Many people are frightened about how to pay their bills with job loss, mounting debt, rising health-care costs, shrinking pay checks and threat of foreclosure. “How do I get more money?” many wonder.
The spiritual remedy for fear of financial lack is to understand that supply comes first and foremost in the form of ideas. And it really does! Every form of supply you’ve ever had started with an idea in someone’s consciousness, and if it was a good idea, it came direct from God to the one who received it.
Mary Baker Eddy got it right when she wrote, “God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies” (Misc. p. 307).
It’s not dollars we need first, but ideas. Financial houses that are out of order are crying out for better, wiser management which stems from better ideas on how to manage the affairs of that household. These ideas come from God, the source of all productive and profitable ways of thinking.
If our attitude is blinded by the belief that we need more money, it is typically closed to what is really needed, and that is better ways of thinking. Any financial mess can be straightened out through reason, discipline, improved choices, and making the hard choices that need to be made to rectify the errors that took over. This is all accomplished in mind, in thought. It doesn’t happen first on the financial statement, but in the thinking of those pouring over the statements.
Sound businesses are run on sounds ideas. Valuable employees express thinking that has value. Solvent households are managed by attitudes that demand balance and order.
Every financial decision happens in thought. Money flows through channels according to the thought that directs it.
When faced with impoverished financial conditions, the pressing need is for more inspired ways of thinking and managing one’s affairs that demonstrate solvency. These inspired views come direct from God, the source of all inspiration to begin with. Prayer helps us hear them.
The first need for a strong financial condition is not for money, but for ideas! The funds will follow…
Such a huge subject! (Well, there are lots of huge subjects…especially lately!)
What comes first to thought is: It’s high time we stop biting the rotten apple of belief that says “I’ll be happy when I have_______, ______,and _________, and not until then! (i.e., merely material things and experiences, etc. And are any of us fully exempt from this belief, in some degree?)
We need to ask, What is true satisfaction, real
substance, the true ‘stuff’ of life? The answers will make us WANT to accept our immortality…the eternal joy and bliss that God knows and which we
HAVE, in truth, as His expression and reflection!
Divine Mind is getting us there.
Thanks for your part in this, Evan. Right on!!
Sue
Thanks Evan,
This was so well stated. I shared your article with family and friends……
This same principle of seeing Spirit inspiring us with Goodly ideas also holds true, in my opinion, to lifestyles to good health.
Be it the idea of drinking more water, eating more green fresh veggies, or being impressed to take daily walks, they flow from a divine source that suggests harmony and attunement to health.
I don’t see drinking 3 cans of cola pop daily and practicing spirituality in thought as avoiding the consequences of abusing our bodies..
Life practices that lead us away from alcohol will also lead us to healthy eating and are just as divinely inspired.
I know Mary Baker Eddy spoke of alcohol abuse as it relates to the practice of CS. Modern day lifestyles can have just as deleterious affect on our health and the demonstration for good.
Just as we take responsibility for the thoughts we harbor, the lifestyles we practice are also vital to our expression of Life.
Just a thought,
Woodrow
You are so right about the mental aspect of the problem at hand. Matter of fact, all of life (Life) is mental. But that mental sifting/guarding (stand porter) effort can be quite a challenge. It seems that we, at least I do, have many Peniel moments, wrestling with what seems to be competing thoughts. It is not always “a” thought, or “bad” vs “good”; but the right “good” thoughts. Make sure that we are not being tempted by a “good” thought (something we desire or seems to be from God) that is really sidetracking us from the direction that God is leading us (that which is in our best interest, even if it doesn’t seem so at the moment.
I have found that I am not acting as so many as Jesus saw that were looking for healings to make mortal life easier and but as a practical demonstration of putting off mortality (spiritualization of thought/being). Jesus also told us (as Mrs. Eddy did) that this effort is no bead of roses. In Mark 10 last week we have “with persecutions.” I have had times where I was just looking for this comfort, which is understandable for all of us, but the sooner we realize that our true employment is to “put off the old man” and “put on the new man,” the sooner we will progress. Though we have our “problem of being” or “mystery of being” to solve in accomplishing this, and with the challanges and Peniel moments, we will also have our Emmaus moments where out hearts burn within us.
For me this leads to another Peneil; which I am looking to God for the direction or answer. And that is what are we as Christial Scientists to do as employment in what seems to be a mortal realm. Study and read in a cave like a monk? Or the extreme of just going through mortal live, as it seems, just being good? To me each of us has our own God-guided path, as we each are at different points of progress, all “students” or as Jesus indicated, “children in spiritual maturity.”
Garry
Thanks Woody. Great thoughts to share!
The neat part of listening to God is that you don’t have to study how many cans of pop you should drink or not drink in a day. As thought is spiritualized, it naturally tends to take on what many would label, “better habits.”
Years ago, when I “woke up” and recognized that I had hard candy around all the time to snack on, I prayed about it and realized I needed to find more joy in God and less in candy. The candy served absolutely no meaningful purpose in my life. It was a frivilous habit I had unthinkingly acquired. I dropped the habit.
It can get tricky and tough, though, at times, to sort out what to eat and not eat when one’s lifestyle is analyzed materially because people often get paranoid about what they eat or don’t eat.
One who tries to lose weight and studies all the dietary rules about what to eat and what not to eat often becomes fearful of most all food, “good and bad.” They start living a life of fear and worry about what they put in their mouth.
The healthier and happier course, I’ve found, is to focus on analyzing one’s motives toward food. Eating food should be a very simple part of our life, like blinking our eyes. We do it, but don’t think much about it, and the outcome is safe.
We might ask, “Do I love food more than spiritual truth? Do I worship food? Am I constantly looking forward to the next meal or next snack?…” If so, we’ve made a god of food and it has a way of dominating our thought and taking over. This is not healthy.
If one’s habits are laden with bad eating habits, there is usually some strong self-examination that is needed, and probably qualities like laziness, thoughtlessness, carelessness, ignorance, indifference etc., that need to be rooted out.
Anyway, it does help for some experts to stand up and say, “This is a bad habit!” It does wake people up to examine their lifestyle and hopefully work for improvement. But the good result that lasts for decades is going to be a transformation from within that leaves one feeling closer to God and much more peaceful about food issues.
Wow!
So simple and yet profound….
Just the right “wake-up call” for today.
Glad I was tuned in.
Hi!
First, Thanks Evan, your wisdom is wonderful and coming at one of the best times for all who are indeed going through these “problems – challenges”. I am one who is benefitting from the wisdom you share.
It is so eloquently shared as well.
I am learning to see finances as a result of ideas, and as an effect of right thinking and less as a source. It’s a challenge sometimes when you can get so caught up and consumed by the ideas that the happiness or despair can be a result of the supply/lack and not based in consciousness and thought.
I am learning to shift the paradigm of where an income is coming from and the source of all Ideas and challenges that are currently in my life.
Thanks so much for sharing and continuing to write!!!!
Sven
Hi Sven,
Good metaphysical work on your part! You are welcome.