Breaking the grip of poverty

When a person feels poor and cries out for help, it does not necessarily mean that he lacks only money. He may also be suffering from a deeper lack -- ignorance of his real being, of the real source of his life, and of his spiritual qualities.

The Bible announces the great fact that man is the image of God, of the living creator of all that truly lives. Is it logical, then, to say that man can be indigent? If we feel poverty-stricken, we need more than anything else to be fed -- spiritually fed. Feeling married to poverty means that to some extent we're suffering from a lie about the abundance of divine Life. God, Life , is never bankrupt in His love. He expresses the richness of His qualities in man, qualities that, when they become our most prized "income," enable us to stand up for ourselves.

Peter, a disciple of Christ Jesus, gave a dramatic example of how to rise out of poverty. Seeing a beggar at the temple's gate, he must have known that material charity would not be of lasting worth to the man, that his need had to be met from a higher level.Peter commanded: "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." n1 The result was stunning. The man rose, went into the temple, and began praising God. For the first time in his life, he was fully active.

n1 Acts 3:6;

Could a full million in currency have produced such an effect? How could "the name of Jesus Christ" be so effective and give Peter such authority?

Christ is more than a human name. Mary Baker Eddy n2 explains: "Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness." n3 This message expresses the eternal truth that man, God's true man, is forever cared for. To even glimpse this truth dispels the contradicting lies of the senses -- disease, fear, ignorance -- and opens the mental gate for receiving the abundance of divine Love.

n2 Mrs. Eddy is the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science;

n3 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,m p. 332.

One who feels poor needs to have his longing to receive connected with the desire to give. One affects the other. But how can such a person give? Giving may not have its expression in money. But every individual, in his real, immortal identity, is a living witness of God's existence, and he has much to spend of his spiritual abundance if he will follow the line of divine guidance. This is not difficult if he looks a little more consistently away from himself in order to discover how much of good is at hand in the endless stream of divine ideas.

These ideas are the basis for everything a person can want or receive. Making use of them will give him self-respect, self- confidence, and encouragement. Then he is beginning to understand his heavenly Father, the Principle, Life. The slavish habit of waiting for a crumb from someone else will leave him, and instead he will develop the poise to govern the situation, independent and free.

The divine compassion does not give coins but then leave us alone with our belief of poverty. As we erase in our consciousness the darkened and mistaken picture of a fallen man, we become free from illusions of shortcoming and recognize our true, spiritual identity, furnished with the plenty of God's grace.

Audibility or silently we can plead for the appearance of man as the loved and protected child of God, always cared for by his heavenly Father, lacking nothing and living gratefully in the satisfaction of the fullness of Life. Our prayers can help break the limiting thoughts of error, until finally our doubting consciousness will be strong enough to rise above the dream of mortality into the light of perfection. DAILY BIBLE VERSE God hath given it into your hands; a place where there is no want of any thin g that is in the earth. Judges 18:10