Gloria to God:

Dear God, one of the guidelines for questions in Heavenletters is that they be from the questioner's heart. Abby's questions make me see how much of my questioning is from the mind. My question might have been, "How come so many people take the Bible as gospel?" And that is such an uncaring question, especially next to Abby's. My question would have been idle and judgmental.

The value of Abby's question is her heart and her experience and all the threads it seems to pull together. And of course Your answer. I feel like it widens my heart. I feel love for those girls who take her to Bible study.

God:

Abby's questions are pure because they are without judgment. The surface layers have been scraped off. Abby gets to the real question. And so do all sometimes. And so do you also sometimes.

Gloria:

Dear God, I want to have great faith in You. I want to have full faith in You like Karen does. She looks to You in everything. She knows You can heal anything. She knows You WILL heal anything. And I'm more like: Well, You might. I don't doubt that You can, dear God, but I am afraid to trust.

If I am tired, I think of which vitamin I should be taking. If I feel ill, I think of what doctor should I go to and what medicine will he give me that will make everything all right.

Jesus did not go around handing out pills! He handed out love. He handed out faith in You. He turned people to You, dear God.

Is love the same as faith? Do I lack love for You?

God:

We could say that faith is the opposite of fear. Is faith love? Love is Oneness, dear Gloria. Faith, the awareness of that Oneness. Fear is doubt of that Oneness. Fear is the fear that aloneness is true instead of Oneness.

Without faith, you feel you need something. With faith, you know you cannot be without.

Jesus did not see illness.

Therefore he did not see cure.

Jesus saw the purity of all.

He saw Me.

He saw that I was all that was needed.

I was all he needed.

I was the All.

Gloria:

So many illnesses today seem to be environmentally related or caused.

Is it really the physical environment or is it all the fear that surrounds us?

God:

Fear.

Fear causes things in the environment.

You live in a society built on fear.

What if?

So much is predicated on What if?

Not, What if there is God and He loves me? But what if danger comes? What if danger is already here? You will see what you think about. Think of Me.

Gloria:

Is surrender to you then the surrender of fear?

God:

Yes.

Surrender to Me is more than bowing down.

Surrender your fears to Me.

Bow them down.

Do you think that I can handle them?

Do you think that I can relieve you of them?

Do you think you are worthy?

When I am fully in your awareness, fear cannot exist.

Gloria:

I have lived with fear all my life. Every once in a while, I think I have arrived, God, that I am past fear. And then I am attacked.

God:

Fear's last stand.

Do not battle fear.

That aggrandizes fear.

It makes him mighty and he swells up with himself.

Dismiss fear.

Kick it over to Me.

Let Me take it out of you like a splinter.

That is all it is.

A tiny splinter that festers.

Fear is the tiniest thing.

It only feels big.

Gloria:

I feel like shedding fear is the hardest thing to do.

God:

It is easy for Me to take it.

Let Me take fear from you.

It clings to you.

I will shred it.

All I have to do is look at it and it skulks away.

See Me instead of fear.

Is that so hard to see Me?

Why is it so easy to see everything else?

What if you thought it was easy to see Me?

What if you thought it was easy to flick off fear?

What if you trusted Me? trusted in Me?

What if you trusted in yourself?

What if you were not afraid?

First you acknowledge your allegiance to fear.

You are doing that.

You are doing that all right.

You have been holding fear and pretending you were not.

Now you don't pretend.

Ah, that is the undoing of fear.

It does not like to be looked at.

It wants to be feared.

It wants to tower over you and have you bend down to it, keep your heart on it and your eyes averted.

Fear is a strangler. You know that.

It chokes you.

It invades.

It takes over.

It stalks.

It is a shadow that follows you.

But shadows only exist because the light is blocked.

Let in the light.

Let Me in.

Today think of Me a lot.

When you turn on a light switch, think of Me.

When you get up or sit down or walk or talk, think of Me.

Whatever you see or do, think of Me.

Let Me be your shadow, not fear.

Be consumed with Me, not fear.

To think that My magnificence in you should harbor fear — is that not absurd?

Turn it out.

Let Me in.

Attach yourself to Me.

Come, I lift you up.

Come where fear cannot go.

Come, My beloved, come to Me.