Guide Booklet: Words and Thoughts
Chapters 7, 8, 9, 10.
There are two parts to the process of demonstrating perfection through thought and word. The first part is denial; the second part is affirmation. Through denial, we rid ourselves of lingering doubts, limiting fears, and the like.
Some students feel that denial is a refusal to face reality, but we know that this is not so. All that denial does is to erase from our minds the unreal thoughts of sickness, poverty, unhappiness that have been with us. When we add to denial the practice of affirming, we find the solution to whatever problem faces us.
However, our use of affirmations must be orderly and consistent. “Only steady shining Truth” can accomplish what we want to accomplish. Doubt divides the mind. Singlemindedness is a primary virtue in the use of affirmations.
Back of both denial and affirmation, of course, is thought, and today’s troubled conditions undoubtedly stem from the ages of wrong thinking that have gone before. It is just here that denial must get in its positive work. We must persistently deny the errors of race belief.
If we depend on the evidence of our five senses, we will not be able to believe that thought produces certain effects. Man “must by a mighty effort believe that God is all-powerful and all-good, and that His creation must be likewise.”
A good way to make this effort is to declare firmly that nothing in the past or in the future has any power over us, because we live in the now. This makes it possible for us to see Truth whole, “not divided by past memories or future desires, but bursting with present fulfillment.”
The latter part of Chapter 8 takes up in detail the use of denials. One point that is emphasized is that “to deny all the time is unwise. Every denial should be followed by an affirmation.” And Myrtle Fillmore explains why the use of denials and affirmations must be persistent: “When the word of God is kept constantly in the heart there is no place for error.”
Often a specific error can cause trouble for us, even though we have made spiritual development otherwise. Even a seemingly minor trait—impatience, for instance—can hinder to some extent the full expression of our good. But we can rid ourselves of such traits through faithful use of denials and affirmations.
Because we know that God created by the power of the word, therefore His creations must be spiritual—so “all of man that is permanent must of necessity be spiritual.” It follows that we have only to think right thoughts in order to harmonize our lives and affairs.
When we learn to use the power of the word, we find that we do not have to beg for what we need and want. Instead we are led into our good.
Complete these statements:
- I recognize that the great gulf between me and the Kingdom of God is (page 44)
- “Hell” is not a place of destruction or suffering, but simply (page 57)
- My salvation is in (page 56)
- The most important faculty of the mind is (page 48)
- My mind receives from these two sources: (page 53)
- I receive good from God, not by begging and crying, but by (page 63)
