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.
“I will receive whatever I request.”
God created us joyful, because He created us like Himself. So if we are not experiencing supreme joy, then in some way we are avoiding it or denying it. This seems ludicrous. Ask anyone if they want to be happy and they will answer, “Of course!.” But do we really know what will make us happy? This whole world is the effect of a mistaken idea of what will make us happy.
The ego is the idea that specialness, having more than the Everything God gave us, will make us happy. What the ego does not tell us is that to have this specialness, we must deny our Source and cut ourselves off from It, therefore cutting ourselves off from the Source of real joy. In place of God’s joy, the ego offers illusions of happiness. But because they are illusions, they are really nothing.
Beneath the surface of the world of special illusions lies intense guilt because we believe we hurt God by separating ourselves from Him. Because of this guilt we believe we are unworthy of happiness. Even in periods when we seem to be happy, we are sure it cannot last.
We think we want independence. We want to be “in charge of our destiny.” But the price of this independence is the loss of awareness of our oneness with Love, our Source and our strength. So declaring our independence, we wander the world, feeling weak, alone and lacking Love. This is indeed being confused about the things we want and the state we would attain.
This is why it is so important for us to dedicate each day to do nothing by ourselves, but to hear His Voice in everything we do and accepting only the Thoughts of Love God shares with us. Thus will we spend the day in fearlessness, because we will receive what we really want.
In the Text, Jesus tells us we always choose between two thought systems — the ego’s or the Holy Spirit’s. He tells us we will receive the effects of what we choose.
The ego is the choice for separation, limitation, guilt and pain. It is the choice to be something other than an extension of God’s Love.
With choosing the Holy Spirit comes the undoing of the dream. When we choose the Holy Spirit, we are willing to let go of the false identity that we mistakenly made. With the Holy Spirit, forgiveness becomes our only function. As we learn to think with Holy Spirit, we are brought to see innocence instead of guilt. We are brought to see oneness instead of separation. We are brought to feel God’s peace because we are letting go of the conflict that separation brings.
With the Holy Spirit, we no longer believe in bodies. We no longer believe in death. We recognize that there is only eternal life and that eternal life is changeless. With Holy Spirit, the body’s only purpose now is for awakening from the dream. “I will receive whatever I request.”
This lesson reminds me that I do have the power to change my thinking. It is up to me. Nothing is happening to me without my request. It is encouraging and, at the same time, an awesome responsibility to know that I have the power to change my life. The feeling of powerlessness, the repetition of powerlessness, that I had been taught, no longer holds true. And I don’t choose alone!
Today I choose Holy Spirit’s interpretation of my life choices and my life. I am as God created me and nothing can alter that! My choice is to be happy and peaceful and extend that to all I meet today!
When I look back on my life, I can see that I have always gotten what I wanted, or shall I say what I thought I wanted. Most of the these things have turned out to be dead ends and or not what I wanted after all.
As a result of this, I used to go through life feeling lost, wandering, looking for that “thing” that would fill the void in my heart. And today, rather than to see my past as wasted time, I see these dead ends as blessings. I see it as a kind of “process by elimination” because it is these dead ends that have lead me to God. They have lead me to the point where the only thing I value today is my peace of mind.
Today I resolve to ask for peace, for this is what I know I want, and I want only this. When I ask for peace, nothing outside of me changes, even if I encounter a situation that causes me conflict, I try to remember that it’s just an opportunity for me to go within and change my mind, not the situation, and I get back to being at peace.
Sometimes I wonder if I know what the meaning of Love is. But when I’m in a peaceful state of mind, I place myself in a position to be more open to receive what Love is in truth.
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