Don’t give me either poverty or riches.
Feed me only the food I need,
or I may feel satisfied and deny you
and say, “Who is the Lord?”
or I may become poor and steal
and give the name of my God a bad reputation.
Proverbs 30:8–9
Do you consume more than you need? It’s a simple question about a simple topic: stuff. How much stuff—clothes, food, and toys—do you use that you technically don’t need in order to survive? When you overconsume, it’s because of your focus. We tend to focus on what we consume and consume to the degree of our obsession over a thing. In other words, if you love books and read them ravenously, your focus is knowledge. Or you may eat anything and everything because your focus is comfort or satisfaction.
When someone consumes more than they need, they run the risk of actually denying God by making what they consume more important than he is. The author of this proverb asked God to make him neither rich nor poor. Can you imagine praying for something like that? “Lord, don’t give me lots of money so I can buy all the things I want.” What a prayer!
Think about the impact of your consumption on your relationship with the Father. Where do you put most of your thoughts? What occupies most of your time, your energy, your heart? Have obsessions, those things you can’t live without, replaced God on the throne of your heart? If so, they are little idols, and they won’t be tolerated by a holy God. If you want more of his hand and presence in your life, then take a look at what you consume and see if you don’t spend too much time and energy on the things around you instead of the God above you.