Proverbs 30:7-9
7 Two things I ask of you;
deny them not to me before I die:
8 Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,
9 lest I be full and deny you
and say, “Who is the Lord?”
When you work, is your aim to do just enough or to have a surplus? In thinking about your house or your paycheck, how often is the question, “how do I make this just a little bigger?” There is an innate desire to be okay and comfortable. Obviously, we want all our needs met, but it is interesting how our needs seem to grow and always slightly outpace our means.
It is so easy to get in that habit of wanting more and more or trying to achieve unmitigated growth. Regrettably, this desire for more stuff replaces our desire for more God. If left unchecked, we start living by our own devices. We leave faith behind and live fully relying on ourselves.
It always starts out with the best intentions. Our goal is always to reach an “end,” but then that end gets lost in the complexity of finding more means, more ways to reach that end. Ultimately, having more becomes the only goal you have. When we do this, we inevitably crash and burnout. An unachievable goal is no goal at all. It is just endless work.
No one can survive this way on their own. We need the help of our community, and we need to look towards God as the author of our lives. We need to remove the falsehood of self-reliance from our hearts. We need to pray for God to show us what enough really is.
We are tempted to try and have it all, but we know the truth that more of one thing means less of something else. More time working, means less time with your family. More time serving money, means less time serving God.
You must decide what is most important and learn to live into what is truly enough.