A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights

To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights, we recommend that you
read the corresponding lesson in the Workbook of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.
Click here to read or listen to this ACIM Workbook Lesson online.

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Listen to Lesson 186 Insights

ACIM Workbook Lesson 186 Insights

“Salvation of the world depends on me.”

A sentence that stands out to me is, “Yet are the humble free to hear the Voice Which tells them what they are and what to do… You are not weak as is the image of yourself. You are not ignorant and helpless.”

If I feel I am ignorant and helpless or weak, I am playing dumb. It is really arrogance to try to change what I really am. My true Self will guide me out of belief in weakness and limitation if I am willing to receive the help. That is my job today — to be willing to receive the help.

As I open to the help of the Holy Spirit, I am led to receive God’s gifts which are peace, love and joy. If I am anxious or sad or disgruntled, I am refusing to receive God’s gifts. I would now let my mind quiet of all the ego’s chatter and open up my mind to the Holy Spirit. I would rest in the peace that is there. I would receive the Holy Spirit’s thoughts, which encourage me to lay ego thoughts down. The Light of God is all I am in truth. The Light of God is what everyone is in truth.

Am I willing to see the truth today? I will be able to tell by how much peace and happiness I feel. Forgiveness is my function here. Through forgiveness I am the salvation of the world.

I cannot know freedom until every thought of unforgiveness has been cleared from my mind. Unforgiveness turns me into a jailer and the jailer is always bound to the prisoner. Without the jailer the prisoner is free. And without the prisoner, the jailer is free. As I let go of condemnation, of refusal to accept God’s gifts to me, I am released. I am free to be my Self as I was created.

Salvation could be defined as release from bondage. The world’s release from bondage depends upon my releasing it. It is only my mistaken belief in made up images of isolation and independence from my Source that holds the world in isolation and and makes it a substitute for the eternal and all encompassing Love of God. Salvation is not about blame. It is about the recognition of where the source of bondage is and hence is the source of release. The limited images of the world are only in my mind and it can only be released in my mind.

The experiences I have had in which I completely forgave a perceived wrong brought me profound peace. I breathed a deep sigh of relief. I felt lighter, happier. Love grew stronger in my heart. All this came from a change in my mind. Nothing external changed except my perception of it. This is why salvation of the world depends on me.

The ego would like to characterize this as a burden. But this statement brings me the recognition of the power of my mind to be healed and to heal. It is a declaration of independence from the ego and a recognition that my complete freedom lies in my total dependence on my unity with my Creator. The Holy Spirit celebrates with us each time we take another step toward freedom through forgiveness.

I think that the most important lines in this lesson are the last ones. “Salvation of the world depends on you who can forgive.” I think that if I remember what forgiveness really means (as opposed to the world’s definition), and choose forgiveness at each opportunity, I wouldn’t need anything else, not even the Course. The thing is, my resistance to forgiveness is strong. It is too late for me to pretend I don’t know what forgiveness is and what is called for, so I complicate the simple and tell myself I can’t figure out what’s going on.

I did this when I read the first line of this lesson. My first thought was “Oh, poor world if it is depending on me to save it.” I thought about all the little things I can’t seem to do, all the mistakes I seem to make. Obviously Jesus expects that reaction because he goes on to encourage us and to answer those fears and objections. Still, as I read I kept thinking how impossible it all seems. How do I do this or that? What about all these other things? When I got to the last lines it was like a cool summer shower washing away the cobwebs of confusion. So simple.

I already know how to do this! I am just committing to giving this action priority in my life. I am accepting that it is, indeed, possible for me to forgive in every instance. Not only possible, but the reason I am here. My purpose. Not only that, it is a purpose I am assured of completing because it is a purpose God has blessed.

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