Today’s question comes from a student in my Workbook support group, and she said this to me:

"In the early pages of A Course in Miracles, Jesus says he cannot help me with fear when I’m experiencing it. Yet later, he says he will guide my mind if I allow him. These feel contradictory. Can you help me understand?"

At the core, she is asking: How can Jesus help with fear if he says he cannot interfere when I’m fearful? So let’s spend some time with this, my friends. This is a very good question, and I want to make sure we understand it and get it right.

Help Is Already Here, Even When You’re Afraid

So let’s just start at the top. The first thought that I want us to remember is that help is already here and always available to us, even if you fear. It’s true, we’re told in A Course in Miracles that help is always available. We’re told things like "God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day," or to just ask Him when we need help and support. But the problem is that we are too preoccupied with our own thoughts. We’re too preoccupied with the fear to open up to the help.

So in A Course in Miracles, we’re told that when we lay down the thoughts and we stop clinging to the thoughts of fear, we will experience that help is here. So it’s not as much about not being fearful as it is being unwilling to cling to the fear anymore. Because when you’re wanting to cling to it, when you’re wanting to hold onto it, it keeps the fear. And in all honesty, Jesus cannot interfere when we are wanting to hold onto the fear.

Why Jesus Cannot Interfere With Your Free Will

We may have an unconscious belief that being afraid keeps us safe, that it keeps us protected, which all human beings do, because that’s how we grow up on this planet. The amygdala part of the brain is centered to focus on things that might be fearful, that might be detrimental to your life. And so it fires off really quickly, right? But this idea of the fearful mind that fires off really quickly, that’s not an issue. The issue is when we cling to it and continue to believe that it’s solving our problems or that we need it.

If we’re holding onto it, if we’re clinging to it, Jesus can’t take it from us, because he cannot interfere with free will. You and I and all of God’s children have been given free will. We get to choose what occupies our mind. If we want fear to occupy our mind, even if we don’t want it to, but unconsciously feel that it’s going to get us something, Jesus can’t take it away. He cannot interfere with our free will.

But I get it. When we read something that sounds as though Jesus cannot help us, especially when we are afraid and need him the most, it can make us feel very alone, and maybe even more fearful that he won’t be there when we need him the most. But that is not what Jesus is saying. Jesus is saying that yes, you have free will, so you have the freedom to choose whether you keep defending an interpretation or become willing to receive guidance. He does not force your mind. His help is here, even though you’re afraid.

Bringing Jesus the Conditions, Not Just the Fear

In chapter 2 of the Sparkly edition of A Course in Miracles, it says, "Fear cannot be Christ-controlled, but it can be self-controlled." That same section offers guidance for the mind. Jesus asks us to bring him the conditions giving rise to fear, rather than asking for the effects of the fear to disappear. So we’re being shown that we want Jesus to take away the conditions for fear, not just the fear itself.

The fear isn’t happening for no reason. It’s happening because there are conditions that are leading to it. So we need to get rid of the conditions. Jesus won’t take the fear away unless we want to let go of the conditions that lead to fear.

And friends, we don’t need to fear the fear either. It’s okay if we are afraid; admit it, but then also remain willing and open to let it go and not cling. In the Course’s language, fear is an illusion, yes, but it does not tell us the truth of who we are in God. The feeling of fear may be present, but what we’re wanting to question is the fearful interpretation of it, or the conditions that led to the fear, not just to have the fear be taken from us.

So just know here that Jesus meets you in willingness, and willingness can be right here, right now, even while you’re scared.

Loosening Your Grip on the Fear

You do not need to be perfect in belief or completely fearless before asking for his help, but you do have to ask for help in the right way. So this leads to the second part. I’ve already mentioned this briefly, but we’re going to dive a little bit deeper here. The grip that we have on fear needs to be questioned and laid down.

So here’s an illustration, and I just want you to imagine this with me. This is my own picture; it’s not necessarily coming from the Course, but the sentiment does. Just imagine that your hand is gripping around the blade of a knife. There is a person who asks for help, but their hand remains tightly closed around the blade of the knife, around what is hurting them, around what is making them afraid. Loving help would guide the hand toward opening, instead of forcibly yanking the knife away, because that could hurt the hand.

So if the knife is the fear and my hand is my grip on the fear, and we’re saying, "Jesus, take the fear away," if he were to take the fear away, he would literally cut our hands. This is why Jesus teaches us to let go of our grip first. This is why he teaches us to let go, so that he can take the fear away.

Asking What You Believe the Fear Is Doing for You

But we sometimes hold an interpretation as though our safety depends on keeping it. And perhaps someone else’s approval seems to determine our worth. Perhaps we believe that if we stop worrying or fearing, we will become careless, or we will let our guard down and get hurt, or bad things will happen. So we have to ask:

Why am I holding on to this fear? Why am I clinging to it? Why do I think that it’s protection? What do I believe it’s doing for me? What am I afraid will happen if I let it go?

We have to bring those questions into prayer to Jesus. Jesus will then help us look at answering those questions, because feeling afraid does not prove that you are unwilling. You may sincerely be asking for help and still fear, but the goal is to look behind the fear. The goal is to let go of the fear, because when you look behind the fear and you question things, that is what allows the grip to be undone, so that Jesus can take it from you and heal you of this fear.

"I Have No Use for This"

So this leads to the third part here, which is actually releasing the purpose that we’ve given to fear. Now we realize we have to let go. We can’t cling. We have to ask questions, but let’s dive into the purpose.

There’s a phrase in the Manual for Teachers, in the section "How Is Healing Accomplished?", that says to proclaim, "I have no use for this." And it says that for anyone who proclaims, "I have no use for this," there’s nothing that cannot be healed at once. In this passage, the words themselves concern sickness, but we’re just going to apply it to the idea of fear for a minute, because it’s seen as the same thing in A Course in Miracles.

So when I bring fear forward or I recognize fear, we have to simultaneously recognize that there’s a use for that fear. God doesn’t will us to be afraid. It’s not happening to us from the outside in; it’s happening inside of us. So when we notice the fear, we have to remind ourselves: "I no longer want to insist that fear is my best guide. I no longer want to let fear tell me what to think or believe about myself or others. I’m willing to receive another way of seeing."

So this is the first step. Notice the fear, and then affirm to yourself that you’re willing to receive another way of seeing. We are allowed to notice what hurts without making ourselves wrong for experiencing it. And in fact, you can’t make yourself wrong for experiencing it. Feeling wrong for feeling the fear is what compounds the fear.

Noticing the fear as a call to love for you, as a call for healing for you, will help you to call on Jesus through your willingness to let the conditions or the purpose behind the fear be seen, so you can let it go. So the next step here is realizing that there is a purpose I have for this, and there is a use for it. So what is it? What am I using the fear for?

And then, once you see what you’re using the fear for, you can be like, "Oh my God, this is ridiculous. This can’t actually keep me safe." That’s when you proclaim, "I have no use for this." That’s you letting your hand off the knife. That’s you laying it down at Jesus’s feet. That’s handing it up into the heavens and giving it to him. That is when he can clear you of the fear.

So what are you choosing fear for? Why is that your default choice? What use do you have for it? Question the use, and the fear will be taken from you. Hold on to the use, and the fear will remain as well.

Practicing This in an Ordinary Moment

So here’s a way to practice this in an ordinary moment in your life, and this is what it looks like. Let’s say someone pushes your buttons. They trigger you to fear or anger or upset or whatever it is, because fear can wear many faces. As we know, it can be anxiety, anger, overwhelm, hate, rage, fill in the blank. It can come from a relationship or a conversation, or something in our environment can bring a reaction to the surface.

But we must be able to notice that, yes, something happened outside as a stimulus, but there must be a button inside my mind that got pushed in order for the fear to be here. So we’re not dealing with the fear; we’re dealing with the button that was pushed. And that button is the purpose for choosing fear. It’s the use that your mind is still using for fear.

So when you recognize this, you might gently consider that the trigger is happening because the light is revealing something that you could not see before. It’s not happening because you’re bad or wrong. It’s happening to reveal something underneath the fear. So next time the fear pops up, be like, "Oh, there’s fear." And instead of feeling bad, be like, "Oh, there’s something I’m not seeing. This is shining the light on the root of this fear so I can let go of it."

So start by recognizing and admitting what it is here for: "It is here for me to heal the root of this. It’s here for me to heal the purpose behind the fear." Then take out your journal. Let your fearful and angry thoughts pour out onto the page: write down what you’re thinking, what you’re feeling, what you’re experiencing, why you’re so angry, why you’re so afraid, what’s going on, and get it all out. And then, once it’s all out, ask Jesus to help you see the button behind the fear, the use behind the fear.

And again, my friends, this is what’s going to help loosen your grip, to really allow Jesus to take away the conditions, to take away the purpose, to take away the use, which are all really saying the same thing, so that the fear can be brushed away. And you know what happens after the fear is brushed away? Love remains. Peace remains. Forgiveness remains. Your healed, whole self is revealed to you.