God's love: the solution to poverty

As part of a course at the college where I taught, groups of students volunteered at a food pantry, serving meals to the homeless. I used to go with them, and found it an inspiring experience—but also somewhat unsettling.

Much of the assigned course reading asserted that poverty is inevitable, and that certain people are doomed to a life of lack from the moment they are born. I would ask myself, “Is that true? Or is there a genuine solution to unequal distribution of wealth and opportunity?”

Economic and social theories that look to material causes and conditions to find solutions to poverty haven’t really succeeded in alleviating this problem. But there are spiritual answers, and the Bible offers wonderful examples of God’s willingness to bless, not deprive, His creation.

The prophet Malachi quoted God as saying to His people, “Prove me now herewith . . . 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.”

Time after time in Scripture, we are shown individuals, families, and whole communities who, through obedience to divine guidance, have what they need. In some cases, that means money—as when Jesus told his disciple Peter to retrieve a coin from a fish’s mouth. Sometimes the need was for leadership—and Moses emerged at just the right time to liberate the children of Israel from slavery.

The Bible also records several famines, and how individuals were cared for by God. Elijah the prophet helped the widow of Zarephath and her child, for instance. Divine Love also provided the security of home and family—as when the widowed Ruth met and married Boaz. Physical healing came for a woman Jesus healed of “an issue of blood,” and she was able to return to her family after years of social ostracism.

These examples all underscore an important theological concept: Spirit, and not matter, is what brings security and genuine satisfaction to humanity. Faith in God may not unlock earthly treasure, but it does meet our needs in ways tailored to our individual circumstances.

Prayer enables us to perceive this tender care by bringing to light the limitless substance of God. While matter is, by its very nature, limited, Spirit is infinite, undepleted, and immediately available to everyone.

I’ve learned for myself that we can have confidence that God will provide for us, no matter what the human circumstances may be. Just when I was ready for college, our family business ran into serious financial difficulties, and my father didn’t draw his salary for a while. The situation was very grim. He grew increasingly discouraged when there was no money for mortgage payments, heating oil, or groceries.

But through it all, my mother kept turning to God, even when—especially when—she felt the most afraid. And, day by day, our needs were met. For me, the human means varied: a scholarship and some part-time work. There was always enough, and that assurance, based on experience, was the blessing we all carried with us, even after the “rough patch” was over.

Contrary to popular logic, consumption is not what produces satisfaction. Material sustenance often fails to satisfy—how often, after all, do we find ourselves eating when we are lonely or anxious, in the futile attempt to use food to fill an inner emptiness?

The Bible describes Christ Jesus feeding thousands of people with the equivalent of perhaps two bags of groceries. How could such an event occur? Because his preaching, and his very presence—imbued with the Christ, the message of God’s love for His children—so filled their souls that they were satisfied.

Clearly, the hearts of those listeners overflowed with divine Love, with the sense of God’s presence in their midst. That sense proved more satisfying and more nourishing than the most lavish banquet.

God’s Love is the solution to poverty, whether individual or collective, because it alone will fill and satisfy the heart.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, explained: “God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies. Never ask for tomorrow: it is enough that divine Love is an ever-present help; and if you wait, never doubting, you will have all you need every moment. What a glorious inheritance is given to us through the understanding of omnipresent Love! More we cannot ask: more we do not want: more we cannot have. This sweet assurance is the ‘Peace, be still’ to all human fears, to suffering of every sort.” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896, p. 307).

God’s power is big enough, and His embrace is wide enough, to meet the needs of every man, woman, child, animal, and plant on earth. Poverty is not inevitable. “Haves” and “have-nots” are unknown in the kingdom of God, and that kingdom is, as the Bible declares, “at hand.”

All of God’s children have His love and tender care. Christ Jesus commissions his followers, then and now, to minister to our brothers and sisters. We minister to them most effectively not by acts of charity alone, but by the prayer that daily trusts them and ourselves to the care of God.

The practical acknowledgement that God, divine Love, is with each one of us, no matter where we are, truly is the “charity” that “never faileth.”

Elaine Follis is a Christian Science practitioner living in Quincy, Massachusetts.

Explore more healing ideas in the special feature Spiritual solutions to end poverty: what Christian Science has to offer.

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