Most of us have faced fear of failure at some time in our life. The first time I remember feeling this fear, I was in the fourth grade and had been asked to play the part of President Rooster in an operetta by the same name. What helped me the most was someone telling me that when I went out on the stage I should remember there were no big bad wolves or ferocious lions in the audience. I don't remember how the performance turned out, but I know I followed that advice and wasn't afraid.

Years later, when I'd learned something of Christian Science and had become a regular student of the Bible, I found a better way of overcoming fear than reasoning with myself about lions and wolves, or using some technique of psychology. I learned that because I am the child of God, His protecting love is with me, caring for me at all times—even in great distress and apparent failures.

The Bible teaches that God is much more than just a great power. In the book of Isaiah we read that God says, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else" (45:22). In line with this Scripture, Christian Science teaches that God is infinite and supreme; He is the only power; there is no secondary or opposing power. Because God is Love, His power can only save and heal. It cannot harm.

Perhaps it was the truth of this saving power of God that James and John—Jesus' disciples—glimpsed in his teachings. They immediately responded when Christ Jesus asked them to follow him (see Matt. 4:21, 22). It wasn't the physical Jesus who attracted them. It was the incorporeal Christ, Truth, which he embodied so fully. This unchanging Truth burned in their hearts and revealed their true identity as God's beloved sons. Their unselfish love of the spiritual truth Jesus taught and lived made them free from fear, and they followed him.

While the disciples began at once to see many proofs of God's saving power, they didn't always rise to the standard Jesus showed them. But they learned from their mistakes, and their failures served as steppingstones to later success. For instance, when the disciples failed to heal a lunatic boy, Jesus rebuked their lack of faith and said, "This kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" (Matt. 17:21). He was helping them see they had to give up their belief in all that would appear to oppose the supremacy of Spirit. They had to learn more of man's true identity as the child of God, of Spirit, not matter.

These disciples didn't remain failures. They kept pressing forward in their search for a spiritual understanding of the truths Jesus taught. Especially when they saw the power of Spirit demonstrated in Jesus' resurrection, they gained a deeper understanding of what truly sustains man. Many fine healings are credited to the disciples—including the healing of the lame and the raising of the dead.

Several years ago, I had to overcome a fear of failure at the time of a major career change. I had left a prestigious job with a good salary for a job in which our family income depended entirely on commissions earned. A Christian Science practitioner, whom I called for help through prayer, recommended a passage from the Bible in which God calls Joshua to continue the work Moses had done: "There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." God also says to him, "Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success" (Josh. 1:5, 7, 8).

These words gave me confidence to go forward. They helped me see that I need not fear failure, that I could trust God to uphold and support me and my family. The demand on me, as it was on Joshua and on Jesus' disciples, was to let the law of God, not persons or personal beliefs, govern my every thought and action. Christ Jesus was the example I tried to follow. I also found encouragement in the verse that concluded the passage recommended by the practitioner: "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest" (Josh. 1:9).

Just think of that! Wherever we are, wherever we go, whatever we are doing, the power and law of God are with us. His loving care is always supporting and healing us. As we progressively realize these truths, we will be more and more free from fear.

My healing of fear of failure didn't come quickly, and it didn't come without disappointments along the way. I drew much comfort from stories of great men and women who faced hardships and even failure on their road to success, but these stories didn't heal my fear. At a particularly low point, I searched the Bible and all of the writings of the Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, for thoughts on the healing of failure. One idea from that research was especially helpful in turning the tide of fear. It's this statement in Science and Health: "The feats of the gymnast prove that latent mental fears are subdued by him. The devotion of thought to an honest achievement makes the achievement possible. Exceptions only confirm this rule, proving that failure is occasioned by a too feeble faith" (p. 199). The idea that "failure is occasioned by a too feeble faith" stood out to me and became a staff for me to lean on for months afterward. It encouraged me to let my faith grow into an understanding of the safety we all have as we place ourselves under God's loving care.

The final healing of my fear of failure came through the ideas included in one of the weekly Bible Lessons outlined in the Christian Science Quarterly. It seemed to me that virtually every citation in that Lesson dealt with healing fear, and the ideas in the Lesson transformed my faith into a spiritual understanding of God's love for me and all His children. It helped me see that God's love is infinite and supreme. God sees man as His perfect expression, the outcome of good, never subject to failure. Just as the disciples were helped to see more of Spirit's unfailing power to heal and save, so the spiritual ideas in that Bible Lesson permanently ended the fear of failure I had been entertaining, and success became a normal part of my experience.

It is never God's will that His creation, man, should fail. Paul wrote to the Romans, "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (Rom. 12:2). The will of God is for good in every aspect of our lives. And this good will appear as we let ourselves be transformed by the renewing of our mind, of our understanding, after the pattern established by Christ Jesus.

As this understanding of God's saving power, of the Christ grows in our thought, our fear of failure diminishes. We learn from our failures. Increasingly our fear is replaced with confidence in God's loving care, and we go forward. Living more of the sinless purity that Christ Jesus showed to be the real nature of man, we find our failures turned into steppingstones to success.