If you are trusting your own strength, you have every reason to be
apprehensive, anxious, and fearful. What can you predict or control?
What is there in you that can be counted on? What would give you the
ability to be aware of all the facets of any problem, and to resolve
them in such a way that only good can come of it? What is there in you
that gives you the recognition of the right solution, and the guarantee
that it will be accomplished?
Of yourself you can do none of these things. To believe that you can is
to put your trust where trust is unwarranted, and to justify fear,
anxiety, depression, anger, and sorrow. Who can put his faith in
weakness and feel safe? Yet who can put his faith in strength and feel
weak?
God is your safety in every circumstance. His Voice speaks for Him in
all situations and in every aspect of all situations, telling you
exactly what to do to call upon His strength and His protection. There
are no exceptions because God has no exceptions. And the Voice Which
speaks for Him thinks as He does.
Today we will try to reach past your own weakness to the Source of real
strength. Four five-minute practice periods are necessary today, and
longer and more frequent ones are urged. Close your eyes and begin as
usual by repeating today’s idea. Then spend a minute or two in searching
for situations in your life which you have invested with fear,
dismissing each one by telling yourself,
“God is the Strength in which I trust.”
Now try to slip past all concerns related to your own sense of
inadequacy. It is obvious that any situation that causes you concern is
associated with feelings of inadequacy, since otherwise you would
believe that you could deal with the situation successfully. It is not
by trusting yourself that you will gain confidence. But the strength of
God in you is successful in all things.
The recognition of your own frailty is a necessary step in the
correction of your errors. But it is hardly a sufficient one in giving
you the confidence which you need and to which you are entitled. You
must also gain an awareness that your confidence in your real strength
is fully justified in every respect and in all circumstances.
In the latter phase of the practice period, try to reach down into your
mind to a place of real safety. You will recognize that you have reached
it if you feel a deep peace, however briefly. Let go all the trivial
things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind, and reach down
and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven. There is a place in you where
there is perfect peace. There is a place in you where nothing is
impossible. There is a place in you where the strength of God abides.
Repeat the idea for today often. Use it as your answer to any
disturbance. Remember that peace is your right because you are giving
your trust to the strength of God.