Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Choosing the Strength of God in Us

God is your safety in every circumstance. His Voice speaks for Him in all situations and in every aspect of all situations, telling you exactly what to do to call upon His strength and His protection. There are no exceptions because God has no exceptions. And the Voice which speaks for Him thinks as He does.

The recognition of your own frailty is a necessary step in the correction of your errors, but it is hardly a sufficient one in giving you the confidence which you need, and to which you are entitled. You must also gain an awareness that confidence in your real strength is fully justified in every respect and in all circumstances.

…try to reach down into your mind to a place of real safety. You will recognize that you have reached it if you feel a sense of deep peace, however briefly. Let go all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind, and reach down and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven. There is a place in you where there is perfect peace. There is a place in you where nothing is impossible. There is a place in you where the strength of God abides.

During the day, repeat [God is the strength in which I trust] often. Use it as your answer to any disturbance. Remember that peace is your right, because you are giving your trust to the strength of God. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 47, W-pI.47.3;6-8. See also ACIM Lesson 47 Insights.)

If we want to wake up from the dream of fear and guilt, we need to turn away from the ego as our advisor. The ego is the denial of God’s strength and Love. Believing we know how to correct anything in our lives on our own is the ego’s misdirection. The practice of turning to the strength and peace of God within us is the way out of the ego’s hell of fear and guilt.

Today we acknowledge to ourselves that we do not know what anything means nor what is truly helpful in each present moment. We remind ourselves that trust in the strength of God within us opens our mind to the direction of the Holy Spirit, which will always lead us back to Heaven.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting Heaven as Our Home

You need to be reminded that you think a thousand choices are confronting you, when there is really only one to make. And even this but seems to be a choice. Do not confuse yourself with all the doubts that myriad decisions would induce. You make but one. And when that one is made, you will perceive it was no choice at all. For truth is true, and nothing else is true. There is no opposite to choose instead. There is no contradiction to the truth.

Heaven is chosen consciously. The choice cannot be made until alternatives are accurately seen and understood. All that is veiled in shadows must be raised to understanding, to be judged again, this time with Heaven’s help. And all mistakes in judgment that the mind had made before are open to correction, as the truth dismisses them as causeless. Now are they without effects. They cannot be concealed, because their nothingness is recognized.

Heaven is the decision I must make. I make it now, and will not change my mind, because it is the only thing I want. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 138, W-pI.138.4;9;12:5-6. See also ACIM Lesson 138 Insights.)

In many places the Course tells us that there are only two categories — real and unreal. By definition, what is unreal does not exist and has no substance or value. We are also told that only Love is real. When we choose to recognize and accept what is real and disregard the unreal, we choose Heaven.

The practice of asking for Holy Spirit’s interpretation of all our perceptions is the way the myriad forms the ego brings up are brought to Light. In the Holy Spirit’s Light the unreality of the ego’s illusions becomes clear. Each time we choose the Holy Spirit’s judgment in place of our own, we take a step toward Heaven. The illusions of the ego are less believable. This practice leads to the final choice for only what is real. When nothing but the real is valued, we have accepted Heaven as our Home.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Reclaiming God’s Power in Our Self

Forget not that the choice of sin [separation] or truth, helplessness or power, is the choice of whether to attack or heal. For healing comes of power, and attack of helplessness. Whom you attack you cannot want to heal. And whom you would have healed must be the one you chose to be protected from attack. And what is this decision but the choice whether to see him through the body’s eyes, or let him be revealed to you through [spiritual] vision? How this decision leads to its effects is not your problem. But what you want to see must be your choice. This is a course in cause and not effect.

…as you look on the effects of sin [separation] in any form, all you need do is simply ask yourself:

Is this what I would see? Do I want this?

Elusive happiness, or happiness in changing form that shifts with time and place, is an illusion that has no meaning. Happiness must be constant, because it is attained by giving up the wish for the inconstant. Joy cannot be perceived except through constant vision. And constant vision can be given only those who wish for constancy. The power of the Son of God’s desire remains the proof that he is wrong who sees himself as helpless. Desire what you want, and you will look on it and think it real. No thought but has the power to release or kill. And none can leave the thinker’s mind, or leave him unaffected. (A Course in Miracles, T-21.VII.7;8:3-4;13. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

The choice to see with the vision of our true Self is the choice for happiness and peace. It is the choice to accept the power of God in us. It is the choice to accept our Self.

Our true Self’s vision sees the oneness we share with God and all our brothers. It sees the Love and innocence in every brother. This vision sees no need to defend because it knows oneness is our only reality. When we accept this vision, we accept our healing. We release ourselves from the belief in powerlessness and vulnerability. We no longer need to defend, but join with the Love in our brothers, ready to accept God’s Love as ours.

Today we choose the vision of our true Self.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Gently Awakening to Love

You are the dreamer of the world of dreams. No other cause it has, nor ever will. Nothing more fearful than an idle dream has terrified God’s Son, and made him think that he has lost his innocence, denied his Father, and made war upon himself. So fearful is the dream, so seeming real, he could not waken to reality without the sweat of terror and a scream of mortal fear, unless a gentler dream preceded his awaking, and allowed his calmer mind to welcome, not to fear, the Voice that calls with love to waken him; a gentler dream, in which his suffering was healed and where his brother was his friend. God willed he waken gently and with joy, and gave him means to waken without fear.

Accept the dream He gave instead of yours. It is not difficult to change a dream when once the dreamer has been recognized. Rest in the Holy Spirit, and allow His gentle dreams to take the place of those you dreamed in terror and in fear of death. He brings forgiving dreams, in which the choice is not who is the murderer and who shall be the victim. In the dreams He brings there is no murder and there is no death. The dream of guilt is fading from your sight, although your eyes are closed. A smile has come to lighten up your sleeping face. The sleep is peaceful now, for these are happy dreams.

Dream softly of your sinless brother, who unites with you in holy innocence. And from this dream the Lord of Heaven will Himself awaken His beloved Son. Dream of your brother’s kindnesses instead of dwelling in your dreams on his mistakes. Select his thoughtfulness to dream about instead of counting up the hurts he gave. Forgive him his illusions, and give thanks to him for all the helpfulness he gave. And do not brush aside his many gifts because he is not perfect in your dreams. (A Course in Miracles, T-27.VII.13:1-15:6. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

The path of our return to the Heaven of God’s Love is lovingly planned for us. God gave us His Voice in our minds to guide us through His plan. We need only rest in the Holy Spirit and let Him direct us in all our thoughts and doing. The Holy Spirit knows that it would be terrifying to us to be suddenly wakened from our dream of fear, guilt and death.

God’s plan provides the means to let go of our mistaken beliefs step by step. At first it seems to be applied to very specific situations where the fear or judgment that needs to be forgiven is obvious. With practice we begin to see that forgiveness generalizes as we experience greater happiness and peace. We become more willing to choose the Holy Spirit’s guidance instead of our past beliefs that make the dream of a world of fear and death seem real.

Today we choose to rest in the Holy Spirit, letting Him be our Guide through the day.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Choice for Joy and Peace

Only your allegiance to it gives the ego any power over you. I have spoken of the ego as if it were a separate thing, acting on its own. This was necessary to persuade you that you cannot dismiss it lightly, and must realize how much of your thinking is ego-directed. We cannot safely let it go at that, however, or you will regard yourself as necessarily conflicted as long as you are here, or as long as you believe that you are here. The ego is nothing more than a part of your belief about yourself. Your other [Real] life has continued without interruption, and has been and always will be totally unaffected by your attempts to dissociate [oneness, your Real life].

The ego and the spirit do not know each other. The separated mind cannot maintain the separation except by dissociating. Having done this, [the separated mind] denies all truly natural impulses [to extend Love], not because the ego is a separate thing, but because you want to believe that you are. The ego is a device for maintaining this belief [that you are separate], but it is still only your decision to use the device that enables it to endure.

How can you teach someone the value of something he has deliberately thrown away? He must have thrown it away because he did not value it. You can only show him how miserable he is without it, and slowly bring it nearer so he can learn how his misery lessens as he approaches it. This teaches him to associate his misery with its absence, and the opposite of misery with its presence. It gradually becomes desirable as he changes his mind about its worth. I am teaching you to associate misery with the ego and joy with the spirit. (A Course in Miracles, T-4.VI.1:2-7;4:1-5:6. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

Giving our allegiance to the ego is the decision to maintain our belief that we are separate from God and on our own. It is the decision to deny Love and be in a loveless world. This decision leaves us feeling lack and loss of Love.

As long as we align with the ego, we will feel a need to search for what we have lost. The ego offers substitutes for Love that never satisfy because they are empty illusions. The frustration of searching and not finding leads, at the very least, to dissatisfaction with our seeming existence. At worst it leads to deep depression and a wish to escape. All this comes from our allegiance to the ego.

But we have another option. We can choose to withdraw our allegiance to the ego and turn to the Holy Spirit in our minds as our Guide. As we accept His vision in place of the ego’s perceptions, we begin to experience joy instead of depression, peace instead of conflict. Choosing the Holy Spirit as our Guide in all things is the choice for happiness. Each time we accept the Holy Spirit’s guidance in place of the ego, we experience greater joy and peace. This motivates us to practice more consistently. God’s rewards of joy and peace expand our willingness, leading us to giving our full allegiance to the Self God created us to be.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Awakening to the Life We Share with God

Of all the many causes you perceived as bringing pain and suffering to you, your guilt was not among them. Nor did you in any way request them for yourself. This is how all illusions came about. The one who makes them does not see himself as making them, and their reality does not depend on him. Whatever cause they have [he believes] is something quite apart from him, and what he sees is separate from his mind. He cannot doubt his dreams’ reality, because he does not see the part he plays in making them and making them seem real.

This is the only picture you can see; the one alternative that you can choose, the other possibility of cause, if you [are] not the dreamer of your dreams. And this is what you choose if you deny the cause of suffering is in your mind. Be glad indeed it is [in your mind], for thus are you the one decider of your destiny in time. The choice is yours to make between a sleeping death and dreams of evil or a happy wakening and joy of life.

What could you choose between but life or death, waking or sleeping, peace or war, your dreams or your reality? There is a risk of thinking death is peace, because the world equates the body with the Self which God created. Yet a thing can never be its opposite. And death is opposite to peace, because it is the opposite of life. And life is peace. Awaken and forget all thoughts of death, and you will find you have the peace of God. (A Course in Miracles, T-27.VII.7:4-9;9:1-10:6. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

There is one life and that we share with God (W-pI.167). Thoughts of death are thoughts of separation from God, the only Source of Life. The body is an image of separation, defined by being different and separate from other bodies and the world. When we identify with the body, we believe it is our self. Yet this “self” could never be real because it is an image of death, for that is its ultimate end. Because God is eternal Life, He could not create a self that is not eternal. The Self He created is Life and therefore is peace, eternally united with the peace of God.

God has given us the means to transform the dream of fear, guilt and death to a happy dream that sees innocence everywhere, for it has forgiven imagined barriers to Love’s presence. From this happy dream we easily awaken to the reality of the peace-filled Life we share with God.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Learning to Be a Teacher of God

The teachers of God appear to share the illusion of separation, but because of what they use the body for, they do not believe in the illusion despite appearances.

The central lesson is always this; that what you use the body for it will become to you [in your mind]. Use it for sin or for attack [to reinforce separation], which is the same as sin, and you will see it as sinful [unworthy]. Because it is sinful [full of guilt] it is weak, and being weak, it suffers and it dies. Use [the body] to bring the Word of God to those who [think they] have it not, and the body becomes holy. Because it is holy it cannot be sick, nor can it die. When its usefulness is done it is laid by, and that is all. The mind makes this decision, as it makes all decisions that are responsible for the body’s condition. Yet the teacher of God does not make this decision alone. To do that would be to give the body another purpose from the one that keeps it holy. God’s Voice will tell him when he has fulfilled his role, just as It tells him what his function is. He does not suffer either in going or remaining. Sickness is now impossible to him.

Oneness and sickness [belief in separation] cannot coexist. God’s teachers choose to look on dreams a while. …Awareness of dreaming is the real function of God’s teachers. They watch the dream figures come and go, shift and change, suffer and die. Yet they are not deceived by what they see. They recognize that to behold a dream figure as sick and separate is no more real than to regard it as healthy and beautiful. Unity alone is not a thing of dreams. And it is this God’s teachers acknowledge as behind the dream, beyond all seeming and yet surely theirs. (A Course in Miracles, M-12.4:6-5:11;6:1-2,6-11)

As we learn that our true Self is not a body but Spirit, united with our Creator, we learn to overlook appearances in the dream of bodies and forms of separation. With the help of the Holy Spirit’s gentle lessons we are able to see as the Holy Spirit sees. The images of forms in the world become less believable and less disturbing of our peace. As we are willing to accept the Holy Spirit’s lessons, we see past appearances to the reality of Love’s unity.

As teachers of God this is the message we must bring to our brothers. As we teach under Holy Spirit’s guidance, we learn that we are Spirit in the Mind of Love, along with all our brothers. Differences fade in their seeming importance. The certainty of our unity in Love is accepted more and more. This is how we serve God’s plan of salvation as teachers of God.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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