Jan and I learned something years ago that had to do with creating a spiritual safety border around our finances. We could never allow an ungrateful attitude to exist. Ungratefulness can lead people to make desperate and unwise choices in an attempt to satisfy the demands of an ungrateful attitude.

During the Passover celebration, a song called Dayenu is sung. The song’s stanzas list a series of kindnesses God performed for the Jewish people during and after the Exodus. Each stanza concludes with the words of the Dayenu — “It would have been enough.”

The first of the 15 stanzas of the Dayenu begins with, “If He had taken us out of Egypt and not made judgments on them, it would have been enough.” The remaining 14 stanzas address topics such as God providing manna, making a way in the wilderness, and other issues that were beyond the Israelites’ control unless God provided what was needed. If only one blessing had been provided, it would have been enough.

Two verses in Proverbs became important to Jan and me when we processed our financial decisions, “O God, I beg two favors from you; let me have them before I die. First, help me never to tell a lie. Second, give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs” (Proverbs 30: 7-8).

The Lord had to discipline our lives in the area of our finances. The process of God’s discipline began by revealing to our younger selves the lies we believed and repeated to each other that would lead us down an unwise financial path. We followed some of those lies and experienced loss. We finally learned that lying to ourselves would never become a fruitful choice.

In this process, we learned how to give freely and not hoard a blessing. We learned to listen for the voice of the Spirit to direct us, not our impatience or a need to look successful. We learned how to trust the Lord in times of need. We learned to be content in any situation and not let financial desires consume us.

What we also learned was that no matter what we were going through, we would always have enough because we had put our financial future in God’s hands. We never needed to pursue more or yield to the fears of having less.

The words of Proverbs, “Give me neither poverty nor riches! Give me just enough to satisfy my needs,” became a place of peace and rest for us. That posture has led us to experience financial blessings that we would never have achieved otherwise. It was always God reminding us, again and again, of our personal Dayenu, that we will always have enough, no matter what season of life we are going through.