Never Enough

There are many more stories about transformed lives that I could tell. Stories that would inspire and encourage you. But I know that many of us continue to live in financial fear, discontentment, and confusion. Why is that? Why do so many of us wrestle with the sense that there’s “never enough”?

The title of this book speaks to the vague, gnawing sense that there has to be more and that money is the answer.

This struggle—the financial tightness that many of us really, actually feel—is powerful. It’s distracting. It’s defeating. It’s frustrating. It’s pervasive. For some, the struggle causes us to obsess over financial minutia and argue with those we love. For others, the struggle causes us to throw the budget out the window and take ourselves out for a nice dinner to forget our financial woes . . . only to be hit with them when the low balance alert e-mail comes.

The reality is that, for all of us, financial struggles call for permanent, new ways of thinking that will equip us to make wiser decisions on a daily basis. We’ve learned a lot together and our gained understanding can begin to impact us for the better as we begin to implement biblical financial wisdom.

You now know that perspective changes everything. When we understand that God is the owner and we are His stewards, we can be content.

You now know that there are only a few key financial principles to apply each day in order to produce financial stability in the long term:

Spend less than you earn

Give generously

Avoid debt

Maintain financial margin

Set long-term goals

You now know that there is only one pie and that when we follow biblical wisdom as we Live, Give, Owe, and Grow, we are able to practice contentment in our finances on a day-to-day basis. You know that the normal, cultural priority order of money, where we let the Live category yell the loudest and gain the most attention, is not actually the wisest priority order of money. You now know that there is a better way. You know the wisdom of moving the Live category to the bottom of the priority order, freeing up the Give and Grow categories and wrestling with the very important question in our Live wedge: “How much is enough?” You know the wisdom of eliminating debt in the Owe wedge and you know that paying taxes with gratitude is a way to honor our heavenly Father—the source of our earthly provision.

In most of our financial situations, we have enough. Enough is a choice and a mind-set. In any financial situation, contentment is possible. We are foolish to believe that “more” is always the answer.

Together, let’s proclaim, “Enough is enough!” and begin to be people who are marked by deep contentment and who are known for living according to their convictions.

Ron Blue and Karen Guess, Never Enough? 3 Keys to Financial Contentment (Nashville, TN: B&H Books, 2017).