How I Used Truth - Lesson 10 - Annotation 6
How may we be free from all undesirable conditions and circumstances?
6. We may be free from undesirable conditions and circumstances by first returning in consciousness to the unadulterated Truth which tells us that, as spiritual beings, we are already free in Spirit. Our next step is to deny and affirm. We cleanse our consciousness by denying all that has bound us and produced negative conditions. We then declare or affirm our freedom. We deny the power and presence of anything else but God. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (Exod. 20:3). If we believe that any undesirable circumstance or condition has power over us, we are deviating from Divine Principle and setting up false gods. Negative conditions, not being creations of God, have no creative power in themselves. The only power they have is what we invest them with when we give them place in our consciousness by thinking of them and feeling that they have power over us. Such conditions have resulted from our own misunderstanding of Truth and will continue to manifest until our consciousness is changed.
"Nothing comes by chance. All happenings are the result of cause and can be explained under the law of cause and effect" (Prosperity 58).
The process by which our mental and physical freedom comes is what we term "overcoming" and will be dealt with more extensively in How I Used Truth Lesson 10 Annotation 7.
Our Scripture tells us very definitely how we are to be saved (i.e., made free), in the following words:
"In returning and rest shall ye be saved: in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength" (Isa. 30:15).
This Biblical direction is, of course, pointing to prayer as the means whereby we are set free and given the strength to continue. We have never left the presence of God, but as free-will beings we must elect to turn in our consciousness (thinking and feeling) to His presence. Having taken this step, we are able to rest. This is our Sabbath, or seventh day, the silence. It is only in quietness, as we listen to the guidance of Spirit, that we gain the strength and wisdom correctly to handle (solve) all the experiences we meet in life, thus freeing ourselves from bondage in mind and in experience. (See Annotations for Lesson Ten, Lessons in Truth.) In place of the frustration and unhappiness we have felt when confronted by undesirable conditions and circumstances, we will experience happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction.
Father, I ask for grace to bear
The irritations of the day,
The little unimportant things
That try my patience. Lord, I pray
For poise; for wisdom to discern
The good each small test holds for me,
To see each as a steppingstone
To ultimate self-mastery.
--Florence Taylor; Best-Loved Unity Poems, page 102.
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Preceding Entry: Explain substance and life in the Absolute, as ideas in Divine Mind, and show how they are related.
Following Entry: Do we overcome sickness, poverty, sin, and the like, or what is it that is overcome?
