The way out of poverty: it's under God's control

Australia has been fortunate in never experiencing war on its soil. It also has a democratic, multi-cultural society with a stable economy on a continent rich in abundant natural resources. But despite this, there are many citizens who don’t share in this country’s good.

Poverty among aboriginal people ranks alongside the extreme poverty of Bangladesh. An estimated 2.5 million Australians—approximately 12 percent of the population, including 500,000 children—live below the poverty line. And single-parent households, often with a woman at their head, lack access to adequate housing, food, income, jobs, health services, education, childcare, and transport.

Reasons for such poverty include the rapid shrinking of Australia’s middle class, underemployment, changes in the workforce, and the high cost of housing. As a result, many people find themselves in dire straits when unforeseen challenges come along. Reduced working hours, job layoffs, illness, or family breakdown can strip away assets and opportunity, leaving people impoverished through no fault of their own.

When this happens, individuals may think they have to wait for someone to come along and help them. But such passivity can actually prevent these people from finding a solution. I have learned that each of us has spiritual resources within ourselves that we can call on in times of great need.

Why? Because each of us is God’s child, and infinite Love is everywhere. None of us can be cut off from God’s goodness. Even when we make mistakes, adversity can’t separate us from God’s love and His tender care for each of us.

Opportunities for recovery are within reach, even if they aren’t immediately apparent. Each of us is spiritual, made in God’s likeness, and thus we have all the intelligence, strength, creativity, and joy that we need in order to overcome hardship.

This isn’t just a nice theory to comfort us during tough times. God’s love has a practical effect. It gives us ideas we can put to use to meet our needs. I know this is true because my family and I have experienced it.

After 22 years, my mother’s turbulent marriage abruptly fell apart. She left the family home with only $50 in her purse. She had nothing in the bank, no job, and my 12-year-old sister to raise.

My grandparents helped us move into an apartment near theirs. And just as we were trying to sort out our lives, my grandfather died suddenly, leaving my grandmother to cope alone. All this happened just a few months before I was due to get married and move to the part of Australia where my fiancé lived.

Unexpectedly, three generations were plunged into severe financial hardship brought on by factors beyond our control. I wasn’t earning enough to pay for my wedding, let alone support the four of us. The situation looked hopeless.

In the midst of this turmoil, we decided to pray for a solution. We’d already seen evidence that prayer worked. Several years earlier my grandmother, mother, and I had been healed of chronic physical ailments by studying the Bible and Mary Baker Eddy’s book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

We’d learned that we had nothing to fear because God loved us. He had us in the palm of His hand and was keeping us safe and well.

I recalled this Bible verse: “I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.” This encouraged me to remember that God was with us in every circumstance. He would help us because we were His children.

We would not be left destitute. We didn’t have to wait on others to help. The answers were at hand and within our reach. I felt sure that, as we listened for God’s guidance and direction, our needs would be met.

As soon as we started thinking in spiritual terms, ideas emerged. My mother and grandmother discussed sharing an apartment to reduce housing expenses. This solution required a big change in their thinking—giving up independence for a larger good. Yet the moment they accepted this divinely provided idea, they found a new apartment just down the street.

Shortly after, my mother took a job as the pianist for a prestigious dancing school. She also began giving private piano and singing lessons. As a war veteran’s widow, my grandmother was eligible for a pension and rent assistance. And I found the ingenuity and stamina to hold down a second job that enabled me to pay for my wedding and moving expenses.

Each need was met and through prayer we found that the solutions were within us—in our willingness to be flexible, strong, and resourceful. My family remained solvent, able to provide for our necessities as well as my sister’s education and expenses.

Today, as I pray about poverty in Australia and other parts of the world, the spiritual truths I and my family learned about overcoming hardship continue to encourage me. Destitution is not a permanent state of existence. People may suffer setbacks (as I well know), but there is an answer.

Opportunity is within—not external, not necessarily dependent upon education, economic, or social factors.

Misfortune, unexpected events, natural disasters, or war can’t lock us into a cycle of poverty when we understand that we are sons and daughters of infinite divine Love, which knows no limits to its goodness. No matter how desperate a situation is, each of us has within us the ability to find spiritual solutions that have a practical effect in our lives.

God is supplying all of us with the opportunity to adequately provide for ourselves and our families. And with God’s help, our collective prayers will put an end to poverty in Australia and in the world.

Beverly Goldsmith is a longtime teacher and practitioner of Christian Science in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

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