Convenient Cache

“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.” (Pr 30:8-9 AV)

 

I may have considered this passage before, so if you are experiencing the sensation of déjà vu, it would be normal.  Whenever I reach this passage in my reading, which is once a month, I pray this prayer with the writer.  I have been doing this for as long as I can remember.  These verses are so very important to me.  The writer is asking the LORD to give him that which is his portion.  No more, no less.  He asks the LORD to refrain from blessing him more than he can handle, but at the same time, he is asking the LORD to provide his needs.  The word for convenient above means prescribed limit or boundary.  We use the word a bit differently.  However, in the understanding of the word, we see great wisdom in the prayer.  What the LORD has destined for us is convenient.  If it was inconvenient, we would not want it.  Or it would require more than we could commit.  These prescribed boundaries are the boundaries for which the LORD has created us.  To learn to be content in the boundaries which the LORD has determined often takes a lifetime of maturing to accept.  However, the quicker we are in accepting those boundaries, the more content we will be.

To understand this idea of convenience, let us conjure up an example.  When we talk of convenience, we are usually considering a task or event.  Going from one point to another brings up many different routes.  We choose the most convenient.  We avoid traffic or construction and regardless of the distance, we choose the shortest route possible if time is our priority.  However, if millage is more important, we do not consider traffic or construction.  Mere feet or miles is our priority.  Whatever our priority might be, our choice is self-limiting.  Choosing the faster route limits choices which can be made.  One of the things my wife and I enjoy is running errands.  We run around to various places to conduct all sorts of business.  The post office, the bank, and the supermarket are our usual places.  However, occasionally, we have to pick up some coffee, run to the pet store, or go to a specialty store for other items.  The list of places is organized in whatever route works for us.  The most convenient way to accomplish the tasks at hand is laid out.  And off we go.  Then there comes a challenge.  I am usually the offender.  When driving, there is usually a plan in my head.  However, it is not always the right one, or, I forget how the city is laid out respective of where we are and inadvertently take a long way around.  This drives my poor wife mad!  She is a walking compass.  But, in her sweet way, she allows me to inconvenience us as we circumnavigate the globe for a simple trek around the block.  Too many choices.  Too many options.  Then there are the times when we forget there is an obstruction like a school or factory which intersects our street.  We have done this several times.  We forget the school on 73^rd st, or the factory off of 70^th.  We find ourselves going around.  Limited access is inconvenient.

When it comes to things in life, God gives that which is convenient.  This convenience is based on our abilities and our purpose.  Working with very wealthy people as a caddy taught me this principle first hand.  The LORD has created some with ten talents, some five talents, and some only one talent.  That which the ten talent person needs is far more than the one talent person.  It is what is convenient for them to accomplish that for which the LORD has created them.  Every time I read these two verses, as I said, my heart is joined with the writers.  I do not want more than the LORD has for me because spiritually, it would not go well with me.  Nor do I wish to suffer severe want.  Envy has a way of manipulating circumstances to get what we think we need or want.  The older I get, the more I realize I don’t need nearly as much as I think I do.  God has given me a wonderful life partner for my wife.  She is convenient for me.  She is just what I need.  I need no other.  He has given me three wonderful sons with their wives and children.  They are just what I need.  He has given me a roof over my head.  It is not the best in the neighborhood.  But it is convenient.  It is just what I need.  There is food in the pantry, heat in the registers, and the lights are on.  We don’t have the best of what we have, but it will do the job.  I praise the LORD He has given that which is convenient and not allowed us to suffer nor give us more than we need.  Praise be to His name.