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.
“God’s Will for me is perfect happiness.”
God is eternal Love. You are eternal Love. I am eternal Love. Eternal Love is happiness. Inherent in eternal Love is indescribable peace and joy. As we return to the truth, we recognize that this and only this is reality.
Separate bodies are not God’s Will. With belief in separate bodies comes belief in sin. Belief can make appearances seem real, but it cannot make it the truth.
God wills only happiness for us. Love wills only Love and sees only Love. Death and pain and destruction are not God’s Will. Truth is true and nothing else is true. Salvation or happiness is not found through pain. Salvation or happiness is found only through returning to the truth, returning to Love. Jesus wants us all to return to Love. Jesus wants us to accept the truth. He knows we are one Self, united with our Creator.
Today I am willing to practice opening to the truth. Today I am willing to practice opening to happiness. Today I am willing to practice letting go of all the forms of belief in sin and guilt that may crop up in my mind. It is through practice and willingness to remember the truth that I accept my eternal nature as Love and nothing else.
In this lesson Jesus really spells out the ego thought system. He makes it clear why there is so much resistance to accepting God’s gift of salvation. And it all centers around the conviction that sin is real. The Course tells us point blank that sin is not real. This idea is central to the healing message of the Course and yet to some religions, it is blasphemy. This lesson shows us why we would believe that it is blasphemy to believe that sin is not real.
Just as the recognition of the unreality of sin is central to the Course’s message, the ‘reality’ of sin is central to the ego’s existence. If sin is not real, the separation never happened and the ego does not exist. A separate identity with private thoughts does not exist. This is why the ego resists with all its tricks any idea that points to the unreality of sin.
We are given an opportunity today to loosen our identification with the ego thought system. And we are told the benefit that we will gain by letting it go. We are told that we will receive the perfect happiness that God wills for us.
In one simple lesson we are taught that the core idea that has held the world of pain together for us is not true. At the same time we are given the happy replacement for what we believed was the inevitable consequence of the sin we thought was real. Not only is the effect replaced by its opposite but the cause is recognized as unreal and therefore nonexistent.
Instead of fearing salvation now we can welcome it. We no longer need to fear pain and punishment. We can welcome perfect happiness. God’s will for me is perfect happiness. This is the truth because sin is not real.
I really hold tight to the idea of sin and punishment. I never realized the extent of my resistance to change this belief until today. I brought up some of the things I feel guilty about and reminded myself, one guilty thought at a time, that sin is not real and that I am not punished for it. This was hard to do. I kept feeling like it wasn’t working and was so uncomfortable that I wanted to quit.
When I followed my feelings to a thought I realized that I was holding onto stuff I learned from an early age. Like, “You made your bed, now you have to lie in it.” And, “You did something wrong, now you have to suffer the consequences.” I can see that all of the fears I have stem from this idea of being punished for past actions, a feeling of deserving what I get and taking my punishment as the adult, responsible thing to do.
Today I have an opportunity to turn this thought process around, to see it differently. It is so ingrained in me that it seems impossible and yet, I know that it is not impossible. I remind myself that I am not alone in this. All of you are there with me. We are doing this together. I am reminded also that, “Your newborn purpose is nursed by angels, cherished by the Holy Spirit and protected by God Himself.”
There are so many wonderful passages in the Course that comfort and strengthen and I have written a number of them down in a little notebook. I think today would be a good day to carry that notebook with me and anytime I start to think I can’t do this or I start to feel guilty or afraid, I will remind myself of how supported and protected I am by reading some of those passages.
I get a lump in my throat when I realize that all God wants for me is perfect happiness. To know that the all powerful Creator of the Universe, Ultimate Love is attempting to get a message to us, telling us that no matter what we think we’ve done, it’s all an illusion and He wants us to know that. He wants us to know that there is no need to be sad, or angry, or resentful; He just wants us to be happy and to know that we are one with all that is.
Most Holy Spirit, help me have the willingness to turn to you during this day in my time of need; to know that should I encounter one of the many forms of fear, I just need look to you for guidance and remember that God’s will for me is perfect happiness. Thank you. Amen.
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