A Need or a Want?

(Proverbs 30:8 KJV)  Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:

First we had deception.  Now the request continues with asking for the middle ground between “poverty” (7389) and “riches” (6239).  This is such an incredibly important point.  There is a place in finances where we have enough.  We are provided for.  We have the necessities and more.  The problem is that we are rarely satisfied, we want more.  The advertising of our culture plays on what the Ten Commandments call “coveting.”  In the I Corinthians 13 it says that love is not “jealous.”  These are ways in which we look at what others have and feel slighted because we don’t have it.  We need to always ask ourselves, “Is it a need or a want.”  Do you need to go to the restaurant where steaks cost as much as the down payment on your house?  I realize it is better than home made tuna casserole (with peas) but what do you need?  Find the balance.

Balance is a hard place to find.  Once found it is hard to maintain.  That is the reason it is part of the main request of wisdom.  One of the reasons it is hard to stay in the middle of the path is that it requires us to walk by faith.  We live in a culture that demands different kinds of insurance.  How much is enough?  We have doctors who want to run a plethora of tests.  How many do we really need?  We need reliable transportation.  How new does our car need to be?  These are real questions and we need to ask them for ourselves, not for our neighbors.  The answers must be made in faith and obedience.

So?  Walk the narrow road.  Keep the balance.  Remember that this is only possible with regular contact with the living God.  Pray, read, reflect, trust.