Jan and I are at a place and time in our lives where we don’t need anything more. Twenty years ago, as two missionaries returning from Europe to pastor a church in Medford, Oregon, we stepped off the airplane with most of our earthly possessions in our luggage. We had stored a few boxes of books and Christmas decorations and a single chair in my mom’s attic in Montana, but that was it. Today, in a remarkable witness of God’s provision and faithfulness, we can honestly say we need nothing. God has provided everything. We have enough.

Yesterday, I was reading in Proverbs when I came across this verse, “Don’t wear yourself out trying to get rich. Be wise enough to know when to quit.”

(Proverbs 23:4). As soon as I finished reading those words, the Lord said, “It is important to know the meaning of enough.” 

Everyone needs to know what “enough” means for them personally and for their place of assignment in God’s Kingdom. I know believers on both ends of the financial scale – from those who have little to millionaires. God has helped them define what is enough for them based on what He has asked them to do in their unique place of Kingdom assignment. In each case, these individuals have drawn a line to define enough. Everything above the enough line has been dedicated to a purpose – to expand God’s Kingdom.

Until we draw the enough line, we will waste our precious time and energy chasing after an untethered standard of living determined by a consumer culture, not by God. In the end, if the line was never drawn, someday we will look back and see that we had worn ourselves out, pursuing vain and worthless things at the expense of something greater and more worthy.