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 am not asked to make a sacrifice
To find the mercy and the peace of God.”
This lesson is telling us that we must give to know the mercy and the peace of God. This is confusing to the ego, which cannot conceive of giving without sacrifice. The key is in sentences 3 and 4. “You only give. You never take away.” In God, giving cannot mean loss. There can be no “taking away.” Because He gives everything eternally, we as God’s Son, have everything eternally. We cannot lose.
To know that I have everything, I must give everything freely. If I try to hold back, to reserve something for me alone, I have lost awareness that everything is given to all and thus will not know that everything is given to me. So it is not giving that brings experience of loss. It is holding back that makes us feel that loss is possible.
This experience of giving to know that we have everything cannot be found on the level of form. Because every form is finite, if it is given away, it is no longer part of the giver. That is the law of separation, which governs the world of form. But in our holy Mind there is no form, only the Thought of Love.
Love knows no limits. To extend Love is not sacrifice but only gain, for Love is magnified by Its extension. Love does not condemn, and so it is merciful. Love is one and so it has no conflict and brings complete peace. To know the mercy and the peace of God I must give the Love I have been given. Only thus will I know my Self as God created It. Love must be freely given and received.
Today I will continue my practice of bringing all my thoughts in this world to the Holy Spirit for His help in removing all blocks to the free giving and receiving of the mercy and the peace of God.
The sentences that stand out to me in this lesson are, “I, too, must give. And so all things are given unto me forever and forever. As I was created, I remain.” (1:6-8) Love is abstract. Love is not specific. Love is all encompassing. It includes all that is. I was created as nonspecific, universal Love. That is what I received and that is what I must give.
Because Love is not specific, there is no judgment, no evaluation. As I return to my true Identity and learn to accept my true Identity, I open to the abstract, universal Love of God. I recognize that the specific is untrue. And so I learn to let go of specifics so that I may know the Love of God that I am. Love only gives so I, too, must give to be my Self. I was given all and I give all. As I was created, I remain.
Returning to this awareness is my opportunity today. When I get lost in specifics or thinking that specifics are real, I can hand it over and remember that Love is universal. Love is giving all to all. This I would practice accepting and giving today.
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