Freedom from fearful thoughts

Lately I’ve found thoughts of accident, disaster, and tragedy harassing me. I’m not generally a fearful or paranoid person, so this was unusual. The way I’ve been dealing with this is through prayer.

The Bible states:

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:8, 9 NIV)

So all I have to do is think about & focus on the things that are divine, good & true. Recognizing that these negative thoughts are not my mind is a huge help. St. Paul also says to have that mind which is in Christ. That Mind is God — the one intelligence or consciousness. God’s thoughts are pure, holy, peaceful & good. When I am governed by & listening to him, there isn’t any room for thoughts that are bad.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Founder of Christian Science, wrote:
“…keep your minds so filled with Truth and Love, that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them. It is plain that nothing can be added to the mind already full. There is no door through which evil can enter, and no space for evil to fill in a mind filled with goodness. Good thoughts are an impervious armor; clad therewith you are completely shielded from the attacks of error of every sort. And not only yourselves are safe, but all whom your thoughts rest upon are thereby benefited.”

I’m so grateful that we all have the tools at hand to find mental and physical freedom.

Is there really a void?

Recently, I was feeling an inner void.

Or so I thought I was!

This feeling reminded me of a deep inner void that I used to feel when I was in my teens and early twenties. During this time, I would look to the world to fill this void, but to no avail. Because I’ve been studying Christian Science consistently for the past several years, I felt I could handle this feeling of “void” in a more productive way.

In my prayers, I find it’s important to ‘identity the problem’. If we think we are feeling lust, anger, addiction or depression instead of realizing we are really feeling a void then we will often be distracted by these ‘symptoms’ and not address the root of the problem.

In my prayers I could see that there really is no void since God/Spirit fills all space. God/Spirit is beautiful and perfect, and made man and woman in the image and likeness of the loveliness, wholeness and completeness of Spirit.  So, where is this void? Spiritual understanding told me that in reality there was no void.

Who or what feels this void? Mortal man. Mortal man is a term that is synonymous with mortal ego. Mary Baker Eddy, the discover of Christian Science wrote, “Mortal mind sees what it believes as certainly as it believes what it sees.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 86)  This YouTube video explains this ego and it’s self-deception:

So, I could see that only mortal man, or the mortal ego, was believing in a void. Was I going to let this mortal ego boss me around by telling me lies about myself and how I was feeling? No! I then felt completely free of the feeling of depression that had been lingering around me for a few days. I needed to see that this feeling or emotion was outside of me, meaning not a part of me, and this brought about freedom and healing.

I’m so grateful that God has given us spiritual understanding, so that we don’t have to believe the lies of the ego anymore.

Lessons on humility

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, my husband and I are doing some landscaping. One thing that has been particularly challenging is the irrigation (sprinkler) system we have. It wasn’t installed very well so ever since we moved in to our house we have tried to remedy this.

The biggest challenge is that we know nothing about irrigation systems! We’ve had estimates from technicians to come out and fix it, but they are too expensive. So, while we were working on this system yesterday, I was growing increasingly frustrated and feeling helpless.

As I prayed about this, I realized the situation was frustrating because I didn’t have the knowledge or skill set to do something about it. In humility, I saw that God, the only source of knowledge and intelligence, is the Mind the governs each builder, landscaper and home owner with the guidance and understanding of what to do. The same Mind that guided each individual in installing an irrigation system, is the same Mind that is with me right now.

At that moment, our neighbor came over and asked if we needed some help. He is a builder and very knowledgeable in landscaping and irrigation. He built his house and has helped the previous owners of our house with many aspects of our home.

He was able to tell us what we needed to fix, the items we needed to get from Home Depot, and he loaned us his tools so we could fix it the next day.

I am overjoyed! We are now well-equipped with the knowledge and resources that we need, feeling confident, and even able to expand our irrigation system to a new area where it is needed.

Humbly acknowledging God, the divine Mind, as the source of all ideas provides solutions for all our needs. These ideas may come directly to your consciousness, through a neighbor (like in our case), or in some other creative outlet. They always come when we let God lead us, and when we are humble, listening, and ready to receive them.