How's the Economy?

`HOW'S the economy?'' might seem like a reasonable question. It is certainly a frequent one! But it is helpful to turn aside from asking ``how's the economy'' in statistical terms, and to question whether its condition can genuinely be gauged on a solely material basis. Looking prayerfully into the question of the economy, we see that a spiritual approach to this aspect of our well-being gives us a more accurate assessment.

The Bible teaches that in truth man is made in the image and likeness of God, is made spiritually not materially. In her book Unity of Good, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, writes, referring to men and women in their true, spiritual individualities, ``They have none of them lost their harmonious state, in the economy of God's wisdom and government'' (p. 51).

In the true ``economy of God's wisdom and government,'' then, we're all doing just fine! But, of course, we need to do more than blithely say this. We need to understand that we, and our neighbors, have none of us lost our ``harmonious state'' in God's supreme economy. God's wise and governing control of us all involves no need for any realignment of lack and abundance, includes no gluts, no scarcities. Supply and demand are always matched, and are in truth inseparable. Everything and everyone has its place in this divine economy and contributes to--without ever detracting from--the well-being of all else.

Where is this wonderful economy? It's where you are, it's where I am, it's wherever anyone is. Because, to state it accurately, we all exist in spiritual reality, where there is only this perfect economy, where there is only God wisely governing and universally blessing all in the spiritual realm of the real. In this true, spiritual creation constructed and maintained by God, He is the enforcer of His own invariably benign law. God's universe has absolutely nothing to do with limitations; it is an intelligent ordering of all that is forever unlimited.

We can begin to perceive this in our prayers, and to act from the basis of accepting it to be true. This will prove practical in transforming our thought about supply and demand; and this will, in turn, transform our experiences of supply and demand. As we increasingly base our actions on a spiritual understanding of the abundance of being that acknowledges God as the provider of all, supply and demand will be better seen to correspond in every aspect of our lives.

This was my experience when I was thinking of taking a training course that would require me to be away from home for some weeks. I felt that the training was a God-directed course of action, but I worried about leaving a relative at home alone. He could care for himself, but I felt it would be lonely for him. One day, however, as I prayed about my decision, I was struck by the thought that I was viewing the progressive step I would be taking as my relative's loss. I realized that to think this way was to lose sight of God's universal law of love, which bountifully blesses all His children. Confident that I could trust my relative's needs to God, I went ahead and enrolled in the course.

Just before it began, two young relatives from overseas contacted us and asked if they could visit. Their trip lasted for most of the time I was away, and when I visited home I could see that their lively presence was more than compensating for my absence.

Through Christ all limitations are overcome. The Christ is the spiritual idea of God, which enabled Christ Jesus to turn the sparsity of a few loaves and fishes into an abundance sufficient to feed a crowd that Matthew's Gospel describes as ``five thousand men, beside women and children'' (14:21). Prayer brings us more of the spiritual vision that animated and motivated the Master, the true view of man's divine and harmonious place in the economy of God's government. Bringing our understanding and experience of this to bear on the news that we hear will stimulate the healthy activity of our local, national, and international economies.

BIBLE VERSE

God shall supply all your need.

Philippians 4:19