THE problem of lack touches the experience of many; but because it is a problem, it is solvable. The Scriptures teach that God, the loving Father, provides all good for His children. But mortals, misled by their material concepts, and frequently discouraged by unavailing and unanswered supplications to God, believe that men must depend upon themselves and others for their daily supplies. In striving to overcome the sense of lack, we must, however, first of all concede not only that God, who is infinite Mind, the creator of all, is capable of providing for His creation, but that, in the very nature of things, He must have already provided everything necessary for its maintenance.
Any apparent lack, then, arises from a false sense of creation; it cannot be the true sense unless God omitted some essential things from His creation. In reality man lacks nothing. Man, the image and likeness of God, has by reflection all that the Father gives him. Can God lack? No; God, being infinite, is self-sustaining. Man is the compound idea of this all-sustaining and all-inclusive Mind, and necessarily includes all right ideas. It therefore should be clear that it is a false or mortal sense of lack that needs correcting, if a true sense of substance and supply is to be manifested.
In describing the temptations designed to induce Jesus to use his knowledge of Spirit for his own self-aggrandizement, and for the perpetuation of the belief in the necessity for material things, Luke records that "the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread." Today, the temptation sometimes comes to those just learning of their divine sonship to attempt the utilization of their slight knowledge of infinite Truth to provide for themselves the material things they have wanted. But the alert Christian Scientist answers the tempter with the words of Jesus, words that are both a rebuke and a promise: "It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." And as he ponders the problem of lack of material things, he begins to see that it is but another phase of the same temptation, and he recalls the Master's words: "Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?... But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." How often have these words been iterated and reiterated, even until some may feel that they know the saying by heart! Yet, this is a fundamental rule laid down by our Master. And because it is a rule, it must be acknowledged whenever the problem of lack is considered.
