Prayer of Agur

Agur’s Prayer (It Happens After Prayer, Chp. 4)

If you were to make a list of the things you pray for, what would they be? How long would your list be?

Tonight’s message is about a man named Agur (meaning hired hand), and his prayer. A pray opposite that of Jabez’s prayer.

Proverbs 30:1-8

7 Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: 8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me: 9 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.

What are the two things Agur is asking God for?

A Short list

1. Don’t give me Poverty

2. Don’t give me Riches

Both come by and from God. “Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;” Acts 17:25.

“Remove far from me vanity and lies:” These are similar in that they are both deceptive.

Satan and the world lie to us every day in telling us that we need to be beautiful, rich, and successful. The enemy presses upon us to seek the things of this world. BUT we are not of this world and our King tells us to “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Matthew 6:33-34. This is the faith and prayer of Agur.

The Prayer explained:

9 “Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the LORD?” Too much success leads one to fill like a self-made man, thus denying the blessings or hand of God.

1 Timothy 6:9-10 “9 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”

“or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.” Too little and we begin to fill forsaken by God and take things into our own hands, possibly even cursing God along the way.

Matthew 6:8 “...for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.”

Hebrews 13:5 Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

1 Timothy 6:8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.

Conclusion:

Ultimately, the prayer is reduced to one simple concept; one that Jesus taught: “Give us this day our daily bread.” Matthew 6:11.

In the Exodus, God instructed the Children of Israel to take only what they needed for the day; not to hoard.

Agur prayed for not more than what was convenient or needed, meaning his daily bread.

Jesus, in teaching the disciples to pray, taught us to ask only for our daily bread, our daily need.

In this country, and even in this church, we don’t know poverty, and for the most part, most of us don’t really know riches.

Still, I ask, are you receiving you daily bread?

Are you receiving a daily supply of God’s word?

Are you being fed daily by God in both the physical and the spiritual?