Today, I am going to talk about enthusiasm and how it makes all of life a joyous experience. Every normal person wishes to be well, happy and successful and there is nothing wrong with this. Sometimes we think that perhaps life withholds these good things from us, as though it didn't wish us to enter into the joy of living. And yet, Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."

I am not alone. Wherever I am, God is. Wherever I go, I go with God. Should traveling be in order, I have no fear, for his love goes before me and prepares the way. Right lodging and perfect meals await me as I need them. I dedicate both my car and the trip to God. His hand is on the wheel and his wisdom assures the smooth operation of the car. His love reaches out to help me through everyone I meet.

Consciousness, or the ability to know, is the most important thing in your life. It must be this thing called life in you, acting as an individual, a person. But there is still more to it than this. For you didn't create your own consciousness. It came with you when you entered this world. Consciousness, or that thing which you really are, is the gift of life. It is God in you.

Friends, you and I are interested in learning how to use our minds and in the most effective way. We want to know how to think in such a manner that our lives will be happy and successful. And learning how to think rightly is like learning how to use any other set of tools.

Demonstrating the spiritual principle of life is a process of convincing the mentality of an inner and ever-present good, reality is already perfect. God is always God and good is never evil. It is only as we turn, with our whole consciousness to the light that we receive light. It is impossible, while we keep ourselves covered with darkness, for the light to shine on us.

Every time I talk on this subject I begin with this. I have no gold brick to sell. This is no get-rich-quick scheme. I have nothing at all to sell to you. There are no secret doctrines that will tell you how to make a million in a month. While there is an exact science of gaining wealth, I will say in beginning that possibly none of you will ever prove it. Nevertheless, I will say that it is an exact law, a scientific and unfailing law. There is a law of perfect supply.

There is, in the universe, a spirit that is self-knowing, and a law that is not self-knowing, but self-propelling, which obeys spirit. We are self-knowing centers in a law that has no volition other than to obey our impulses. We are ignorant of this and consequently bring upon ourselves, through a direct act of law, all the experiences that we suffer. Should we completely change our mode of thinking, we would completely change our environment.

Throughout our lives, we have read and wondered about the miracles of Jesus. But to how many of us has the thought come that this same power must be available to everyone? We have been so accustomed to thinking of Jesus as a man filled with love and compassion and human kindness that we have overlooked something else about him that is equally important. Jesus had access to a spiritual power that he used in every way.

You will remember the story of Aladdin and his lamp; that when he rubbed his lamp and made a wish, then the genie would appear. Jesus said, "There is a light that lighteth every man's path". But he added, "If you put your light under a bushel, then no one can see it". It is this light which is the light of God and the light of life that is your light.

The action of God takes place through this book, and all who listen will be permanently improved. Truth reveals itself to the ready mind and the open heart. God, the One Mind, is both the writer and the listener. Divine ideas are its only activity.

Unto you is given the power to create and accomplish in life the deep desires of your heart. The incarnation of God in man, as man, is this power. Freely it is given to all alike. Some intuitively realize this and bring forth great works. Others are lulled by their material acceptances from childhood to the present and never realize that within them is this unconditioned possibility. The infinite expects the finite to reproduce in its area all that which the infinite is. God’s expectation is upon you.

Throughout the ages people have prayed, and you and I know that no sincere prayer was ever uttered without helping the one who gave it. We know that faith has done more than any other one thing to keep hope alive. We know that always in times of stress people have turned to god. But we really want to know something beyond this. We want to discover the secret of prayer as an effective force which actually can accomplish definite results.

We are always attracting the love of others, or their criticism. We are drawing assistance and cooperation into the orbit of our personal experience, or else we are creating frustrations and disappointments. This is because we are always thinking. Mind is the most active thing in the universe. It works ceaselessly, fashioning thoughts into things.

The fundamental truth - life is what you make it - is basic and essential to a personal idea of successful living. At the heart of the Science of Mind philosophy is a practical and direct approach to spirituality. It invites us to meet life not with fear but with excitement and a sense of adventure; with the attitude that anyone who understands the Science of Mind can apply its ideas to create beneficial changes in their life.

I speak my word for absolute right action. Whatever may be my problem, I know that it is an effect and not a cause. This which I call my problem is the result of my thinking. I now change this way of thinking and turn to the infinite law of mind and to the presence of God, knowing that here is the source and the substance of all things. I speak this word knowing that any undesirable condition no longer exists. Only that which conforms to the nature of God can manifest in my experience.