I Have Enough

Genesis 33:11 “Please accept my blessing that is brought to you, because God has dealt graciously with me, and because I have enough.”

Jacob blesses his brother Esau with gifts. He urges Esau to accept them on the grounds that God’s grace to him has filled him so that he needs no more. In Jacob’s case, God’s graciousness has meant wives, children, flocks, and wealth. 

But Jacob sees that his bounty has come from one source, God’s grace. Seeing that God has cared for him and provided for him Jacob has this rest in his soul, “I have enough.”

“Jacob immediately afterwards clearly avows that whatever he possesses, is not the fruit of his labor or industry, but has been received by him through the grace of God, and by this reasoning he attempts to induce his brother to accept the gift; as if he had said, ‘The Lord has poured upon me an abundance, of which some part, without any loss to me, may overflow to thee.’” John Calvin

I have enough. Who says this? Moreover, what person feels it? Our human nature is a continual quest for more. More money, more house, more clothes, more travel, more friends, more impact, more fame, more health, more ease. Ted Turner was asked about his billions, “How much is enough?” He said, with a self-conscious and ironic smile: “Just a little bit more.” Is that not our heart? We need just a little bit more. 

What if we felt as Jacob did? I have enough. Enough materially. I do not need to acquire more. But I immediately think of those things we need: to repair this item to replace that one. Then it would be enough. But I think of those things that I want: Well, I could really use a new . . . . And then it would be enough.  Then would it be enough?

Doesn’t that love of money and the things money can buy infect our hearts too easily so that we are not content, so that we cannot bring ourselves to utter that phrase, “I have enough.” “Keep your life free from love of money and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Heb. 13:5). 

Perhaps then it is not the quantity of stuff we have that allows us to say, “I have enough,” but rather the knowledge that God has given us all that we have. That God has given us so much more than, strictly speaking, we deserve. That God has given us, above all the rest, himself. With him at our side we have no other need. “There is nothing on earth that I desire besides you” (Ps. 73:25). Is that ever true of us, that we want nothing on earth but the Lord? Only when we know that he has graciously given us enough already. 

Lord, since you are always with me, let me feel this truth, let me feel it in my mind, my heart, my soul, my emotions, and inner self: I have enough. Then fueled by that conviction, let me give even more generously to those who actually may not have enough. For I have enough.