Prayer paves a practical road out of consumer debt

Unsettling reports about the growing consumer debt problem in the United States and elsewhere have been around for a number of years, but recently the news seems to have become particularly dire, especially in relation to the mortgage and US housing markets.

A report published a year ago by the nonpartisan research group The Center for American Progress, characterized the middle class in the United States as “drowning in debt” and noted that personal bankruptcies among typical middle-income families were rising steeply.

Equally unsettling was the report’s conclusion that the rising debt-loads among Americans are not due to frivolous spending and overconsumption, but to heavier borrowing for things such as homes and education expenses. Both the housing and education sectors have seen dramatic price increases in recent years, all during a time of weak income growth.

An additional factor that has come to the surface more recently is the often unscrupulous, or at the least misleading, practices of predatory lenders and credit card issuers. While some companies have been open about individuals’ responsibilities regarding their loans and credit obligations, a significant number have not.

In addition, the collapse of the so-called subprime credit market earlier this year has produced ripple effects that are being felt in the broader credit markets and in stock markets around the world. And those ripples continue to affect banks from London to Tokyo.

While for many the dire headlines are just that—headlines—for others these statistics hit very close to home. In fact, it may even be your home that is under threat. And if that’s the case—and you don’t have the financial resources to respond—is there a way out? Sometimes people say lightly, “You can always pray,” without expecting it to do more than comfort. But prayer and the Bible can actually offer encouragement, hope, and more important, practical help in such situations.

At first glance it may seem impractical to look for answers from the Bible when praying about such modern-day problems. But Christ Jesus’ timeless message of the power of divine Love to heal and harmonize every aspect of our lives is a very real and tangible promise. And it’s accessible to us at this very moment. Through its guidance we can counter discord and disharmony of any kind, including the financial sort.

While people living in Jesus’ time certainly didn’t face our contemporary predicaments of keeping up with credit card payments, or worrying about the ever-rising costs of college tuition, housing, and energy, they weren’t immune to financial problems. And Jesus was unequivocal in his insistence that our heavenly Father is always available to supply our every need. He proved that lack and deficiency are not conditions we have to accept, and he demonstrated this in profound and powerful ways.

On two different occasions, Jesus fed thousands of people with just a small amount of bread and fish. And in the Sermon on the Mount, he assured his followers that if they would first seek “the kingdom of God, and his righteousness,” all their needs would be met individually, and that this same prayer could simultaneously make a difference for many, not just one individual.

Writing centuries later in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, wrote, “In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with the loaves and the fishes,—Spirit, not matter, being the source of supply.”

This statement makes clear that real security rests on understanding divine Spirit and living in harmony with it, rather than relying on goals driven by materialism. Each of us is in reality a spiritual idea, created by God with a specific purpose. As we live in accord with God’s plan, following His guidance to the best of our ability, we can trust that our needs will be met. But the examples of Jesus feeding thousands of people with what was clearly a very small amount of food show that the solution may sometimes be different from what we’d expect.

The good that divine Love supplies is, however, whatever we need at any moment to bring harmony and order to our human experience. Mrs. Eddy affirmed Jesus’ timeless promise of God’s goodness when she wrote: “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demonstrated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good.”

What does this mean from a practical standpoint? It means that despite what global conditions may seem to indicate, a state of lack or deficiency is not part of God’s government. And this government is in actuality all that really exists.

Viewed from a spiritual perspective, debt, bankruptcy, or any type of financial or personal hardship that may arise, is part of the lie that there is a power apart from God and that this power can cut us off from the infinite supply of good that is always available to us from our Creator.

Being firm in our understanding that “divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need” can be a fundamental starting point in our prayers for world economies or about our own financial difficulties. None of these can touch the reflection of an all-good God—and this is who we actually are.

At first this concept may seem totally disconnected from human reality, but as we acknowledge our spiritual nature as God’s idea, inseparable from Him, we are affirming what is actually true. We don’t have to accept a false, misleading picture that says we can be subject to lack or deficiency in any shape or form. Nor can we be deceived or duped by predatory lenders, or anyone who would lead us to trust in a “deal,” rather than in God’s unerring direction and guidance.

The spiritual fact is that God does meet all humanity’s needs—every moment of every day. So placing our complete trust in Him to supply an answer to our current situation enables us to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. And through obedience to this spiritual way of viewing ourselves and others, we can demonstrate the same healing efficacy that he demonstrated throughout his marvelous ministry 2,000 years ago.

Among the definitions of debt in Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, I’ve found “something owed: obligation.” As we gain a clearer understanding that our only real “obligation” is to accept and affirm our true spiritual identity as the child of God, and to live in accord with this nature, we will begin to see through the material picture that suggests we are in a situation where our material obligations exceed our material supply.

This may not mean that our debts will somehow disappear overnight, but it does mean that “... God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil.” Evil in this case can be seen as any condition or state that opposes God’s harmonious government of all His creation.

In praying about financial issues on a global scale, we can recognize that material indicators—such as data that point to increasing levels of consumer debt, personal bankruptcies, and other troubling economic developments—can’t make us fearful or distract us from the “spiritual indicators” of divine provision, perfect balance, and harmonious management of resources.

These are where our reliance should be placed. God’s government of the universe includes His divine management of the economy—at both the individual level and on a larger macroeconomic scale. And as we trust in the spiritual indicators for our own decisions, this devotion to spiritual solutions will have an impact on events around the globe. Each individual’s example can shine a light that will benefit others.

The Message, Eugene Peterson’s dynamic translation of the Bible, renders Matthew 6:33: “Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met.” What a wonderful directive to “steep” our lives in “God-provisions,” which is really where our true supply lies. And just as the Psalmist’s cup “runneth over,” we, too, can be assured of having all our needs met every moment of every day.

Pamela Faatz lives in Montclair, New Jersey, United States.

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