Freedom From Worry
You can spend the rest of your life worrying, and it won't improve a thing. Worry involves being preoccupied in the present as a result of concern over what might or might not happen in the future.
The world often equates worrying with caring. One argues that he or she proves love for someone by doing an appropriate amount of worrying. But in fact, worry involves ignorance. The one thing that will eliminate it is dominion-the conscious realization that we are endowed with power and authority from God to be masters of earthly experiences.
The book of Genesis in the Bible promises that God gave us dominion over the whole earth (see 1:26). It is one of our rights as children of God. We have always had it and can exercise it and prove it.
I speak from experience. Worry was once my regular companion. It limited my potential and prevented me from using my talent. I felt like a victim, nervous and timid. Many opportunities passed me by. I had heard of people being healed by reading a book on Christian Science written by Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Opening it, I started to learn that the opposite was true of what I had always believed. I wasn't mortal, struggling against forces beyond my control; I was the spiritual likeness of God, with an ongoing, unbreakable relation to Him. I was always under His care. I learned that God is a God of goodness and love; He is my Father and Mother, my best friend. I began to feel loved, and confidence welled up within me as I read on.
According to the Bible, Jesus Christ instructed his disciples not even to worry about the basic necessities of life. "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on . . . for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things," he said (Matthew 6:25, 32).
Salvation, deliverance from every ill that one might face, is to be found in the present. Christian Science, discovered by Mrs. Eddy, reveals that there are not two states of existence, one material and the other spiritual, both equally real, and between which we swing. The only real and true existence is spiritual, maintained by the one good, supreme power, God, and controlled by His spiritual laws, now and always. Science and Health quotes St. Paul and then explains his important words to the church at Corinth: " 'Now,' cried the apostle, 'is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,'-meaning, not that now men must prepare for a future-world salvation, or safety, but that now is the time in which to experience that salvation in spirit and in life" (p. 39).
Anxious concern is based on a belief in two opposing powers, one good and one bad, God and another power apart from Him. One of the central truths of Christian Science is that there can be no power apart from God. He is good and, as the infinite Principle of the universe, governs us harmoniously. Worry is a form of mesmerism, in which we become fixated on the possibility that evil is real, and in which we are limited in thought and deed. Science and Health, explaining that God is the divine Mind that we reflect and that allows us to take control of our lives through intelligent thinking, says, "To be immortal, we must forsake the mortal sense of things, turn from the lie of false belief to Truth, and gather the facts of being from the divine Mind" (p. 370).
I used to worry that I would be asked to speak in public. I always felt nervous giving a vote of thanks, speaking in front of a committee, giving a report, chairing a meeting. I could never do my best. I prayed about this for several months and listened for God's direction. It came to me that I should stop focusing on what was going on without-the fearful things of human existence-and listen to what was coming from within, to what the divine Mind was communicating to me of my spiritual identity.
Next time I was asked to stand up and speak, I did listen for God to speak to me. And the ideas I needed just flowed. This broke my fear. I found the dominion I had from God, and was able not only to overcome my fear but also to find freedom from my longtime concern over public speaking.
