The Golden Key

The Golden Key

A condensation of the text by Emmett Fox


      Prayer will enable you, sooner or later, to get yourself, or anyone else, out of any difficulty on the face of the earth.  It is the Golden Key to harmony and happiness.
     Prayer is the mightiest power in existence. You need not take anyone’s word for it:
Simply try it for yourself, and see.
    Whoever you are, wherever you may be, the Golden Key to harmony is in your hand now. This is because in prayer, it is God who works, and not you, and so your particular lilmitations or weaknesses are of no account in this process.  
    Divine action takes place and your part is really just the getting of yourself out of the way.  It is absolutely essential to have an open mind and sufficient faith to try the experiment.
    As for the actual method of working with The Golden Key, it is simplicity itself.
All you have to do is this:  Stop thinking about the difficulty, whatever it is, and think about God instead.  This is the complete rule, and if only you will do this, the trouble, whatever it is, will presently disappear (or cease to trouble you, even if it does NOT disappear).
   It makes no difference what kind of trouble it is.  It may be a big thing or a little thing; it may concern health, finance, a lawsuit, a quarrel, an accident, or anything else conceivable; but whatever it is, just stop thinking about it, and think of God instead—that is all you have to do.
   The thing could not be simpler, could it?  God Himself could scarcely have made it simpler, and yet it never fails to work when given a fair trial.
     Work by rehearsing anything and everything that you know about God. God is Wisdom, Truth, inconceivable Love. God is present everywhere, has infinite power, knows everything..and so on.  It matters not how well you may think you understand these things, go over them repeatedly.
   Remember, if you are thinking about the difficulty, you are not thinking about God.
To be continually glancing over your shoulder, as it were, in order to see how matters are progressing, is fatal, because that is thinking about the trouble, and you must think about God and nothing else.
   If you can become so absorbed in the consideration of the spiritual world that your really forget for a while all about the trouble, you will presently find that you are safely and comfortably out of your difficulty.  
    In order to “Golden Key” a troublesome person or difficult situation, think , “Now I am going to Golden Key  John, or Mary or that threatened danger.”  Then proceed to drive all thought of John, or Mary or danger right out of your mind.  By working in this way about a person, you are not seeking to influence his conduct in any way, except that you prevent him from injuring or annoying you, and you do him nothing but good.
     You may repeat this operation several times a day with intervals between.  Be sure, however, each time you have done it, that you drop all thought of the matter until the next time.
    We have said that the Golden Key is simple, and so it is, but, of course, it is not always easy to turn.  If you are very frightened or worried, it may be difficult, at first, to get your thoughts away from material things. But, by constantly repeating some statement of absolute Truth that appeals to you, such as , “There is no power greater than God” or ”God is love”or “God is guiding me now”, or just “God is with me”.  However dead or mechanical it may seem at first, you will soon find that this treatment has begun to take, and that your mind is clearing.  Do not struggle violently; be quiet but insistent. Each time that you find your attention wandering, just switch it straight back to God.
     Do not try to think out in advance what the solution of  your difficulty will probably turn out to be. Leave the question of ways and means strictly to God.  You want to get out of your difficulty----that is sufficient.  You do your part, God will never fail to do His.

          Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.