“The New Testament gives us three areas where we need to be content:
Content with your current possessions: Hebrews 13:5, “be content with what you have.”
Content with your current provisions: 1 Timothy 6:6, “if we have food and covering with these we will be content.”
Content with your current paycheck: Luke 3:14, “be content with your wages.”
If we get a handle on these three areas of our lives we will experience a level of financial, spiritual and emotional contentment and freedom beyond anything we have every known before.
Keep in mind there is a huge difference between being financially independent and being financially free. You can be financially independent and not be financially free. Likewise, you can be financially free without being financially independent. I know some very wealthy people who are clearly financially independent, but they are anything but financially free. They are “slaves” to their possessions. I also know people who do not have “two nickels to rub together” and they are anything but financially independent. Yet, they are entirely financially free.
Our goal is to be financially free. We may never realize financial independence in our lifetime. But let me ask you, what would be wrong with living a hand to mouth existence if it is God’s hand to your mouth?”
Jay Link, excerpt from How Much is Enough? blogpost for March 2012: http://www.stewardshipministries.org/blog/2012/03/01/how-much-is-enough/