by Marianne Williamson: It is a spiritual challenge to hear the news and still keep your faith.

Surrounded by terrible news, we are tempted to feel powerless before the strength of darkness. And yet we are not powerless, for we are children of an infinitely wealthy father who has shared with us the prosperity of His kingdom. Our primary task is to remember that it’s ours. Through God, we have the power to use our spiritual resources to banish all darkness — to transform our world from a state of limitation and fear to a state of abundance and love. For the world is a reflection of humanity’s collective consciousness, and each of us has access to the collective through the auspices of our own mind.

Viewing life through the eyes of the world, we learn about a world that is; viewing life through the eyes of spirit, we learn about a world that could be. It is a law of consciousness that what we think about expands: Our focus amounts to a mental endorsement of the worldview that keeps the object of our focus in place. In order to change the world, we must change the mental lens through which we view it.

Think of the news as humanity’s prayer list. How different the world would be if every day’s newspaper reports were met with prayers for healing from its readers! And that will happen, when the modern mind realizes the power of spirit. Prayer itself will emerge from the constricting limitations of religious doctrine, to become a spontaneous call of the soul to the higher power from whence we came. Having claimed the dimension of power that spiritual wisdom provides, we will energetically engage in the process of creating a new civilization. We will no longer stand powerless before the so-called strength of illusion and fear; once we realize our spiritual power, we will assume it to its full degree. For through God, we have the power of the sun and the moon and the stars at our command….