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Buying into God's plan

A Christian Science perspective: God's abundance. On a fixed income?

  • By T. Jewell Collins

I’ll have to admit that the first thing that kicks in when reports of an economic downturn creep into the daily news is a return to my former frugal ways. I had already signed on for a trip, and I began to think my withdrawal from that trip would be a wise step as it would result in considerable savings. (I had purchased a cancellation policy, just in case.)

This decision prompted me to review other areas in which I could save, such as not eating out as frequently and not adding to my wardrobe.

What other things could I do to make my fixed income continue to support me without depleting my retirement savings? My financial horizons were narrowing in step with my limiting concepts. This lapse into financial insecurity had momentarily eclipsed rational thinking.

In the midst of my dreary assessment came reports of both the states’ and federal government’s attempts at cutting spending while encouraging taxpayers to boost the economy by doing just the opposite. With this double standard, I realized that I needed a fresh premise from which to reason, free from the vagaries of the dollar sign.

I found this new premise in familiar ideas expressed in the Bible. This verse, for instance, from the prophet Malachi, offered the promise of a generous blessing with no reference to money: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10).

To make room for that blessing, I needed to erase the penurious views that had claimed residency in my thinking. 

I saw that there is a higher law of supply and demand governing each one of us. I called it God’s financial-aid plan. His plan includes an equal balance between supply and demand.

This awakening to His plan and how we can tap into it has the power to wash away any doubts or fears for our present or future security. There’s neither a dearth of God-sourced qualities to express nor any limit to the opportunities to express them. Foresight, wisdom, and discipline, all of which have their source in God, are available to us to express each day. Through prayerful contemplation we can let these qualities inform our experience. God’s plan leads to spiritual prosperity manifested in ample supply to meet our needs.

Recognizing God’s loving provision of equality between supply and demand frees us from financial inequities. Receptivity to this ever-present abundance already in place for us opens channels for God’s plan to find expression in our experience.

These comforting words of our Master, Christ Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount, “[S]eek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33), can be taken as a promise of God’s plan of plenty for each of us.

I did take that trip with a friend and was greatly enriched by it. The fear of a depletion of funds was replaced with gratitude for the good that unfolded during the trip. The modest amount I had allocated for items crafted by local artisans was more than enough to satisfy my desire to return home with a few unique remembrances of the trip. 

In another instance, a friend offered me her outgrown wardrobe. And everything fit perfectly!

God’s plan of abundance for each of His ideas is indeed in operation. What better time to remember this than when that penny-pinching feeling tries to eclipse our expectancy of good.

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