There is a power greater than we are and we must find our partnership with It. There must be an acceptance in our own mind, a belief within our own consciousness, a belief that does not deny itself. It is a belief that says, "It is so." You and I have to do this.
Perhaps we ask for something, or accept something, or affirm something and then it seems as though we are not going to get it. We must continue to know that we are dealing with a Power that causes the invisible to become visible! Now, we are not holding thoughts, but we are creating a thought pattern upon which the creative Power is always acting. This is one of the greatest ideas concerning thought, but we seem to overlook its full and complete meaning
The second proposition is: We are thinking, choosing centers of awareness in this Mind; and according to the sum total of all our thoughts, we are either silently attracting good to us of repelling it from us. Let us consider certain attitudes of thought that ought to be salutary. For instance, the necessity of having an attitude of gratitude. Gratitude is not only a virtue; but it also is part of a practical philosophy of daily life. There is no wise way of living than to remember every morning what Life has given us, and to lift up our thought in thankfulness for every bounty we possess.
We occasionally need to put ourselves on a strict mental regimen, say, for a whole week, in which we would speak not negative word, refraining from faultfinding or condemnation of any one or anything. For quite a number of years there has been a somewhat similar theory in the field of clinical psychology. This is valuable because we cannot get something from nothing. It is what we have that is the starting point from which the greater good must come. If we pose over all the things we do not have, we will start with less than nothing.
For to what we have not, we have added a spirit of complaint. And no intelligent person can assert that a focus of attention on what he does not have is the way to get what he really needs.
It is the sum total of all our thinking that we have to consider; and in doing this, one of the first things to learn is that, about ninety percent of our thinking is entirely unconscious it goes on when we are not aware of it. Psychologists now believe that perhaps eighty-five percent of accidents are unconsciously invited, and that at least seventy percent of diseases are created unconsciously, and that our success and failure in life is largely an unconscious process, and of course our happiness or our misery is almost entirely so.
Scientific investigation verifies that we are talking about reality. Most of our thinking is unconscious. Here is where the habit patterns are caught and laid down even from infancy. It should be our purpose to find out what these thought patterns are; and when they are unhappy, or morbid, or filled with fear, change them in order that the natural, normal flow of Life Itself shall be resumed.
Now we have the basic premises developed to where we can use them, because we know what we are doing, and so we come to the third idea; We can change our thinking, and by so doing cause the Law, the invisible creative Force, to act for us in an affirmative way rather than in a negative manner. It may seem astonishing, but Jesus actually gave us a technique for this - perhaps the greatest technique that was ever given in the whole history of the world. He told us that when we pray we should enter the closet of the self, close the door of the senses, and make known our request. We must affirm the good and forget the negative.
Good and negative are not equal in power, because, of course, good always overcomes negativity. But when we do this, we should be certain that we accept the answer and that we know we are going to receive it. When we pray, we must believe that we have, and we shall have. We actually can change our thinking and cause the Law to give us freedom.
What more could we ask? What more could anyone receive from Life? To learn how to think constructively is to learn how to prove or demonstrate what is good. Many sciences are coming into closer agreement with the things we believe. We can be renewed and transformed by the renewing of our minds. there is One Mind, God-Mind, and this is the mind of man at the level of his understanding. Divine Intelligence stands ready to pour into our consciousness every idea of good, and an infinite Law within this Intelligence acts upon our acceptance or belief, making it visible in our experienced.
We should take time daily go guard our thoughts, persisting in our awareness of God's Presence and Power. We could do it in this way: Today I give my attention to that which is in accord with the good, that which I want to have manifest in my experience, as well as my neighbours or friends experience. I realise there is no necessity for any appearance which is contrary to this good. I know that I am created to express the nature of God in all that I am and do. I do now free myself from every false of morbid sense of life, I keep in tune with the Divinity within me that I may experience that which is perfect and joyous
There is an intelligence that actually can and will do whatever ought to be done for us is we really believe this and accept Its action. Science, revelation, intuition, and experience teach that we ought to believe. But it follows that if we say It cannot then It cannot. If we limit It to a little good, we need to practice believing, because thoughts are things.
When we say, I believe and there is no doubt in me, we do two things, We affirm our belief, and by so doing we build a positive acceptance in the mind. at the same time we reject our doubts. This is the way creative thought works, and realising that so much of our thought is unconscious , we merely affirm that the is nothing in us that denies the good we have affirmed.
After we have done this with persistence there will come a gradual acceptance of or affirmation; and we shall learn that as we build up an affirmative attitude things will begin to change in our experiences. It may take a little time; but now we have courage,knowing that a creative Power is acting upon our thought.
