Make Your Life Worthwhile by Emmet Fox This inspirational self-help book offers spiritual guidance for personal growth and fulfillment. Fox emphasizes positive thinking, faith, and self-awareness as tools for overcoming challenges, achieving happiness, and living with purpose, drawing from Christian metaphysical principles.
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Seitenzahl: 221
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025
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PREFACE
These short essays are self-explanatory. They are actually a set of practical instructions for successful living. True success - happiness, peace of mind, prosperity and true health - is within the reach of all who sincerely desire it and are willing to pay the price.
The price you pay is to read these lessons carefully, not once but several times, and then apply them to the solution of practical problems, both large and small, for the only way to demonstrate this teaching is to live it.
This book can be considered the next step after its predecessor, Sparks of Truth.
BEGGAR, CASH THAT CHECK
Within you there is an inexhaustible source of power, if you can get in touch with it. That power can heal him, and it can inspire him by telling him what to do and how to do it. It can take you out of the land of Egypt and into the Promised Land, where milk and honey flow. It can give him peace of mind and above all, give him direct knowledge of God.
That is the Power of Scientific Prayer.
There are no problems that prayer cannot overcome, nor anything good that it cannot bring into your life.
That is the message of the whole Bible. Jesus summed it up when he said: "The Kingdom of God is within you". Man is slow to grasp that message, and spends his life in an anxious search for external things, while missing what really matters. He is like a ruined farmer who does not know that in his field, underground there is a gold mine. The farmer writes, frantically calls banks in search of credit. He asks for help from relatives and moneylenders, and in the meantime, the gold mine lies beneath his field, untouchable, unsuspected.
This truth is dramatically illustrated by an incident that occurred in real life, several years ago. The corpse of a vagrant, covered in rags, was found near a lime kiln, where he had evidently crawled in search of heat. After the autopsy, when his clothes were cut off to be thrown into the incinerator, there appeared, sewn into the lining of the pants, a check for a large sum. Undoubtedly, the original owner of the suit had sewn it inside as a precautionary measure, and for some unknown reason had forgotten it.
Consider the situation! That poor tramp had sat down many times to drink a cold coffee and eat a crumb, probably happy to have got a few crumbs, and all the time he sat on thousands of dollars, without knowing it. Had he realized the wealth he possessed, he would have slept indoors that fatal night, instead of out in the open, and saved his life. Perhaps he would have started over with that capital and done well.
Most people, in some sense, are like the homeless, because many people feel some lack in their lives. They may have a lot of money, yet they may be destitute of health, happiness, or spiritual experience.
Wealth does not become abundance until it is invested. A talent is dead until it is exploited. Cash your check at the Bank of Heaven and put it to work in your life.
Mark well, this is the right time; mark well, this is the day of salvation.
LION OR DONKEY?
The great enemy of humanity is fear. The less fear you have, the more health and harmony you will have. The more fear you have, the more problems, of one kind or another, will appear in your life. The only real problem of mankind comes down to getting rid of fear. When you are not afraid of a situation at all, that situation cannot affect you. Of course, one must remember that fear often exists in the subconscious, without one necessarily being aware of its presence. The best proof that one has got rid of fear before a particular issue is a feeling of joy and happiness before this issue.
The thing to remember, above all, is that fear is a delusion. Call it a delusion and it disappears.
Several years ago a curious incident occurred in Holland. A lion escaped from a traveling circus. Not far away, a housewife was sewing in her living room near an open window. Suddenly, the animal jumped inside, rushed past the woman like lightning, burst into the dining room and took refuge in the triangular cupboard under the staircase. The astonished woman thought it was a donkey. Indignant at the muddy footprints the animal had left on the clean floor, she chased it into the cupboard, where it lay between
The animal trembled with terror, and the enraged woman redoubled the force of her brooms.
Then four men arrived, with guns and nets, and captured the beast. The terrified lion put up no resistance, he was happy to have escaped the menacing lady.
When the good woman discovered that she had confronted a lion, she fainted and was sick for several days.
This story perfectly illustrates the demoralizing power of fear. The housewife completely overpowered the lion as long as she thought it was an ass, and as long as she treated it like an ass, the lion thought she was very powerful and was terribly afraid of it. When the woman discovered her mistake, mankind's old belief in fear returned and even when she was perfectly safe, she reacted in accordance with the tradition of the race.
Discard fear. Focus your energy on that goal, and other problems will solve themselves.
The treatment against fear consists in understanding (in making it real for oneself) the Presence of God in oneself and His unchanging love.
He who fears is not perfect in Love.
RELAX
Relax. As a radio character used to say: "Loosen up" . Don't stay tense. Being tense is the surest path to failure in any endeavor, large or small.
To desire success is splendid, but to seek it with too much tension is to be sure to lose it. There is a mental attitude that can be compared to a clenched fist, a frown, clenched teeth, that attitude cannot lead to success.
To undertake any endeavor with some concern is a shortcut to success. Many people fail in music, in sports, in study, in business, or advance very slowly, because they perform these tasks as if they were hard work. Their triumph would be infinitely greater than they expected if they considered their efforts as a diversion.
Treat your work as if it were fun. Consider the difficulties as part of the game, laugh at the hassles, and the whole picture will improve forever. This, of course, is the big difference between work and play. Many men work harder when they play golf than at other times, but they don't know it because to them it is a game.
Take it easy. Relax!
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF YOUR DISADVANTAGES
Success consists in overcoming difficulties. All men and women who have triumphed have achieved success by overcoming difficulties. Where there are no difficulties to overcome, anyone can reach the goal, that cannot be called success.
There was a time when laying a telegraph line from New York to Boston presented numerous difficulties. Later that was an easy job, but laying the transatlantic cable was a feat, because of the difficulties to be overcome. Later, laying submarine cables became a routine task, but radio transmissions across the ocean presented problems that for a time were insurmountable. Later, those difficulties were also overcome.
There is no personal problem that cannot be overcome by calm, persistent spiritual treatment and appropriate, wise activity.
If you have a personal disadvantage that seems to keep you away from success, do not accept it as such, take advantage of it and use it as an instrument for your triumph.
H.G. Wells had to leave a boring, low-paid job because of health problems, stayed at home, wrote successful books and became a world-famous writer. Edison was deaf as a post, and decided that deafness would allow him to concentrate better on his inventions. Beethoven composed his works even though he was deaf. Theodore Roosevelt was a sickly child who was told he had to lead a careful, withdrawn life. He was a nearsighted, nervous boy. But instead of accepting those directions, he strove to develop his body and became, as we know, a stocky man, fond of outdoor activities and a great hunter. Gilbert wrote Pinafore on his sickbed, tormented by pain.
The owner of an elegant London store was married to a hard-working clerk, who in the course of time contracted tuberculosis. The woman had never been in business, had never studied anything, and found herself having to support a husband and two children. She started with no resources other than her good taste in clothes and her faith in prayer, and today she is a wealthy and successful woman. She says, "I thought I would like to sell the kind of clothes I had never been able to buy.
Whatever handicap you think you have, take advantage of it. Your particular problem will seem especially difficult, but spiritual treatment and courageous decision can overcome any difficulty.
Problems are signposts on the road to God.
KREISLER PLAYED FLAWLESSLY!
What we experience is our own concept of things. That is why no two people see the world in the same way, and that is why, in many cases, different people see very different worlds. In other words, we make our own world according to the way we think, for we actually live in the world of our own thoughts. Hence, if our way of thinking is imperfect, our conditions must also be imperfect until we correct our way of thinking, and it is useless to try to improve external things if we leave our mentality unchanged.
For example, suppose a deaf man attends a Kreisler recital at the Carnegie May and happens to be a very dumb man. He sits in the middle of the stalls, and, of course, does not hear a single sound. Since that bothers him, he exchanges his ticket for a seat in the first box. There, of course, he sees no better and, foolishly believing that the acoustics of the place are defective, he moves once again to the upper box. Still hearing nothing, he again goes downstairs and this time chooses a seat directly in front of the orchestra, a few yards away from the violinist. Of course in that seat he has no better luck, so he leaves the theater offended, and declares that Kreisler is evidently incapable of playing, and that the venue is poorly designed for listening to music.
It is easy for us to see that the problem, in reality, lies within the man and that he cannot remedy things by simply changing his seat. All he has to do is to overcome his deafness somehow, and then he will be able to enjoy the concert. He must change himself.
This parable applies literally to all of life's problems. We do not see harmony because of a spiritual flaw within us. As we gain greater spiritual understanding, the true Nature of the Self is revealed to us. But if we move from place to place in search of harmony, or try to achieve it by changing outward things, we are like the fool who could not hear Kreisler and ran all over the theater.
THE THREE GIFTS
Ancient legends often tell us that when a prince was born, the christening was attended by fairies bearing gifts. One is tempted to ask what gifts we would ask for ourselves if we had the power over such matters. In other words, what are, shall we say, the three best gifts a child can be born with?
I suggest these three: a good constitution, a good character and common sense. I believe that a child gifted with these three qualities will have very few difficulties in life.
I put a good constitution first because health is the greatest of all blessings. Without good health, you can't do much. That, of course, everyone understands.
On the other hand, people do not always understand the importance of a good character to lubricate the wheels of everyday life. They do not understand that if one has a good temperament, one makes friends everywhere, without any special effort. A good character saves one from criticism, resentment, censure, jealousy and all the negative things that ruin life.
Finally, I point to simple common sense. I believe that sheer common sense, as it is called, is more important than the possession of any kind of skill or great talent. It will be more helpful to a boy or girl in overcoming any practical difficulty than all the instruction they may receive. We have all known very brilliant men and women who seemingly have all the gifts to succeed in life but who, because of the lack of simple common sense, are shipwrecked.
Now, supposing one thinks that one has not received any or none of these gifts, what can one do? Let's see: the teachings of Jesus Christ say that nothing good that we ask for will be denied to us. If you want any of the gifts we mentioned, ask for it every day, pray for it, claim it, and incorporate it into your character by doing the right thing in any circumstance that arises.
"Whatsoever ye shall ask, when ye pray, believe that ye receive it, and it shall be given you." Mark 11.26.
THE TAIL WAGS THE DOG
Man controls his own life. The Bible says that God has given him "dominion over all things," which is true when man understands the Truth; and the Truth is that his outward conditions - his environment, his life, and his life itself, are in control.
- are the expression of their mentality and nothing more. They are not the cause, they are the effect. They do not come first, they follow. One can change one's thoughts and feelings, and then the outer things will change to match, no doubt, there is no other way to function. You are not happy because you feel good. You feel good because you are happy. You don't have faith because things are going well. Things are going well because you have faith. You are not depressed because you have been presented with a problem, but the problem has been presented to you because you have lost your understanding of the truth before.
The secret of Life, then, consists in controlling your mental states; if you succeed in this, everything else will follow. To accept illness, problems and failure as inescapable, and perhaps inevitable, evils is foolish, for it is that very acceptance which maintains the existence of these evils. Man is not limited by his environment. Man creates his environment through his beliefs and his feelings. To suppose otherwise is like thinking that the tail can wag the dog.
If you have been thinking that external conditions are stronger than you, and that those conditions may prevent you from manifesting as God intended, say to yourself: "The tail wags the dog, and you will immediately reverse that belief.
God wants you to be healthy, happy, and free, and you can accept nothing less. Ask God to work within you - and believe it - and nothing will turn you back. Who prevented you from obeying the command of Truth?
ARE YOU DYNAMIC?
What is a dynamic person?
Many people think they would like to be what is called dynamic, but, apparently, they don't always have a very clear idea of what that expression really means. Sometimes they think dynamic means being aggressive, loud, or even bombastic. Other times they seem to think it means attracting attention in a less obvious but equally effective way. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.
A dynamic person is a person who really makes an impact on the world, who does something that changes things or people. The magnitude of the work done may not be very great, but it is a fact that the world is a little different because that person has lived and worked. That is a dynamic person. Dynamic people, like St. Paul, Washington or Napoleon, change the lives and destinies of millions of people and everyone knows their work, but there are many men and women all over the country whose works are not well known, or not known at all, yet on their own scale they are dynamic, because they have actually changed the world, however slightly.
If you do something, no matter how small it may be, you are dynamic and the world is different because you lived in it. If you only pretend to do things, or talk about them, or live by appearances, you are not dynamic, you are acting. You are an empty shell and nobody wants to be an empty shell.
A DYNAMIC PERSON
Whoever does something in a way that is not only new but also better, is dynamic. Whoever makes two grains of wheat grow where only one grew before, is dynamic. Whoever creates a successful business that serves the public and generates employment for others, is dynamic. He who invents something useful is dynamic. He who composes good music, writes excellent poetry, paints beautiful pictures or sculpts beautiful statues, is dynamic.
He who truly heals is dynamic. He who teaches effectively is dynamic.
When these people leave the world, the world is different from how they found it. Washington changed the course of history, and you can change a person's life if you heal them, educate them, or simply inspire them by your own example. But the bottom line is that, in the big picture, something has changed for the better.
There are foolish people who feel satisfied if they are considered dynamic. Such people are content just to pretend. It pleases them to spend their energies on appearances. They adopt an air of importance and talk grandiloquently - which necessarily leads to some ambiguity - about the wonders they do or have done in a remote place and at a remote time. They are given to exaggerating trifles. All this, of course, is nothing more than sophisticated deception and the opposite of being dynamic.
The real secret of a dynamic personality consists in believing that God works through you, whatever you do, put yourself first at His service and be as sincere, practical and efficient as you can. If one executes that method, even for a short period, he will be surprised at the remarkable results he will achieve, and will find that he becomes a truly dynamic person.
To skip a real service is to be truly alive. "By his fruits you shall know him" Matthew 7:20.
ARE YOU FOOLING YOURSELF?
The teaching of Jesus Christ is a dynamic gospel. It actually changes things. It makes the individual's story completely different from what it would be without that teaching. That, of course, is the test. Those who do not understand our teaching sometimes say that we deceive ourselves, that we pretend to be healthy when we are sick, that things are going well when they are actually going badly. They think we are simpletons, that we try to hypnotize ourselves by saying that black is white.
That, of course, is not true. Anyone who acts that way is not practicing the teachings of Jesus Christ. We understand that by moving away from the negative picture and toward the positive Truth, and by consciously holding on to that truth, we heal the picture. That is so, and that is the proof.
That is the test. If the outer picture changes, you are working correctly. You are not fooling yourself or indulging in emotional dissipation. If the outer picture does not change within a reasonable period, you are fooling yourself. You are not working correctly, and you must revise your method. The outer change may be incomplete or even still comparatively small, but as long as the outer picture is changing, you are not deluded.
you are getting results.
There are no invisible demonstrations. At all times you exhibit your mentality in the outer world of appearances. Excuses, misrepresentations, any kind of self-deception is useless when we know that the outer picture reveals the Truth, an unappealable truth.
Thank God for this wonderful Truth, for it gives you an infallible method of overcoming limitation and error.
"By their fruits ye shall know them." Matthew 7:20.
FORECASTING AND REVIEW
When you have to make a decision or perform a certain action, all you can do is to do things as you know best at the time. If you do so, you will have done your duty. Later examination may reveal that you have made a mistake, but it will not be your fault because you could not do your task better than you knew how to do it at the time. The wisest man who ever lived could not have done more.
For that reason it is very foolish to grieve over past mistakes that were made in good faith. Any fool is capable of observing the past, but it is difficult to foresee with wisdom.
Do what seems right at the time, considering all the circumstances, everyone you know, and then you won't regret it.
Students of metaphysics, of course, always pray for guidance before making a crucial decision. Claim that Christ guides you, and believe it, and the end result will be favorable even if things seem to go wrong for a while, as long as you truly believe what you claim.
A SMILE IS AN INVESTMENT
Many people intuitively perceive that the simplest things in life are the most important things, or, if you prefer, that the most important things in life happen to be the simplest things. What is more important to us, for example, than breathing? Yet we rarely stop to think about it. Fresh air doesn't cost a penny, but if we lack it, we die in a few minutes.
Another simple but very important thing is a smile. A smile costs no money, no time, no effort, but it is literally true that it can be of capital importance in life. A smile has an effect on the whole body, from the skin to the skeleton, encompassing all the blood vessels, nerves and muscles. It affects the functioning of every organ. It influences every gland. I repeat - and this is literally true - you cannot smile without the whole organism being favorably affected. What's more: a smile often relaxes a large number of muscles and when smiling becomes a habit, you can easily see how the effect increases. Last year's smiles pay good dividends today.
The effect of a smile on other people is no less remarkable. It disarms suspicions, dispels fear and anger, and brings out the best qualities of the other person, qualities that immediately influence you.
A smile is to personal contact what oil is to machinery and no intelligent engineer neglects lubrication.
GREAT MENTAL LAWS
There are great laws that govern all thought, just as there are fundamental laws in chemistry, physics and mechanics, for example.
We know that the control of thought is the Key to Destiny, and to learn to control thought we must know and understand these laws, just as the chemist must understand the laws of chemistry and the electrician must know the laws of electricity.
One of the great mental laws is the Law of Substitution. That law means that the only way to get rid of a certain thought is to substitute another thought. You cannot directly discard a thought. That can only be done by substituting another. On the physical plane this is not the case. You can drop a book or a stone by simply opening your hand and letting go of the object, but in negative thinking, the only way to get rid of it is to think of something positive and constructive. It is as if, say, to drop a pencil, it were necessary to put a pen, a book or a stone in your hand when the pencil falls.
If I tell you, "Don't think of the Statue of Liberty," you, of course, immediately think of her. you, of course, immediately think of her. If you say, "I'm not going to think about the Statue of Liberty," you are thinking about it. But after thinking about the statue, if you become interested in something else, say, turning on the radio, you forget about the Statue of Liberty. That's the case of a substitution. When you are invaded by negative thoughts, do not fight them, but think of something positive. Preferably think of God, but if you find that difficult at the time, think of some positive or constructive idea, and then the negative thought dissipates.
Sometimes it happens that negative thoughts seem to besiege you so strongly that you cannot overcome them. This is what is called an attack of depression, or worry, or perhaps even an outburst of anger. In that case, the best thing to do is to find someone to talk to on any subject, or go to the movies, or the theater, or read an interesting book, a good novel, a biography or travelogue, something like that. If you sit down to fight the negative tide, the only result you will probably get is to increase it.
Pay attention to something quite different , resolutely refusing to dwell on the difficulty or recreate it, and later, after you have completely removed yourself from the problem, you can return with confidence and face it by spiritual treatment. "But I say unto you, Resist not him that is evil."-Matthew 5 39.
Another of the great mental laws is the Law of Relaxation. In all mental work, effort defeats itself. The more effort you exert, the less results you will get. This, of course, is the opposite of what we find on the physical plane, but it will not surprise us because we know that, in many cases, the laws of mind are the reverse of the laws of matter.
