We believe we are responsible for what we do, but not what we think. The truth is that we are responsible for what we think, because it is only on the thought level that we can exercise choice. What we do comes from what we think.
Being afraid seems to be something that is involuntary and beyond our control. We can release ourselves from fear by choosing to accept that God has complete control over everything. The presence of fear shows that we have raised thoughts of the body to the level of the mind.
When we are afraid, it is because we have chosen wrongly. It is our minds, not our behavior, that we must change. We need help on the mind level, where change is possible. Change is meaningless at the symptom level where it cannot work.
The correction of fear is our responsibility. To be released from fear, we need help in changing the conditions that brought about the fear. We are much too tolerant of allowing our minds to wander and passively condone our minds’ miscreations.
No matter the particular results of this fundamental error, the correction is always the same: before we choose to do anything, we should ask God if our choice is in accord with His will. If we are sure that it is, there will be no fear.
Whenever there is fear, it is because we have not made up our minds. The Holy Spirit can not ask of us more that we are willing to do. There is no strain in doing God’s Will as soon as we recognize that it is also our own will.
Only our minds can produce fear. Our minds produce fear whenever we are conflicted in what we want and what we do. This can be corrected only by accepting a unified goal. If we tell ourselves that we must somehow have chosen not to love, or the fear could not have arisen, the whole process of correction becomes nothing more than a series of practical steps in the remedy process.
These steps can be summarized this way:
First we must learn to recognize the condition of fear, acknowledging that Fear arises from lack of love and that the only remedy for lack of love is perfect love.Perfect love is the Atonement.
If we ever hope to spare ourselves from fear, there are some things we must realize and realize fully. The mind is very powerful and never loses its creative force. It never sleeps. Every instant it is creating. Thought and belief combine into a powerful force that can literally move mountains.
There are no idle thoughts. All thinking produces form at some level.
