When you don't know how you'll pay the bill

Few things seem more daunting to me than receiving a bill that I can’t pay. So many thoughts run through my head: What am I going to do? Where will the money come from? What will happen if I don’t pay on time, or if I don’t pay at all?

Recently I received a large advertising bill for my business at the end of the year. The Christmas season had just ended, and our family expenses were higher than normal. When I opened the bill, my first thought was, How am I going to pay this? On paper, I did not have the funds.

I could have let the fear creep in and worried about how to resolve this issue. But instead I immediately turned my thought to God – remembering that He provides what I need. I was not sure how I would get the money, but I knew that God had a plan and that I needed to trust and wait to see how He was guiding me.

A couple of dictionary definitions of “economy” were helpful as I prayed. One is “the divine plan for humanity.” Another is “the method of God’s government of and activity within the world.” Economy is not just about supply. Economy includes God’s plan for us and for what our activity and purpose should be. Order is a quality of Principle, a synonym for God. So to me this means that economy is actually God’s order, plan, management, and government for all humanity.

I knew that it was right to pay the bill on time, and in full. This was not only important to support my business, but it was necessary for me to see the value in the services I was providing. If I expected to get paid by my clients, then I needed to pay this bill on time and accept that for all of us there is only abundance in God’s economy.

God is infinite good. So there are no up and down cycles in the divine economy. That means that we don’t have to wait for the markets to change or for the national economy to pick up. God is infinitely providing all that we need – now and always. There is no deterioration of order or lack of structure in God’s plan. So there can’t be fluctuation between abundance and lack.

An account in the Bible related to being able to pay what is owed tells of a time when Jesus arrived in Capernaum and his disciple Peter was asked to pay the temple tax. Jesus told Peter, “Go down to the lake and throw in a line. Open the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a large silver coin. Take it and pay the tax for both of us” (Matt. 17:27, New Living Translation). Finding tax money in the mouth of a fish is not an ordinary occurrence, but Jesus was so sure of God’s provision that he knew anything was possible.

In “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Monitor, described “man,” including male and female, as “the compound idea of God, including all right ideas” (p. 475). As my understanding of economy grew to include God’s divine order and plan for me, I knew that His plan includes right employment. I knew the employment was right, so I could expect that the supply to meet the expenses would also be provided. I held on to the thought that God is directing my path, ensuring my success, and blessing both me and my business.

Within a week of turning to God to supply my resources, I found all the money I needed to pay the advertising bill. I use the word “found” because, like Jesus, I found the money in unconventional places. There was no payment from clients or raise in my husband’s pay, but the money came from unexpected resources. Part of the money came from an insurance dividend, some came from an error in a financial transfer, and the remaining part came from a special savings account that we didn’t realize had any money in it.

God’s plan for each of us is in the divine order, and this provides for all our needs.

For a Spanish translation of this article, see The Herald of Christian Science.