Guide Booklet: Abundance
Chapters 12, 17, 27, 28, 30.
Chapter 12 reveals a picture of the contentment we may confidently expect to enjoy when we find our right environment. The first thing to do, says Myrtle Fillmore, is to bring our desires into the light of wisdom, to make sure that what we want is practical and conducive to our highest good.
This is a good time to remind ourselves of the importance of disciplined thinking. If we think and speak and act in the light of this knowledge, there is no limit to what we may expect to achieve.
A heartening thought is the truth that we are not expected to make our demonstrations by ourselves. We do not have to ask a God outside ourselves for help. When we go to the Christ within us, instead of relying on our own thoughts and impressions, we receive whatever we need.
God cannot change us as long as we keep our attention on what is wrong, because by thinking about our problems we lend reality to them. Once we stop thinking about them, they lose reality, and we begin to build our new world of peace, joy, wholeness, and success—the realities of God.
In three chapters of How to Let God Help You, Myrtle Fillmore takes up the subject of prosperity. The first of these, Chapter 27, suggests that the way we use our imaginations can materially affect our abundance or lack of supply. If we think of ourselves as lacking, and of those around us as determined to keep our good from us, we shall lack in our affairs. But if we see ourselves as abundantly supplied with all the good we need and want, we shall prosper, and those around us will work in harmony to promote our good.
“There is something that you can do better than anyone else can do it . . . some talent and capability that, used to the glory of God and the honor of man, will bring you a rich reward.” Stop now and earnestly ask yourself what this something is; make a determined effort to think through your talents and capabilities, to find out just what you can do better than anyone else can do it. When you find the answer, you will be shown the way to put your talent to profitable, productive service.
If we want our homes to be prosperous, we must be as practical as a farmer or a gardener: we must plant good seed. Our words are the seeds, which we plant in spiritual substance. When we talk about “hard times,” we sow the wrong seed.
There is always plenty available to us; our talk about hard times does not affect the spiritual substance of God’s universe, but it affects us. If we turn our thought energy on ideas of plenty, we are bound to have plenty.
We must now, however, take our prosperity as a matter of course. We must be deeply grateful for all the good that comes to us—and we must express our gratitude, because gratitude serves to increase our supply.
For most of us, prosperity is closely related to the work we do. Whatever work we are doing, there is a purpose behind it. “Our work is our means of expressing what God is unfolding through us.” If we are convinced that our work is not doing that, we should take steps to make changes, secure in the knowledge that God will continue to take care of us regardless of what good work we engage in.
We are wise to learn to let God draw us out into new avenues of expression and service. We can even open the door to His guidance by asking ourselves where a need for service lies, and then asking God to help us get into that line of expression.
The hard work is not for us to do; God does that. We do our part by asking His guidance and then relaxing, letting go of tense, personal striving. “Take life easier and let divine ideas work for you,” Myrtle Fillmore advises.
Complete these statements:
- The only place I can find contentment and health is (page 72)
- I plant prosperity by (page 144)
- The first step in making my home more prosperous is (page 145)
- I never say that money is scarce, because (page 145)
- I see God’s abundance manifesting in my affairs when (page 141)
- When I am optimistic and happy, I attract prosperity, because (page 141)
- I give thanks for every blessing I receive, because (page 146)
- The purpose of my work is (page 151)
