Having enough

Spiritual activity brings security. Startling? We usually think that we need comes from matter -- from material possessions, suitable employment, fat bank accounts. But genuine affluence is the result of something more basic -- consistent thinking and living in accord with God's law.

Do I place God first?

Do I devote part of my day to learning more of him?

Do I pray -- that is, do I humbly acknowledge that God is good and that He is my helper in every circumstance?

Questions such as these, honestly answered, can start us on the road to sufficiency.

If we are truly conscious of God's goodness, we will recognize more readily the good all around. It may not appear in exactly the way we want it or expect it. But good, God, is omnipresent, and our knowing of this, and our expectation of its confirmation, will bring proofs of its truth.

Some years ago my husband needed work. He had been unemployed for several weeks. He and I saw the need to understand more fully that God is always active in good. We prayed. A job didn't come along for another three months. But a relative who had bought too many clothes and had recently outgrown them presented me with a whole wardrobe! This was a totally unexpected turn of events. We gratefully recognized the gift, however, as a sign that the praying we had been doing was effective. And the clothes were certainly a practical boost to our budget.

The need to be grateful for every evidence of God's love cannot be overestimated. Gratitude opens the way to more good. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes: "Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more." n1

n1 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,m p. 3;

Gratitude opens the way to inspiration. And inspiration shows us how to be more efficient, wiser, more economical.

But, you say, how am I going to get on my feet financially? How am I going to pay my debts? How am I going to feed my family?

God's goodness rules out the possibility of a lack of good anywhere in His creaction. Man and the universe are the very expression of God's unchanging but ever-appearing, abundant good. When we know this, we can talk back to appearances of lack of health, lack of adequate nutrition, lack of emplyment, or lack of necessary funds. We can see these as projections of unenlightened thought -- as mesmeric, maybe, but also as unreal and powerless. We can refuse to be made afraid because we know that God never deserts His children. And wem are whose children!

The Bible says, "He [God] giveth to all life, and breath, and all things." n2 And Mrs. Eddy explains: "The right way wins the right of way, even the way of Truth and Love whereby all our debts are paid, mankind blessed, and God glorified." n3

n2 Acts 17:25;

n3 The first Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,m p. 232.

Applying these truths to our own situation, we see that our most important obligation is to trust God, to turn to Him and keep thought and life in harmony, with Truth and Love.

God is both Truth and Love. As His children, we are naturally truthful and loving. The world needs these qualities. It needs integrity, charity, caring, spiritual affection as well. When we live them the world is enriched. And the one who lives them -- truly lives them -- cannot remain destitute. DAILY BIBLE VERSE He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despite their prayer. Psalms 102:17