To explore poverty and spirituality Ernest Holmes writes in The Science of Mind that “the word ‘poverty’ usually conveys to our minds the idea of a money shortage, but actually the word means the lack of any good thing. Poverty is the very antithesis of abundance, and abundance of good is necessary to human happiness. It is only as we experience good that God is expressed through us. The more completely we realize good—in all of its manifold expressions of health, wealth, and happiness—the more completely do we express God; that is, the more does God become personified through us.”

Both prosperity and poverty are states of mind. If we desire to erase the thought of poverty we must go back to the thought of prosperity, an affirmation of the allness of Good, the source of which is God. Ernest Holmes

Do you believe that poverty and spirituality are the way it should be? Too many of us as we become immersed in a spiritual path unconsciously take a “vow of poverty.” Embedded in our cultural consciousness is this notion that you can’t be rich and spiritual. Yet the Master Teacher reminds us that we are to have life and “have it more abundantly.” Expressing our life in whatever form it takes is the way in which Spirit operates in the world. Being poor simply limits the Divine Expression. Vow to live from the Abundance of the Universe, to demonstrate prosperity in your life, and to share it every chance you get!

Spiritual Contemplation: Do you believe that to be spiritual you have to be poor or turn your back on material enjoyment? What would be your “Vow of Prosperity” instead?

Affirmation: I vow to receive, manage, and share my wealth as a joyous expression of Spirit’s abundance!