VI. The Illusion of Needs, P 5
5 All aspects of fear are untrue because they do not exist at the creative level, and therefore do not exist at all. To whatever extent you are willing to submit your beliefs to this test, to that extent are your perceptions corrected. In sorting out the false from the true, the miracle proceeds along these lines:
Perfect love casts out fear.
If fear exists, Then there is not perfect love.
But:
Only perfect love exists.
If there is fear, It produces a state that does not exist.
Believe this and you will be free. Only God can establish this solution, and this faith is His gift.
Journal
I spoke to my son again yesterday. He had gone to the doctor and was telling me what he learned about his injury and about possible solutions. Each time I speak to him about this, I get a chance to see what I believe. I get a chance to see if I am free. Yesterday I saw that I am not free. I felt his frustration and fear as if it were my own because it was. I can only feel what I believe, not what someone else believes.
This morning I was asking for more clarity about this.
Me: Jesus, I want to understand how my fear does not exist. I want to know, really know, that fear does not exist. Here are my thoughts about this situation with Toby and his back injury. I accept that he is not that body and that who he really is cannot be injured, in pain or suffer in any way. But he believes he is this body and he believes it is injured.
His belief is strong and it is causing him to suffer terribly, and the more he suffers the harder it will be for him to not believe in suffering. His suffering, while not real in eternity, is very real to him in time. My prayer is not that his body be healed. I am clear on this. His body does not actually exist and is just a thought in the mind. I pray that his mind is healed of the belief in pain and suffering. This would take a miracle and it is for this miracle I pray.
Jesus: I understand how you suffer when you think of your precious son in pain. You open your mind to be healed and you see clearly that what he believes about himself cannot be true, then you see the evidence of his belief and you cannot remember the truth. Do you see, my sweet one, that you and your son reflect each other? He believes in pain and suffering and this belief is projected outward onto the body. You believe in pain and suffering and this belief is projected outward and you see his body in pain and suffering.
Me: No I didn’t see that. Kind of obvious, isn’t it? Ok, back to accepting the Atonement for myself, right? My prayer is that my mind is healed of the belief in pain and suffering. I have been led to this correction and sometimes I think this is done. My mind feels so clear on this. Then I see a reflection of that belief in myself or someone else and I realize I still believe in it. How do I let go of the belief in pain and suffering?
Jesus: This is what you are doing. Do not be discouraged because you return to the belief. Simply choose again when that happens, just as you have been doing. You can see that the belief in pain and suffering, which is the same as the belief in fear, is fading for you. Even when you feel the belief strongly, you never believe in it completely. You always remember to ask for healing. It is like you are erasing a dark smudge on your mind and each time you erase some more of it. Soon you will have no darkness at all.
Because it seems you must return again and again to this belief to experience complete healing, it makes it feel more real to you, but this is not the case. Either something is true or it is not. It cannot be more true or less true. Fear is not real. Pain is not real. Believing in it does not make it real, so resisting the truth and holding onto the belief, does not make it real. Feeling a lot of pain does not make it real. Not being able to see a way out of suffering does not make it real.
All forms of fear are banished by the perfect love that is God. Open your heart and all darkness will vanish in the brilliance of that love. The separated ones are afraid of the light. They fear they will vanish with the darkness, but that is not true. My heart opened and I was cleansed of every form of fear and yet, here I am, talking to you. Again I say to you, do not be discouraged. I, too, backed away from love before my final acceptance. I am here to help you, and together we will succeed.
Me: Thank you, Jesus, for your words of encouragement and for your help. I feel you in my mind and it helps my faith. I heard the ego words of discouragement, of doubt and uncertainty, but I did notice that while they pulled on an old belief in my mind, they could not hold my attention. I see signs of healing in this and in other ways. I do suffer still when I see my son suffer, but I also know that this is another opportunity to heal the mind. And I notice that the suffering does not grip me like it used to, that I turn from it more easily and more quickly. I give my faith to You, God, and I trust that You will answer that faith. Thank you.