“Give me just enough to satisfy my needs.  For if I grow rich, I may deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” And if I am too poor, I may steal and thus insult God’s holy name.”

Why do we budget?  Why don’t we just spend until we have gotten what we need?  Or why don’t we just not spend at all and save up everything for later?  Well, you’d have to be too young to understand anything about money to think that either spending or saving without budgeting is a good idea.  Budgeting is the only way to balance our resources and our needs.  Being good at budgeting is a skill that many seek to have but few master.  But, we all could stand to get better and better at budgeting.

Isn’t the Proverb telling us that we are to be good at budgeting what we have been given so that we are content with being able to satisfy our needs and then living with that amount as enough?  To “budget” our lives, we have to zoom way out and understand and accept the definition of our “needs” and then be satisfied right there without a desire for more.  Wow, is that hard! But if we read on there is more to the story when we get out of whack…with too much, we may turn our back on God and rely upon ourselves.  If we have too little, then we may act in ways that insult God’s name.  So, we must find our balance….that is to balance our budget of what is given to us in life. Yes, the Proverb seeks it for us.

Reference: Proverbs 30:6-7 (New Living Translation)