How I Used Truth - Lesson 5 - Annotation 7
Is it safe to teach that supply is a "gift" and does not depend only on the labor of head or hands?
7. Yes, it is safe to teach that supply to meet our every need is a "gift," so long as we understand clearly the meaning of this teaching. Our real supply is all the ideas of Divine Mind, and they are "gifts" to us from our loving Father. The tangible forms that we commonly consider supply are but the products of those ideas.
Money and material things bring physical comfort and pleasure but underlying these outer forms, whatever they may be, are divine ideas. A gift must be accepted, and the gift of God's ideas is accepted by us through the right use of our mind activities and of our hands. Expressing an idea in mind, or by the hands in creative work, should be a joy and not labor. Therefore, we cannot think of our supply as coming from the work done by mind and hands, but only as coming through these channels of expression.
God has a plan, a purpose, for each of us. We call this God's will. It is His law of universal good operative in all creation. When we conform in thought, feeling, word, and deed to God's will, or law of universal good, then the gift" of supply in the form of ideas is ours to be used. In the right use of these ideas, we give full, free, and happy expression to the God nature inherent in us.
The text states at the bottom of page 6l that someone may question the advisability of stating "that our abundance is not at all dependent on the labor of our hands or head," thinking that such a statement may lead to selfishness or indolence. When we understand that our inheritance is all of the good of God, we see that supply to fulfill our righteous needs is just as much a "gift" as is the life which produces health in our bodies; as the love that brings harmony and happiness in our human relationships; as the intelligence that leads to skill and success in our work or profession. Probably the reason religionists have often warned against wealth is that there is often a lack of wisdom in our use of it. Any gift may fail to bring satisfaction if it is misused through lack of understanding. A person can misuse even the health of his body by doing things that are against the laws of nature. The brilliance of the mind can be used with lack of understanding, so that the mental powers are directed into purposes other than good. If one's love for relatives and friends is used to forge bonds of possessiveness or narrowness, the use of the divine quality of love has been lowered from its true character. The same is true of supply. If, through ignorance, men have viewed and used wealth wrongly, this has not changed the essential nature of supply. With understanding of the truth that outer supply is founded upon ideas that are free and accessible to all men, we see it as a "gift." Though we reach the understanding that supply is not dependent upon the labor of head or hands, we recognize and bless our minds and hands as channels through which God expresses the needed supply.
"The law of supply is a divine law. This means that it is a divine law of mind and must work through mind. . . . when you continue to think about God as your real supply, every- thing in your mind begins to awaken and to contact the divine substance, and as you mold it in your consciousness, ideas begin to come which will connect you with the visible manifestation" (Prosperity 67-68).
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Preceding Entry: What governs the "shape" of our supply? What sets the "time" and the "quantity" of it?
Following Entry: What governs the outpouring of divine substance in our life? What inhibits its flow?
