiency quietly displacing dependence on God, comfort producing a subtle forgetting of who actually provides. This is a needed corrective against assuming wealth alone would resolve every spiritual danger money presents.

Notice also the danger named for poverty: lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain. This proverb does not romanticize poverty either, naming its own genuine temptations, desperation potentially producing its own kind of dishonor toward God, distinct from but not lesser than the dangers of abundance.

Whatever your current financial circumstances actually are, examine today which of these two dangers currently presses more directly against you, and pray this ancient prayer as your own, food convenient for me, neither extreme, but sufficiency held with genuine dependence on the one who actually provides it.