Fear Has No Power

As conscious beings, we reflect to a degree the source of real consciousness, the divine Mind. And this Mind enables us always to think intelligently, fearlessly.

The physical senses tell us that Mind is in matter, that our thoughts come from the brain. But we are free to reject this theory about ourselves and to accept the divine Mind as our only Mind. Actually, this divine Mind is God, the only Mind of man. What the physical senses say about us in no way affects our ability to be unafraid unless we accept as true what the senses say. Then it is not fear but our belief in fear that has power over us. Through Christian Science we are able to reject the belief and to understand the truth.

The Bible gives many assurances that we need not fear. The book of Isaiah gives us God's Word, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee."
Isa. 41:10 And Christ Jesus prefaced his healing of Jairus' daughter with the words, "Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole."
Luke 8:50 Instead of acting to first eliminate the condition that caused the fear, he appears to have begun by asking Jairus to stop being afraid.

To Jesus fear was not a power over man to be battled with and defeated. He gave no honor to the physical sense of personality that said, "I am afraid." He was evidently confident that the individual was able to respond to the Christ, the spiritual idea of man's sonship with God.

Our fears today, whether fear of disease, fear for our safety, or fear for others, are all forms of self-indulgence. Fear is a way for the physical, mortal so-called self to gain respect it does not deserve. And the belief that fear has power to govern anyone is the same belief that makes a disease seemingly difficult to cure. Disease appears only in the false, material sense of self. It disappears when we become conscious of our spiritual identity as the child, or reflection, of the divine Mind.

When we believe fear is something we cannot help and that will not change until the circumstances producing the fear change, we find ourselves powerless to overcome either the circumstances or the fear. But when we see that we have the ability to stop being afraid, we are no longer victims of fear, and the circumstances associated with the fear can be overcome.

In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures Mary Baker Eddy speaks of Blondin, who crossed Niagara on a tightrope: "His fear must have disappeared before his power of putting resolve into action could appear."
Science and Health, p. 199 In another place, speaking of the healing work, she says: "Never tell the sick that they have more courage than strength. Tell them rather, that their strength is in proportion to their courage."
ibid., p. 417

It is never necessary to wait for anything to happen before putting off fear. We have as much ability to refuse to be afraid as we have to refuse to steal or cheat. What gives us the power to be honest in the face of a temptation to be dishonest? Not human willpower but divine intelligence. This only real power to think and act is ever present. It governs man. The desire to be just or good or pure has its source and substance in that divine intelligence. When we express such a desire and act in fulfillment of it, we have the power of God Himself to do what He made man able to do. We have the power to be unafraid. It is just as real, just as present, just as available, as the power to be honest.

Christian Science shows that fear is a basic cause of disease, and when fear is overcome, disease is healed. Christian Science treatment is effective because it destroys fear. The practitioner of this Science who understands fear to be but one of the claims of the so-called mortal mind opposed to the divine Mind recognizes the hold that fear seems to have on the patient. He also understands that fear is but a belief, and that the belief has no power to influence either himself or the patient.

Anyone who gains something of the true idea of the divine Mind can allay fear and heal its effects. The true idea of Mind reveals Mind as one, ever present, and all-powerful. Mind is unopposed, and the individual who prays, as well as the individual who is prayed for, becomes conscious of Mind maintaining man as its perfect idea.

The true idea of Mind is the Christ, which Jesus exemplified, and which we can express as we behold it. The belief that man is a victim of fear—a material personality clinging to his fears to justify his demands or to verify his sufferings—is but a dream. We can wake from the dream by confronting the false belief with the true idea. Mrs. Eddy tells us: "Always begin your treatment by allaying the fear of patients. Silently reassure them as to their exemption from disease and danger. Watch the result of this simple rule of Christian Science, and you will find that it alleviates the symptoms of every disease. If you succeed in wholly removing the fear, your patient is healed."
ibid., pp. 411 412

Fear is not a reality, and it has no power. We are free to live, to be ourselves, to express our individuality, to identify ourselves as ideas of the divine Mind—without fear. And if we seem to be afraid, we are free to stop being afraid.

The divine Mind we reflect is divine Love. The material personality we seem to be loves imperfectly and therefore fears. But as we recognize ourselves as reflections of divine Love, we are free to love perfectly, understandingly, intelligently, completely. And John tells us, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear."
John 4:18

CARL J. WELZ