I was talking about this the other day in my podcast with Keith Kavanagh. In the fear and conflict section of the A Course in Miracles text, Jesus tells us something that changed how I pray.
Don’t ask for the fear to be taken away. Ask for the causes of fear to be taken away.
The ACIM text puts it this way: “You should ask, instead, for help in the conditions that have brought the fear about.”
The distinction is everything, because we’ve all prayed the other prayer. Please make this feeling stop. Please make this go away. That prayer keeps our attention exactly where the trouble is, and it leaves the cause completely untouched.
Here’s the prayer I finally learned to pray, on my knees, in the plainest words I had.
“Holy Spirit, take these thoughts out of my mind. I will not think them. I will not allow them to have residence in my awareness. I will not think these thoughts of lack, attack, limitation and separation. They are no part of me. I don’t want them. I’m done with them.
I’m a creature of love and light. That’s all I wish to know and understand, the truth of my identity. Remove these false beliefs. I will not entertain them anymore.
My mind is a safe place for everyone. I’m open-hearted. I’m compassionate. I’m loving. I’m kind. I’m generous of spirit and generous of heart. This is the truth of my identity.
I thank God for my healing. I accept my healing now, and I share the benefits with everyone, because I know it’s done and I know Spirit cannot fail.”
I prayed that over and over and over again throughout my day. Day after day. Week after week. Month after month. Year after year.
And it worked.
I never did learn how to take those thoughts out of my mind. That was never the assignment. What I knew was that the Higher Holy Spirit Self knew how, and that our willingness is all that’s required.
A Course in Miracles says it in one line: “You must change your mind, not your behavior, and this is a matter of willingness.”
Willingness. Not skill. Not worthiness. Not years of credentials.
If you’d like to learn this prayer practice and work it alongside others who are doing the same, that’s the ground we cover together in my Finding Freedom From Fear Spiritual Bootcamp Program. It works.
We hand over the cause, and we let it be handled by the One who actually knows how. W
For many of us those barriers were built early, and they’re held in place by grievances we’ve never set down. If you’d like a few hours of tender, practical company while you look at yours, that’s what my FREE Forgiveness Workshop is for.
I learned that the anger and the keeping people at a distance wasn’t the problem, they were the symptoms pointing me to the underlying cause which was my belief that there was something profoundly wrong with me. All the symptom experiences were inviting me to address that underlying belief. Triggers are helpful and healing.
SEPTEMBER: My Finding Freedom From Fear Spiritual Bootcamp is 90 days of moving out of coping and into real trust, faith and listening to the higher wisdom, together. This is my longest running program – popular because it is such a game changer. Are you up for truly moving past fear? I only offer this once per year – We start in September! Click here now to learn more now.
