Article October 17, 2011 Issue

Running out—or running over?

By James Masson Coleman

It’s widely reported that the United States and other nations face an issue of indebtedness. Many fear that accumulated debt will bankrupt economies and severely limit countries’ abilities to construct or maintain necessary infrastructure, defend their citizens, properly educate their children, and provide for the legitimate needs of their most vulnerable.

Can scientific prayer as practiced in Christian Science help us meet this challenge?

A thousand years before the birth of Christ Jesus, King David perceived God as a living, loving, immortal presence tenderly watching over him. He gratefully declared: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Ps. 23:1). Enumerating the tenderhearted actions of a good shepherd providing for his charges, David related these actions to divine Love meeting humanity’s needs, enlarging and sustaining our sense of inseparability from divinity. He joyously proclaimed: “My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever” (Ps. 23:5, 6). Spiritual sense enabled the king to perceive his substance, intelligence, and life as reflections of Spirit, not matter. His exclamation, “He [the Lord] restoreth my soul [my spiritual sense, or my sense of being spiritual]” (Ps. 23:3), points to the fact that Spirit’s infinite resources can never run out.