Poor people often lack sufficient education and skills to make a living wage or to improve their economic position. Some lose their jobs when machines take over. Others may find themselves at the mercy of unscrupulous employers, merchants, and creditors. When all human means have failed to break the grip of poverty, is it possible to overcome it and become self-sufficient?

Yes, by turning to God for help one acquaints himself with Him, feels His presence, and experiences His unfailing care and protection. We read in the Bible, "The Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not." ^{Isa. 58:11;} God, infinite Love, keeps His promise.

Someone may say, "It's a fine promise, but it doesn't apply to me. I'm poor and hungry." It does apply. According to Christian Science, God embraces everyone in the infinitude of His love. He excludes no one. It is not Love's design that anyone be destitute and go hungry. The Bible states. "The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works." ^{Ps. 145:9;}

As one acquaints himself with God, one becomes more aware of his real identity as God's child. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, "Wholly apart from this mortal dream, this illusion and delusion of sense, Christian Science comes to reveal man as God's image, His idea, coexistent with Him —God giving all and man having all that God gives." ^{The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 5;} The more one realizes that he is the expression, or image, of infinite Love, perfect Mind, the less he regards himself as a poor, miserable mortal, and consequently the less he experiences poverty.

Christian Science proves that poverty is a state of thought, an illusion of material sense. When one perceives the affluence of divine Love even to a degree, he finds his human needs satisfied. His realization that he is now a complete, spiritual idea instead of a mortal, either poor or rich, opens the way to abundant living.

Acknowledging God as infinite Life and man as Life's expression, Christ Jesus knew that it is natural for one to enjoy plentiful good. He said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." ^{John 10:10;} It is a false, material sense of life that robs people even of their bare necessities. The real man, whom Jesus best exemplified, being endowed with the fullness of Christ, the spirit of Life, cannot be poor.

The clear understanding of divine Life enabled Jesus to supply the necessities of human life for himself and for those who sought his help. The Master saw divine affluence where material scarcity seemed to prevail. It is related in John's Gospel (see Chapter 21) that one night, after Jesus had risen from death and appeared more than once to his disciples, Peter and others went back to their fishing and caught nothing. In the morning, Jesus, standing on the shore, urged them to cast their net on the right side of the ship. This they did, and they caught a multitude of fish.

Commenting on this incident, Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "Convinced of the fruitlessness of their toil in the dark and wakened by their Master's voice, they changed their methods, turned away from material things, and cast their net on the right side. Discerning Christ, Truth, anew on the shore of time, they were enabled to rise somewhat from mortal sensuousness, or the burial of mind in matter, into newness of life as Spirit." ^{Science and Health, p. 35;} Whoever has toiled without success or reward can resolve to cast his net today on the right side, to turn his thoughts from the dream of life and substance in matter to the reality of life and substance in Spirit. As he persistently works in this way, great will be his reward.

By casting his thoughts on Spirit's side and firmly claiming Christ, the spiritual idea of sonship, as his only identity, one discovers in himself hidden abilities and talents. He discovers, for example, that regardless of the color of his skin or his national and economic backgrounds, he possesses, as Mind's reflection, unlimited intelligence, perspicacity, and judgment. While to material sense he may have very few possessions, he has, in reality, an inexhaustible supply of spiritual ideas and qualities. To be productive, however, he must use these spiritual resources. As he does, he is inspired and led to widening his education and skills in ways that ensure him steady and rewarding employment.

In II Kings (see Chapter 4) we read about a widow whose two sons were about to be taken as bondmen by her creditor. She had only a pot of oil in her home. Elisha may well have discerned that the woman had resigned herself to this desperate situation. Apparently, to arouse her from her apathy, he ordered her to use the resources she had, even though it seemed she had very little. Obediently she followed the prophet's advice, pouring the oil into borrowed vessels, and saw her supply of oil increase to the point that she was able to pay her debt.

The poor are sometimes the innocent victims of unscrupulous employers, storekeepers, and moneylenders. With the wisdom and alertness that God gives them they can detect unprincipled practices and protect themselves against them. God gave man dominion over all the earth, but He never gave an individual unjust power over his fellowmen.

As one realizes that his reason for existing is to express God, he understands that being inseparable from God he always has the capability and opportunity to express spiritual qualities. No persons or material conditions can ever prevent him from doing it. Holding to this truth, he is able to reverse the claim that opportunities are denied to him. As a result he finds that doors formerly closed by prejudice and fear are now open to him. If technology has deprived him of his job, he is guided to enter a new field of activity, perhaps evolved by the very technology he had blamed for the loss of his job.

By humbly turning to God for inspiration and guidance and firmly handling and nullifying the claims that militate in favor of poverty, one does overcome poverty and become self-sufficient. His human needs are supplied because he has caught a glimpse of God's teeming universe and of his identity as God's child, forever blessed and satisfied. Self-sufficiency, however, should not be measured in terms of material possessions or positions. It is a spiritual condition. When brought to bear upon the human, it dispels the scourge of poverty and hunger and brings to light God's tender and loving care for all His children. Paul assures us, "God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." ^{II Cor. 9:8.}