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Maybe it happened last night. The bills were on the table, the numbers didn’t add up, and you started to pray. Then you stopped halfway through the sentence. Can I even ask for this? Is it a sin to ask God for money?
It can feel greedy. It can feel like you’re treating God like a bank machine. And if you’ve heard preachers promise that God wants to make everyone rich, you may feel even more unsure. You don’t want to be one of those people.
Here is the short answer: no, it is not a sin to ask God for money. But the Bible does more than give you permission. Tucked near the end of Proverbs is a short prayer that asks God for money directly. It shows you how to ask. And the way it asks is not what most of us would guess.
Is It a Sin to Ask God for Money? What Jesus Put in the Prayer
Start with the prayer Jesus taught. Right in the middle of it, between “thy will be done” and “forgive us our debts,” is this line:
“Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11, KJV)
Bread was what money bought. It was food, rent, the basics. Jesus did not tell people to be too holy to mention it. Jesus put it in the prayer, in plain words, for everyone to say every day.
Paul says the same thing from another angle:
“Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.” (Philippians 4:6, KJV)
“In every thing.” Not every spiritual thing. Every thing. The school fees count. The rent counts. The broken fridge counts.
So the question isn’t really whether you can ask. The better question is how. And for that, there’s a man most people have never heard of.
The Only Prayer in the Book of Proverbs
Proverbs is mostly advice. Short sayings about work, words, friends and fools. It talks about God a lot. But it almost never talks to God.
Except once. In chapter 30, a man named Agur stops giving advice and starts praying. It is the only prayer in the whole book. And it is about money.
We know almost nothing about Agur. The chapter calls him “Agur the son of Jakeh” (Proverbs 30:1), and the Bible never mentions him again. He is not a king like Solomon. He doesn’t sound confident. Just before his prayer, he says he feels like he doesn’t understand much at all. Then he prays this:
“Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die: 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.” (Proverbs 30:7-9, KJV)
Read it slowly. There’s a lot packed into three verses.
He asks for a specific amount
Agur doesn’t ask for “blessing” in general. He names a range. Not poverty. Not riches. Something in between.
“Food convenient for me” is an old way of saying it. The Hebrew phrase is closer to “the bread of my portion,” the share that is right for me. It’s the same idea as the manna in the desert, where God told Moses the people would “gather a certain rate every day” (Exodus 16:4). Not a pile to store. Enough for today, and again tomorrow.
You can hear it echo, centuries later, in “give us this day our daily bread.”
He gives a reason for both sides
This is the part most people read past. Agur doesn’t just say “not too little, not too much.” He tells God why, for each one.
- Too much and he might get full and say, “Who is the LORD?” He’d forget he ever needed God.
- Too little and he might steal, and drag God’s name down with him.
Notice what both reasons are about. Not his comfort. Not his image. Both are about his heart, and about God’s name. He isn’t asking, “What amount will make me happy?” He’s asking, “What amount will keep me close to you?”
He asks for honesty before he asks for money
Here’s the detail that’s easy to miss. Agur says he’s asking for two things. Money is only the second. The first is “remove far from me vanity and lies.”
Why put honesty and money side by side? Look at his reasons again. A rich man who says “Who is the LORD?” is living a lie about God. A poor man who steals is living a lie about what belongs to him. Both dangers are ways of becoming a liar. So Agur’s two requests turn out to be one prayer: keep me honest, and give me an amount of money that won’t make me dishonest.
That’s not a man trying to get something out of God. That’s a man trying to stay true.
A Word Nobody Could Find
There’s one more surprise, and it sits inside the prayer Jesus taught.
The Greek word behind “daily” in “daily bread” is epiousios. It’s a strange word. Origen, a Christian teacher writing in the 200s, said he could not find it used anywhere else in Greek writing or speech. He thought the Gospel writers might have formed it themselves. Scholars still argue about exactly what it means. “Bread for today.” “Bread for tomorrow.” “The bread we need.”
Nobody can say for sure. But every option points the same way as Agur. Not bread for a lifetime. Not a warehouse. The bread that is needed, asked for again and again.
It’s almost as if the prayer has a lesson built into its grammar. You don’t ask once and get set for life. You come back. The coming back is part of the gift.
Where the Prosperity Message Gets It Backwards
Some teachers say God wants you rich, and that asking with enough faith will get you there. Agur’s prayer quietly turns that upside down.
He asks God to keep riches away from him. He sees a danger in having too much that we rarely see in ourselves. Moses warned Israel about the same thing, long before Agur: “Beware that thou forget not the LORD thy God… Lest when thou hast eaten and art full” (Deuteronomy 8:11-12, KJV).
James puts the line in a helpful place. “Ye have not, because ye ask not,” he says. Then the very next verse: “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:2-3, KJV).
So there are two ways to get it wrong. One is never asking, as if God doesn’t care about your rent. The other is asking only to feed wants that will pull you away. Agur’s prayer walks right between them.
We’ve written before about how staying close to God when life feels good and easy can be harder than staying close in hard times. Agur knew that. It’s why he asked for enough, and not more.
What This Means for Your Money Prayer Tonight
A lot of us think a “good” money prayer is a vague one. Ask for blessing, keep it spiritual, don’t mention numbers.
Agur does the opposite. He’s more specific than we are, not less. He names what he needs, names what he’s afraid of, and names what the money might do to him. He’s completely honest about his heart.
That’s the freedom here. You don’t have to hide the real number from God. And you don’t have to pretend you’re immune to what money can do. You can bring both. This is what I need. This is what scares me. Please give me the amount that keeps me close to you.
God already knows. “Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him” (Matthew 6:8, KJV). Asking isn’t about giving God information. It’s about bringing your whole self, bills and all, into the relationship.
Actions to Take Today
- Say the real need out loud. Not “bless my finances.” The actual thing: the school fees, the rent, the medicine, the bus fare this week. Say it to God in one plain sentence.
- Write one line that says what “enough” looks like this month. Just one line on paper or in your phone. If it helps, our free budget calculator can show you the real number in a few minutes.
- Name which side of Agur’s prayer is yours. Is your bigger danger the “full” side, forgetting God when things are fine? Or the “poor” side, being tempted to cut corners? Add one honest sentence about that to your prayer.
Journaling Prompts
- When you think about asking God for money, what feeling comes up first? Where do you think that feeling came from?
- If you had “enough,” exactly enough, what would change in how you pray?
- Agur asked for honesty before he asked for money. Is there any place where money pressure is making it harder for you to be fully honest?
A Prayer When You Need Money
God, I need help with money, and I’m not going to pretend I don’t. Here is what I’m facing: [name it]. Please give me enough. Not so little that I start cutting corners, and not so much that I stop needing you. Keep me honest while I wait, and let me find you in the daily bread, one day at a time. Amen.
Let’s Talk About It
Agur asked God to keep riches away from him. Do you think most people today would pray that prayer honestly? Share your thoughts in the comments below. I’d love to hear them.
If money pressure is part of a bigger story in your family, you might also find our piece on whether you should lend money to family helpful.
Share This
- “Give me neither poverty nor riches.” The only prayer in Proverbs asks for enough, and says why. Too much and I forget God. Too little and I cut corners. That’s a money prayer I can pray.
- I used to think asking God for money was greedy. Then I read that Jesus put “give us this day our daily bread” right in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer. Asking isn’t the problem. How we ask is.
- Agur asked God for two things: honesty first, then enough money to stay honest. Might be the wisest financial plan in the Bible.
Questions People Ask (Q&A)
Is it a sin to ask God for money?
No, it is not a sin to ask God for money. Jesus included “Give us this day our daily bread” in the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:11), and Philippians 4:6 tells believers to bring requests about “every thing” to God. The Bible’s concern is motive: James 4:3 warns against asking only to feed selfish desires, not against asking for real needs.
What is Agur’s prayer in Proverbs 30?
Agur’s prayer in Proverbs 30:7-9 is the only prayer in the book of Proverbs. Agur asks God for two things: to remove “vanity and lies” from him, and to give him “neither poverty nor riches” but only the food he needs. He explains that too much might make him forget God, and too little might tempt him to steal.
What does “give me neither poverty nor riches” mean?
“Give me neither poverty nor riches” in Proverbs 30:8 is a request for enough money, not too little and not too much. The writer asks for the amount that will keep him close to God, because wealth can lead a person to forget God and poverty can tempt a person to steal. It is a prayer shaped by what money does to the heart.
How should a Christian pray for money?
A Christian can pray for money by naming the real need plainly, asking for enough rather than excess, and being honest about how money affects their heart. Proverbs 30:7-9 models this: it asks for honesty, asks for daily provision, and gives God a reason rooted in faithfulness rather than comfort. Matthew 6:8 adds that God already knows what a person needs before they ask.
