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OVERCOMING FEAR
Today we are going to talk about Overcoming Fear. In the Quest classes, there is a wonderful story I would like to tell you.
There was once a mouse who was afraid of the cat. His fear grew and grew until at last he wished with all his might to become a cat. His wish was granted, and the mouse did indeed become a cat. But the cat was afraid of the dog, and so he wished and wished to become a dog. Once again his wish was granted, and the cat became a dog. But the dog was afraid of the lion, and so this time he wished and he wished to become a lion. Eventually the dog did become a lion. But now he was afraid of the hunter. The lion wished and wished with all his might to become a hunter and, surely enough, his wish was granted. But the hunter, poor man, was afraid of his wife. So he wished and he wished to become a wife. His wish was granted, and the hunter was now a wife. But, alas, this was not the end of the chain of fear, for the wife, too, was afraid. She was afraid of the mouse!
FEAR BREEDS FEAR
If we live in a fearful state, there will always be something that we will be afraid of. Some people even live a fearful existence without ever knowing what it is that scares them so. Our lives can become so bad that we feel like we are walking through a mine field of worry, anxiety, and fear. But the reaction and the experience of fear is often worse than the actual object of our fear. Our lives become based on avoiding that which we fear. Our fears rule our lives, and we have no room to breathe. They rob us of our freedom to grow.
SOME FEAR IS NORMAL
We have all experienced fear, and fear can be a perfectly normal reaction. I remember a time when I was driving down the freeway, minding my own business, and a golf ball smacked into my windshield. It sounded like a gunshot. Immediately, adrenalin was pumping through my system and my heart was racing. I pulled over to the side of the freeway to allow myself to calm down. I didn't want to drive in that condition.
I'm sure you, too, have had experiences which left you weak in the knees. These immediate reactions are natural instinctive reactions to survive. This spontaneous fear is not the fear we're talking about today. That kind of reaction comes up quickly and passes when we know the danger is over.
FEAR HAS ONLY ONE FACE
But, fear can wear many faces. It can show up as shyness, anxiety, insecurity, worry, panic, terror, or dread. The Jafollas write in The Quest book, "In whatever way it expresses itself, fear is basically a lack of the awareness of the presence of God as a real force in our lives." If you hear nothing else in this talk today - hear this: "Fear is a lack of the awareness of the presence of God as a force in our lives."
In fact you are putting fear before God. And God said to Moses in (Exodus 20:2-3) "I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other gods before me." So when we live in fear we are actually breaking the first commandment. But when we surrender ourselves and our fears to God and allow Him to take over, fear cannot coexist with God.
The author of this one is unknown, but it is so relevant:
Fear knocked on the door.
Faith answered.
No one was there.
JOY
When we are fearful we pump adrenalin into our system. When fear becomes a habit or an addiction, we can actually poison our systems with that adrenalin. This is on the purely physical level.
Then there is the mind/body connection. In the book Jesus Christ Heals, Charles Fillmore writes, "Our mind puts kinks in the nerves in ways beyond description." Our thought of fear will stop the even flow of life in nerve centers deep down in the body. This forms a nucleus where other fears can accumulate and interfere in important bodily functions.
The impact of energy of some kind is necessary to break the dam. Physical exercise is good, or even a massage; but these are temporary remedies. They don't touch the cause, which is mental: FEAR.
There are many methods for erasing fear from our minds and preventing its congestions in our bodies. One of the most direct and effective ways of shattering fear is laughter. Laugh your fears away. See how ridiculous they are when you trace them back to their source. Nearly all people have some pet fear, and they give up to it without trying to find its source.
Practically everyone in the healing profession now recognizes joy as being beneficial in healing the sick. We sing from (Nehemiah 8:10) "The joy of the Lord is my strength."
An old country doctor used to tell how he healed a woman of a large cyst by telling her a funny story. The woman laughed so energetically that the fluid broke loose and passed away.
It goes without question that there is a close relation between happiness and health. When you feel good you often sing, either aloud or silently. Singing promotes health because it increases the circulation, and good circulation promotes health. If our blood streams were never congested and all our nerves and pores were open and free and were easily doing their appointed work we would never have an abnormal growth in our bodies.
So the rational thing to do is to cultivate those mind activities that stimulate the currents of life in the body. A very important one to cultivate is joy. Taking medicine isn't fun, but anyone can sing a little song. Those who have tried it will tell you that it is wonderful for restoring health.
The reason that singing heals the body is that its vibrations stir the body juices into action and makes it possible for the healing Spirit to get in. The organ of the human voice is located right between the thyroid glands which accelerates important body functions. In fact, every word you speak vibrates the cells up and down the body. Back of every true song is a thought of joy. It is the thought that counts in the end, because it is the thought that invites the healing Spirit. Consequently we should sing with the thought that the Lord is right with us and that His joy is giving our words the healing power. Jesus said in (John 15:11), "that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete."
When we think about spiritual things and especially about God as an indwelling spiritual presence, both our mind and our body fill with joy. We have a feeling of satisfaction and a tendency to break out in songs of gladness. This isn't exclusive to Christians; people everywhere, in every age, have talked about an inner glory and happiness when they developed the habit of concentrating their mind on God. The great philosopher Spinoza wrote so much about God that he was known as the "God-intoxicated man."
Pythagoras taught that the universe is God's symphony and that all the suns and planets sing as they swing their way through the heavens. All of nature has a language and a song for those with ears to hear. Shakespeare wrote:
"And this our life, exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything."
Shakespeare often quoted from the Bible, and he may have got his idea that trees have tongues from (I Chronicles 16:33) "Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord."
We seem to think that it is almost a sacrilege to sing when we feel bad. Someone might mistake us for a happy person. We think that we have to look glum, slump, and maybe sigh or groan a bit. This is the way most people think and it may be the way that you feel, but you can quickly be released from the prison of pain or grief if you will sing and praise and pray.
No matter how bad you may feel, sing. First sing in your soul, down deep inside of yourself, then you will soon be singing with your voice. Everybody can sing, even if we don't sound like Maxine. Cultivate the singing soul and you will break forth into a singing voice.
The whole universe is in vibration, and that vibration is under law. Chaos would result if the law were not supreme. Each particular thing has its rate of vibration. Heat, light, and color are different rates of vibration in one field of primal energy. Different colors are caused by the different frequencies of the vibrations as they strike the eye. But what causes vibration? Mind causes vibration.
You know that this body that appears to be solid - is not. It is a center of force in a field of universal energy. Our eyes are not keyed to the pulsations of this universal energy and so we are deceived into believing that things are solid. All energy and life are governed by laws of spiritual harmony. So when our mind receives sound vibrations while we are in a spiritual consciousness, then our body responds to the higher activity.
You can drive away fear or the gloom of disappointment by stubbornly singing a sunshine song. It is not inconceivable that we could cultivate the power of music in connection with the understanding of Truth to heal people.
FEAR IN YOUR FINANCES
(1 John 4:18) "Perfect love casts out fear." Fear is a great breeder of poverty, for it breaks down positive thoughts. Negative thoughts bring negative conditions. So if you want prosperity in your home, get rid of all negative thoughts and words. Build up a positive thought atmosphere in your home, an atmosphere that is free from fear and filled with love. Don't allow any words of poverty or lack to limit the power of love in your home. Never say anything in your home, no matter how true it may seem on the surface, that you would not want to see persist in your home.
In his book "Prosperity" Charles Fillmore writes, "By talking poverty and lack you are making a comfortable place for these unwelcome guests by your fireside, and they will want to stay." So fill your home with thoughts and words of plenty, love, and of God's substance. Then you won't have 'unwelcome guests.'
Right now, with the economy the way it is, we have to be very vigilant to not say that money is scarce or that times are hard. These words will only feed the mass hysteria about the economy. It is up to us as knowledgeable metaphysicians to begin to talk plenty, think plenty, and give thanks for plenty. Enlist everyone in your household to do this on a regular basis. Make it a game. It's lots of fun and it actually works.
Don't be fearful, regardless of how outer appearances might affect other people. Keep your head when all about you are losing theirs. Refuse to load up your mind with the old material thoughts of economy to the point of forgetting what you really need. Eliminate the old limiting ideas. Assert your freedom and your faith as a child of God.
Don't spend or save foolishly. When a farmer plants his wheat he knows how much he must sow per acre. He doesn't put too much or too little. Having not enough seed, means having a small harvest. He sows bountifully, but not extravagantly and he reaps bountifully as he has sown.
It says in (Galatians 6:7) "You reap whatever you sow." And in (2 Corinthians 9:6) "The one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully."
We can't help but see that fear, apparent lack and hard times are the result of states of mind. We have these things in the world because people have not yet squared their action with divine Principle. They haven't used spiritual judgment.
When people invest in stocks and property, they get the opinions of other people who call themselves experts. Then comes the crash, or recession, or depression, and even the experts prove how little they understand the real laws of wealth.
We can go to an expert who really knows the law because He ordained it in the first place. And He is not far away, but right within ourselves. We can go within and meditate on these things in the silence, and the Lord will direct our personal finances. He will show us just how to get the most and give the most with our money and He will see to it that we have the supply that we need so that we will want for nothing. This may not mean riches piled up or "saved for a rainy day," but it will insure our supply for today, the only day there is in Truth.
As we continue to grow in the consciousness of God as omnipresent life and substance we no longer have to put our trust in accumulations of money or other goods. We are sure that each day's need will be met, and we do not deprive ourselves of today's enjoyment and peace in order to provide for some future and entirely imaginary need.
In this consciousness our life becomes divinely ordered, and there is a balance in supply and finances as in everything else. We do not deprive ourselves of what we need today; neither do we waste our substance in foolish ways nor deplete it uselessly.
We don't live in fear. We do not expect or prepare for adversity of any kind, for to do so is not only to invite it but to show a doubt of God and all His promises. Many people bear burdens and deny themselves sufficient for their present needs in order to prepare for dark days that never come.
When we look back over the past we find that most of our fears were groundless, and most of the things we dreaded so much never happened. However the things we prepared for probably did happen and found us not fully prepared even after all our efforts in that direction. This should enable us to trust God now and rest in the positive assurance that He will supply every need as it arises.
Things are never so bad as you think. Never allow yourself to be burdened with the thought that you are having a hard time. You do not want a soul structure of that kind and should not build it with those thoughts. You are living in a new age. Yesterday is gone forever; today is here forever. Something grander is now unfolding. Put yourself in line with the progress of thought in the new age and go forward.
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