Is there something about yourself you don't like? Something you wish could be changed? Are you feeling helpless to do anything about it? If so, you have something in common with Moses, the Hebrew leader who gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments, which he had received from God on Mount Sinai.

How could there be any connection with you? According to the Biblical narrative, Moses wrestled with considerable self-doubt over his own personal abilities. He didn't believe he could do what God wanted him to do. He said he was slow of speech and thought no one would listen to what he had to say.

Then something wonderful happened. God told Moses that it was not going to be up to him as a human being, but up to God, the great I am, who would be with Moses and tell him what to do. God said He would give Moses confidence and understanding. He would put His words in Moses' mouth so that Moses would know what to say and do.

Is such a thing as this really possible? Yes, this becomes possible whenever we stop being so "self"-conscious and become more God-conscious—that is, when we begin to know who we really are. Christian Science explains that when God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over ... every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth," ^{Gen. 1:26.} this was a spiritual, not a material, creation.

On this basis Mrs. Eddy, who discovered the Science of spiritual creation, brings to light the possibilities of God's man. She writes, "Man is God's image and likeness; whatever is possible to God, is possible to man as God's reflection." ^{Miscellaneous Writings, p. 183.} At first we may doubt this truth about ourselves. James has this advice for doubters: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering." ^{James 1:5, 6.} If we petition God humbly and trustingly for the spiritual understanding that replaces doubts and fears, we will begin to feel the fears receding from consciousness as the reality of man in God's image dawns in thought.

Moses learned such a lesson when he was told by God to put his hand into his bosom and drew it out covered with the dreaded disease of leprosy. Could this be God's will for him? No, not really, because he was told to put his hand back into his bosom again, and this time when he drew it out it was restored to its normal condition. There was no disease! What had happened? This is but one of many Biblical accounts of what the understanding of God can do in human consciousness.

When we are bound by a material concept of life—the fear-filled sense of life that claims to be our thinking—we may find a discordant condition appearing very real to us. Wrong thoughts may appear on the body as a physical discord of some sort. But because God's law of ever-present love is governing man, we can reach deeper into spiritual consciousness—the understanding that divine Mind bestows—and discover a spiritual sense of self that restores the body to its normal condition.

This kingdom of heaven, or reign of Christ, Truth, within us, will free us from bondage to illness of every kind. Any bodily discord, we learn in Christian Science, is a false sense of ourselves that has been accepted as our real being, instead of being denied any entrance into our consciousness. As Mrs. Eddy explains in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: "Disease is always induced by a false sense mentally entertained, not destroyed. Disease is an image of thought externalized. The mental state is called a material state. Whatever is cherished in mortal mind as the physical condition is imaged forth on the body." ^{Science and Health, p. 411.}

When we come to the realization that whatever false belief we have been cherishing about ourselves is not the truth of our God-created being, but essentially a mesmeric suggestion of mortal mind, we find the truth that makes us free. Angel thoughts coming from divine Mind spiritualize human consciousness and cause the disease to disappear.

With such a goal to look forward to, shouldn't we put off self-distrust and self-depreciation? These traits do not accord with our real selfhood as the child of God. Thinking rightly means not depreciating in any way the work of God's hand, or doubting His ability to accomplish whatever needs to be done. When the divine Mind is acknowledged to be in control, there will be no thoughts out of control. Man is the reflection of perfection. His relationship to God is indestructible. Let's open our affections to this truth of our being and love ourselves and others as God loves us.

In the Bible we find this comforting assurance from God: "As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." ^{Josh. 1:5.} Christ Jesus, knowing this truth, once said to one who doubted, "Be not afraid, only believe." ^{Mark 5:36.} And Science and Health, affirming divine Mind's mastery over the physical senses, urges: "Exercise this God-given authority. Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action. Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man." ^{Science and Health, p. 393.}

Christian Science, the revelation of Truth in our age, is showing mankind how to take up the challenges of frustration and physical weakness and prove man's rightful dominion as the very reflection of God.