2. You'll have more peace. Curiously, having more than enough rarely brings more peace. Money can't shield you from cancer and wealth can't prevent a miscarriage. Living in a nice house or driving a new car won't make your marriage better. In fact, having more than enough often increases your stress and distracts you from the things in life that really matter—pursuing God and loving the people
3. You'll help your relationships. Living with enough will actually help your relational world. You'll have more time and emotional energy to invest in your loved ones and even in those friends, neighbors, and co-workers whom God might be calling you to serve. Think about it—if wealth and material comfort really brought happiness, then nations that enjoy prosperity ought to have the healthiest relationships on the planet. We all know better. Couples with six-figure incomes typically have the same or higher divorce rates and the same relational difficulties as those with smaller incomes. Susie and I have watched our income increase dramatically over the last twenty years, but it hasn't helped our marriage one iota. If anything, our increased earnings have increased our stress and conflict.
4. You'll be more content. Are you tired of trying to keep up with the Joneses? (By the way, have you ever talked to the Joneses? They're not content either. If they were, they wouldn't need to be kept up with. Think about it.) If you're in the habit of collecting, chasing, pursuing, and admiring more stuff, then there is always going to be something else you want. There will always be something messing with your contentment. But when you declare that you have enough, suddenly contentment will become much more second nature to you. When you stop looking, stop longing, and stop lusting for other things, you set yourself up to be much more at peace with where you are in life and with what you have.
5. You'll have less or no debt. If you stop spending money on stuff, you'll have less debt and eventually will be debt free. If you're not buying things and spending money all the time, you'll have the cash reserves necessary to fix the broken dishwasher, replace the dead hot water heater, or even handle the college tuition for the kids. Less spending means less debt, and less debt means less stress.
6. You'll be prepared for tough financial times. I'm writing this the day after the US stock market took another five hundred-point dive. Other markets around the world took similar hits. I don't know what your economy will be like when you read this, but I do know that world economies are going to ebb and flow. Natural disasters, war, poor leadership, and other economic factors are going to cause the values of our respective currencies to wax and wane. Interest rates are going to climb, gas prices will increase, the cost of goods and services will go up, and then—maybe—they'll come back down. You do not want to be in debt and have significant financial overhead when those difficult days come calling. The big house, the nice car, or the time-share in Aspen might become the albatross around your neck that wrecks your marriage or keeps you from being able to retire when you want to. But if you're living with enough, you're much more likely to have the financial means to navigate those difficult times.
7. You'll be better equipped to respond to need. Even though Israel was a homeless group of former slaves for over forty years, God still expected them to care for the poor and needy among them. He expects the same of us. But curiously and tragically, having wealth doesn't typically increase one's benevolence. Statistics still show that the most generous people among us are those who have less, not more. If you're waiting until you hit a certain level of income before you start giving or helping others, stop waiting. God wants you to enjoy the fruits and joys of helping others right now. He wants you to be like Joseph and the Egyptians when the seven-year famine hit. Not only will you have what you need, but you'll be in a position to help others as well.
8. Your life will be simpler. The Bible clearly affirms the value of simple living. As we've already seen, simplicity reduces stress and enhances relationships. It helps you focus on what matters and gives you the discernment to reject what doesn't. But the more complex your lifestyle becomes—specifically, the more material and financial overhead you have—the less simplicity you'll enjoy. Simplicity and stress have an inverse relationship: the more you have of the former, the less you'll have of the latter.
9. You'll have better intimacy with God. If living with enough breeds simplicity, and simplicity helps our relationships, then it stands to reason that living with enough will help our relationship with God as well. Actually, simplicity enhances spirituality; it creates an environment in which your relationship with God can thrive. That's why monks and others seeking to know more of God don't retreat to the Hamptons or Beverly Hills; they go to the desert. Riches and material things are spiritual distractions. They divert our attention not just from God but from spiritual matters entirely. Living with more sets your focus on earthly, material matters, and it's nearly impossible to grow spiritually when you've got your eyes on temporal things.
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