One of the Bible’s most well-known imperatives (appearing throughout the Scriptures) is, “Be not afraid!” Initially, the phrase can seem comforting. But in my experience, it has often quickly caused me to ask, “How do I ‘be not afraid’ when I am afraid in this frightening moment?”
Yet being unafraid is exactly what is needed at such times. In fact, we are to begin prayerfully reasoning out the solution to any situation by addressing fear. In the textbook of metaphysical healing, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes, “Always begin your treatment by allaying the fear of patients” (p. 411). Always does not leave a lot of wiggle room! Even when we don’t actually feel fearful in the face of challenging experiences, there’s still that word: always.
God had no cause to be afraid, so He couldn’t pass fear along to me.
Wanting to understand this better, I took a closer look at the three words be, not, and afraid. I realized that I had spent most of my life trying to “Be not,” but it dawned on me: The word be means to exist.
The Bible, explained by Science and Health, systematically and scientifically proves that all existence is God and His creation, or expression. In Christian Science, this is understood as “All-in-all,” not in a pantheistic sense, but in the sense of cause and effect, Mind and its idea, Soul and its spiritual expression.
In the Bible, God declares, “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 3:14). And Science and Health says: “The Scriptures imply that God is All-in-all. From this it follows that nothing possesses reality nor existence except the divine Mind and His ideas” (p. 331).
So, I reasoned, in Christian Science we know that the I am, or infinite Be-ing called God and His expression, can’t be modified, because God is the only cause and creator. He is changeless good. Fear does not enter the kingdom of heaven, because God created nothing of which we need to be afraid. In fact, fear is made null and void by infinite Being—by real, divine existence itself. The reason that fear cannot change or restrict being is because fear by definition is a supposition, a “What if?”
In those moments when we are challenged with something but don’t feel afraid, is it still necessary to “allay fear”? Yes! Because fear isn’t always a feeling of terror, a moment of fright, a sense of anxiety, or a constant worry. It is an erroneous hypothesis that there is an existence apart from God, infinite good. It’s the claim that there could be an occasion when God is not caring for us; that we could do, think, or say something that could remove us from God’s sustaining grace; or that something or someone else—supposedly more powerful than God—could somehow do that to us.
Once we know we need to do away with fear, we might think we have to try to uncover its cause: for example, a hidden phobia or childhood trauma. But actually, Mrs. Eddy points out what makes up all fear: “The cause of all so-called disease is mental, a mortal fear, a mistaken belief or conviction of the necessity and power of ill-health; also a fear that Mind is helpless to defend the life of man and incompetent to control it” (Science and Health, p. 377).
When the fear is removed, its effects—disease, functional difficulties, relationship problems, economic hardships, addictive or self-destructive behaviors, etc.—are removed with it. “Remove the error, and you destroy its effects” (Science and Health, p. 378).
At a time when I was striving to understand how to handle fear more thoroughly in my Christian Science treatments, I had an opportunity to put into practice what I was learning.
I was rearranging furniture and doing some redecorating. A tall, spiky, succulent potted plant needed a new location. But as I leaned over the plant to move it, the tallest spike was so needle-thin and sharp that I didn’t see it, and it pierced my open eye. I immediately felt the pain, pulled away from the plant, and ran to a mirror. Seeing the injury only made me feel more pain as well as a hot rush of panic. I was home alone and called my husband, but his phone was out of range. I knew I needed to turn to God.
I was tempted to try to pray about pain and about accident and its effects. While it was certainly legitimate to address these notions, that word always came leaping to thought: “Always begin your treatment by allaying the fear of patients.” I saw in a flash that fear was driving the physical symptoms—fear that this would be a long-term or even permanent problem, as well as fear about what friends and neighbors would think when they saw my eye. So even though there was a lot of resistance to being not afraid, that is where I started.
First, I committed to not looking in the mirror anymore to check on my eye. That kind of fear—standing in awe of something—was not drawing me closer to God, divine Love, the reliable healer, of whom I should really stand in awe.
I thought of this verse from Psalms: “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalms 46:10). I could be mentally still, refusing to allow my thoughts to storm around in a tangle of fear and panic. In that conscious quiet, I could turn my thought to the Supreme Being—to the I am that is God, Love. I knew that this I am, which includes its manifest expression, man, is the “perfect Love” that casts out fear (see I John 4:18).
Very shortly, I felt calm and the pain stopped totally. As I continued to reason logically about divine Love’s allness and presence, I accepted with my whole heart the fact that God had no cause to be afraid, so He couldn’t pass fear along to me. Instead, I had biblically guaranteed dominion over my thinking. With this God-given power, I had nothing to be afraid for; I didn’t need to be afraid for my eye, for my vision, or for my ability to draw close to God and acknowledge His power and presence. And because of His all-power and ever-presence, there was certainly nothing to be afraid of.
This omnipotence and ever-presence is divine Mind itself, the only intelligence and consciousness in the whole universe, meaning I couldn’t have a mind separate from this Mind. The Bible says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). Christ Jesus healed multitudes through his ability to remain unimpressed by any emergency. He was unafraid because he never lost his focus on God.
As I prayed in my own case, I understood that with the same Mind as Christ, I could not have a mind to be afraid with. As the Bible also tells us, “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (II Timothy 1:7).
I continued to pray to cast off fear along these lines until it was entirely dissipated. Within two days, my eye looked completely normal, and I had seen for myself the truth of Mrs. Eddy’s words, “. . . any circumstance is of itself powerless to produce suffering” (Science and Health, p. 377).
Christian Science uncovers the nature of fear as mesmeric. The more we consent to being afraid, the more daunting the situation we are presented with becomes. But it’s still not real, and being frightened or even terrified of something untrue will never make it true either. It is comforting to know that we cannot be mesmerized if we do not give our mental consent. This means without our consent we cannot be afraid; and without fear, we cannot suffer. (And interestingly, the word suffer can also mean allow.)
We cannot be mesmerized if we do not give our mental consent.
We can extend the meaning of “Always begin your treatment” to include how we treat, or approach, our day. Even if we aren’t praying about a specific challenge, but are praying for the general harmony of our daily affairs, we can start from the basis of perfect Love being the only power, presence, consciousness, forever manifest right where we are. We can claim Love’s infinite ability to entirely exclude the mesmeric “what ifs” of fear, and Love’s divine capacity to comfort and sustain us in the harmonious reality of existence.
The Leader of Christian Science lovingly and logically addressed the issue of fear countless times in her practice and in her writings. Since she said, “The vital part, the heart and soul of Christian Science, is Love” (Science and Health, p. 113), we could also say that the vital part of Christian Science is “fearing not.”
In one especially encouraging passage, Mrs. Eddy wrote: “Perchance some one of you may say, ‘The evidence of spiritual verity in me is so small that I am afraid. I feel so far from victory over the flesh that to reach out for a present realization of my hope savors of temerity. Because of my own unfitness for such a spiritual animus my strength is naught and my faith fails.’ O thou ‘weak and infirm of purpose.’ Jesus said, ‘Be not afraid’! . . .
“. . . Wait patiently on illimitable Love, the lord and giver of Life. Reflect this Life, and with it cometh the full power of being” (Pulpit and Press, pp. 3–4).
