One way that I utilize prayer is to know what to buy and when to buy it. Pray has helped me make right purchases at the right time and has also saved me from unproductive shopping & useless transactions. Prayer saves time & money.

I’ve learned that nothing in God’s kingdom is wasted. And that something isn’t a waste if there is a right motive behind it.

One definition of economy is:
the management of the resources of a community, country, etc., especially with a view to its productivity (dictionary.com)

Everything in God’s creation, or what I think of as the Kingdom of Heaven, has value. There are no worthless or unproductive ideas. Therefore everything in our experience can be useful and productive. This saves us from the unsatisfying cravings of commercialism (or buying things just because we like to shop & spend money). It also saves us from being too tight with our money and hoarding it. Neither of these tendencies can occur when we have a spiritual perspective.

Here’s an example:
Last year I decided I wanted an eReader. However, intuitively I knew it wasn’t right to buy one. I still explored the possibility and researched all the eReaders that were out there. Nothing fit the requirements that I wanted in a device. I continued to want an eReader but decided to be obedient to my intuition and be patient and see how things worked out (even though I really wanted to know WHY I couldn’t have one). Well a few months later patience paid off. A new eReader was released on the market that had all the features I wanted. And I knew it was the right device for me immediately. It was given to me as a Christmas gift by my family just a few weeks later. I was saved from making a wasteful purchase that wouldn’t have met my needs. And it was a perfect gift for my family to give me, which I have continued to enjoy and use a lot.

I’m sure we’ve all had experiences like these where we follow our intuition and things work out. This intuition, or divine guidance, is speaking to us ALL the time. Listening to it and being obedient is a skill we can cultivate and practice more and more each day.