We often define poverty in its most basic material terms: the aching lack of food or the cry for shelter, for example. But there's also a spiritual poverty that's just as debilitating. It comes as a hunger for friends, purpose, opportunity, status; as lack of ideas, inspiration, innovation; as dearth of sensitivity and affection.

In the industrialized world, there's such an avalanche of material things intended to gratify human wants that there's what might be called the "poverty of abundance," where people try to ease their feelings of emptiness through addiction, unbridled spending, impulsive relationships—all of which are ultimately unsatisfying.

Speaking of this mortal sense of life, the prophet Haggai said, “Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.”

Of course, it isn’t wrong to want good things. The question is, where do good things come from, what is their substance? Christ Jesus promised, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." This great teaching of the Master directs us to move away from the belief that we can find satisfaction in life by satiating ourselves with material possessions.

It helps immeasurably to understand that good is entirely spiritual, found only in God, Spirit. When we seek the kingdom of God, Spirit, we are assured that the good we receive will be permanent and real. When we recognize ourselves as spiritual, under the care of a loving God, we can break free of materialistic impulses that don’t really bring us peace.

The Psalmist made clear the link between spiritual identity and satisfaction when he wrote, “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.”

As the reflection in a mirror includes everything of the person in front of the mirror, you and I reflect God and express His bountiful goodness. As we awake to our true identity as the likeness of God—nourished and sustained by divine Love—we find that we already possess all good by reflection.

The fundamental answer to poverty, then, is the understanding of our true identity as the sons and daughters of God, our only real origin. The concept of man as mortal—therefore limited—by definition assumes endemic lack. This view of man as separated from divine Love, the source of all good, is a mistaken concept that has no reality, because God created only goodness and perfection.

But to perceive ourselves as spiritual may require a change of thought. Jesus said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God,” and being “born again” means recovering our preexistent, forever relation to God as our Father-Mother—not born of the flesh; not having begun in or by matter.

The way to this understanding is clearly explained by Mary Baker Eddy in her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “If men understood their real spiritual source to be all blessedness, they would struggle for recourse to the spiritual and be at peace; but the deeper the error into which mortal mind is plunged, the more intense the opposition to spirituality, till error yields to Truth.”

The struggle for recourse to our spiritual source is actually a struggle with our own false sense of being. We don’t create our oneness with God. We discover it, because it’s already a spiritual fact. We don’t create a treasure buried in the sand; we find it by removing the sand.

Mortal mind is the supposed opposite of divine Mind, or God. It suggests all kinds of wrong thoughts to convince us that we’re something we’re not—sand instead of treasure. Jesus taught that we have to constantly reject materialism and lure of the flesh in order to see and accept the good that is already at hand.

Sensuality, the most basic element of mortal mind, is perhaps the fleshly lure that most demands destruction. Sensuality turns our thoughts from God, pure, unadulterated Spirit, the source of all good. It fosters all the characteristics that breed limitation. It’s acquisitive, self-seeking, and looks for satisfaction in material things.

The Christ, the divine power that animated Jesus’ life, is the opposite of all sensuality. It’s the expression of God Himself. The Christ operates in every facet of life through spiritual law, the Holy Ghost, or divine Science. It pierces the darkness of self-satisfied mortal mind.

There’s no wall of resistance the Christ can’t penetrate, no hardness of stubborn will the Christ can’t soften, no self-indulgence the Christ can’t dissolve. No one can fall so deeply into a pit of suffering that the Christ can’t find him or her and lift that individual back into the light. This is because the Christ is constantly speaking to our human consciousness, telling us that we are even now the children of God, and are loved, cherished, cared for.

Materialism and sensualism are unable to resist the perpetual activity and presence of the Christ. Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son shows this so clearly. The foolish son, illustrating the materialistic view of life, left his father’s house, took all his possessions, and lost them through self-indulgence. His life was reduced to abject poverty.

But his suffering finally caused him to “find himself,” or to awaken to the demands of Christ. He returned to his father,—God, the source of all good—and found that he had truly lost nothing.

Science and Health shows what takes place in thought: “Waking to Christ's demand, mortals experience suffering. This causes them, even as drowning men, to make vigorous efforts to save themselves; and through Christ’s precious love these efforts are crowned with success.”

The Christ renovates and regenerates mortal mind, destroying sensuality and the fog of materialism that limits our experience. No individual in any nation can be denied the ministrations of the Christ, because it is ever-present in human consciousness.

The shepherding call of the Christ and the movement of the Holy Ghost assure us that Jesus’ promise is available today: “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

This promise is meant for each of us, no matter who we are or where we are. In that kingdom—which is here, now—there is no want, no unfulfilled being. In the presence of God, all needs are abundantly met.

An end to spiritual poverty:

Science and Health
329:26 
22:6

King James Bible
Hag. 1:6 
Luke 12:31 
Ps. 17:15 
John 3:3 
Luke 15:21-24 
Luke 12:32