IV. This Need Not Be

T-4.IV.1. If you cannot hear the Voice for God, it is because you do not choose to listen. ² That you do listen to the voice of your ego is demonstrated by your attitudes, your feelings and your behavior. ³ Yet this is what you want. ⁴ This is what you are fighting to keep, and what you are vigilant to save. ⁵ Your mind is filled with schemes to save the face of your ego, and you do not seek the face of Christ. ⁶ The glass in which the ego seeks to see its face is dark indeed. ⁷ How can it maintain the trick of its existence except with mirrors? ⁸ But where you look to find yourself is up to you.

T-4.IV.2. I have said that you cannot change your mind by changing your behavior, but I have also said, and many times, that you can change your mind. ² When your mood tells you that you have chosen wrongly, and this is so whenever you are not joyous, then know this need not be. ³ In every case you have thought wrongly about some brother God created, and are perceiving images your ego makes in a darkened glass. ⁴ Think honestly what you have thought that God would not have thought, and what you have not thought that God would have you think. ⁵ Search sincerely for what you have done and left undone accordingly, and then change your mind to think with God's. ⁶ This may seem hard to do, but it is much easier than trying to think against it. ⁷ Your mind is one with God's. ⁸ Denying this and thinking otherwise has held your ego together, but has literally split your mind. ⁹ As a loving brother I am deeply concerned with your mind, and urge you to follow my example as you look at yourself and at your brother, and see in both the glorious creations of a glorious Father.

T-4.IV.3. When you are sad, know this need not be. ² Depression comes from a sense of being deprived of something you want and do not have. ³ Remember that you are deprived of nothing except by your own decisions, and then decide otherwise.

T-4.IV.4. When you are anxious, realize that anxiety comes from the capriciousness of the ego, and know this need not be. ² You can be as vigilant against the ego's dictates as for them.

T-4.IV.5. When you feel guilty, remember that the ego has indeed violated the laws of God, but you have not. ² Leave the "sins" of the ego to me. ³ That is what Atonement is for. ⁴ But until you change your mind about those whom your ego has hurt, the Atonement cannot release you. ⁵ While you feel guilty your ego is in command, because only the ego can experience guilt. ⁶ This need not be.

T-4.IV.6. Watch your mind for the temptations of the ego, and do not be deceived by it. ² It offers you nothing. ³ When you have given up this voluntary dis-spiriting, you will see how your mind can focus and rise above fatigue and heal. ⁴ Yet you are not sufficiently vigilant against the demands of the ego to disengage yourself. ⁵ This need not be.

T-4.IV.7. The habit of engaging with God and His creations is easily made if you actively refuse to let your mind slip away. ² The problem is not one of concentration; it is the belief that no one, including yourself, is worth consistent effort. ³ Side with me consistently against this deception, and do not permit this shabby belief to pull you back. ⁴ The disheartened are useless to themselves and to me, but only the ego can be disheartened.

T-4.IV.8. Have you really considered how many opportunities you have had to gladden yourself, and how many of them you have refused? ² There is no limit to the power of a Son of God, but he can limit the expression of his power as much as he chooses. ³ Your mind and mine can unite in shining your ego away, releasing the strength of God into everything you think and do. ⁴ Do not settle for anything less than this, and refuse to accept anything but this as your goal. ⁵ Watch your mind carefully for any beliefs that hinder its accomplishment, and step away from them. ⁶ Judge how well you have done this by your own feelings, for this is the one right use of judgment. ⁷ Judgment, like any other defense, can be used to attack or protect; to hurt or to heal. ⁸ The ego should be brought to judgment and found wanting there. ⁹ Without your own allegiance, protection and love, the ego cannot exist. ¹⁰ Let it be judged truly and you must withdraw allegiance, protection and love from it.

T-4.IV.9. You are a mirror of truth, in which God Himself shines in perfect light. ² To the ego's dark glass you need but say, "I will not look there because I know these images are not true." ³ Then let the Holy One shine on you in peace, knowing that this and only this must be. ⁴ His Mind shone on you in your creation and brought your mind into being. ⁵ His Mind still shines on you and must shine through you. ⁶ Your ego cannot prevent Him from shining on you, but it can prevent you from letting Him shine through you.

T-4.IV.10. The First Coming of Christ is merely another name for the creation, for Christ is the Son of God. ² The Second Coming of Christ means nothing more than the end of the ego's rule and the healing of the mind. ³ I was created like you in the First, and I have called you to join with me in the Second. ⁴ I am in charge of the Second Coming, and my judgment, which is used only for protection, cannot be wrong because it never attacks. ⁵ Yours may be so distorted that you believe I was mistaken in choosing you. ⁶ I assure you this is a mistake of your ego. ⁷ Do not mistake it for humility. ⁸ Your ego is trying to convince you that it is real and I am not, because if I am real, I am no more real than you are. ⁹ That knowledge, and I assure you that it is knowledge, means that Christ has come into your mind and healed it.

T-4.IV.11. I do not attack your ego. ² I do work with your higher mind, the home of the Holy Spirit, whether you are asleep or awake, just as your ego does with your lower mind, which is its home. ³ I am your vigilance in this, because you are too confused to recognize your own hope. ⁴ I am not mistaken. ⁵ Your mind will elect to join with mine, and together we are invincible. ⁶ You and your brother will yet come together in my name, and your sanity will be restored. ⁷ I raised the dead by knowing that life is an eternal attribute of everything that the living God created. ⁸ Why do you believe it is harder for me to inspire the dis-spirited or to stabilize the unstable? ⁹ I do not believe that there is an order of difficulty in miracles; you do. ¹⁰ I have called and you will answer. ¹¹ I understand that miracles are natural, because they are expressions of love. ¹² My calling you is as natural as your answer, and as inevitable.