Knowledge of our divine nature develops healthy self-trust. We learn that being co-workers with God, we cannot fail in our divinely assigned job.

Visions of greatness come to all of us. The most important question is, what should we do about them? Should we dismiss them as having no practical value and no relation to our current life conditions? Or, perhaps, it would be better to accept their challenge and to start thinking and acting at the new level - so that our dreams would come true?

Whatever we do, it is necessary to trust ourselves if we are expecting to succeed in that particular area. It is a psychological fact, proven by numerous studies, that individuals who trust themselves are happier and more effective than those who don't. They are known by their positive fruits.

Some people might argue against self-trust from theological positions. They usually say that earthly success and happiness have no importance for God - and therefore for those who are truly spiritual. They say, people who are humiliated now will be exalted in the afterlife, and vice versa.

But if they are right, why Jesus advised us to look at fruits? Why in the parable about talents the master praised servants who brought him profit?

Any desire to escape this world, any suggestion that the principle of sowing and reaping is not working on this plane, implies that the universe does not belong to God. Certainly, this cannot be true. We are alive with divine life here and now. In God we live, and move, and have our being. And the law of life is development, increase, unfoldment, progression. Those who grow testify that they are in tune with divine life within them. Those who stagnate testify that they're out of tune.

What should be the foundation of our trust?
Should we trust in our physical power?
Should we trust in our intellectual power?
Should we trust in our ability to get along with people, or personal charisma?

All those qualities are good and necessary, but they cannot guarantee our success. There is only one thing we may rely upon divine life within us, which is our life. We are one with God. We are one with God's creative, renewing, uplifting, bountiful, ever-flowing life.

"I am the Vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, the same brings forth much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing" (John 15:5).

"Abide in Me" (John 15:4).

Abiding means inner openness to the inflow of this divine life. The foundation of our self-trust is not static, but dynamic. Life cannot stand still. The same is true about us.

Particular names which people give to this living flow are unimportant. Some call it "God" or "Father". Some call it "Oversoul", or "Nature", or "genius". Let us not be too concerned with language. Language is relative. Ideas are far more important than their expressions. God, being the Ultimate Reality, is infinitely above all we can say or think.

Here are some of helpful affirmations we may use to develop self-reliance: