Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Choosing True Perception Heals Our Mind

It is your mind which gave the body all the functions that you see in it, and set its value far beyond a little pile of dust and water.

The body is in need of no defense. This cannot be too often emphasized. It will be strong and healthy if the mind does not abuse it by assigning it to roles it cannot fill, to purposes beyond its scope, and to exalted aims which it cannot accomplish.

The body, valueless and hardly worth the least defense, need merely be perceived as quite apart from you, and it becomes a healthy, serviceable instrument through which the mind can operate until its usefulness is over.

Defend the body and you have attacked your mind. For you have seen in it the faults, the weaknesses, the limits and the lacks from which you think the body must be saved. You will not see the mind as separate from bodily conditions. And you will impose upon the body all the pain that comes from the conception of the mind as limited and fragile, and apart from other minds and separate from its Source.

These are the thoughts in need of healing, and the body will respond with health when they have been corrected and replaced with truth. This is the body’s only real defense. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 135, W-pI.135.6:1;7:1-3;8:2;9:1-10:2. See also ACIM Lesson 135 Insights.)

Believing we are a body is the primary cause for all of our stress, fear and guilt. What but the body seems capable of harm or being harmed? What but the body can appear to die? Yet the Son of God is not a body, so all these beliefs cannot apply to What we are in truth. This is why one of the most repeated Workbook lessons is, “I am not a body. I am free. I am still as God created me.” Our mind will be healed when we learn this lesson without reservation.

This thought seems to be difficult to comprehend because the only experience we are aware of is through the body. When we believe the body as our identity, we block out awareness of the truth that we are Spirit, the Holy Son of God. The body is blind to the truth because it is an illusion, a false image and is incapable of seeing Truth.

It is time to loosen our insistence that we are what we are not. To do this we need help from beyond the belief that we are a body, separate and alone. By the grace of God, we have His Answer That we can turn to for help to correct our mistaken mind. As we bring all of our perceptions to the Holy Spirit with willingness to let Him sort the true from the false on our behalf, our mind is healed.

Holy Spirit, today we choose your true perception in place of our own, for we would be healed. We would remember that we are the one Self That God created whole.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Taking Charge of Our Thoughts

I have a kingdom I must rule. At times, it does not seem I am its king at all. It seems to triumph over me, and tell me what to think, and what to do and feel. And yet it has been given me to serve whatever purpose I perceive in it. My mind can only serve. Today I give its service to the Holy Spirit to employ as He sees fit. I thus direct my mind, which I alone can rule. And thus I set it free to do the Will of God.

Father, my mind is open to Your Thoughts, and closed today to every thought but Yours. I rule my mind, and offer it to You. Accept my gift, for it is Yours to me. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 236, W-pII.236. See also ACIM Lesson 236 Insights.)

Thousands of thoughts pass through our minds every day. Some we hardly notice and are quickly forgotten. Some capture our attention and lead to follow up thoughts which may draw upon the past or may welcome inspiration from our true Self. Most of our thoughts are reflections of our past brought to us by the ego thought system we identify with. Accepting these thoughts shields us from the holy Thoughts of God offered us through our true Self.

Because of the ego’s need for guilt, its top priority is to hide the loving thoughts of our true Self. The innocence of Love cannot coexist with the guilt and fear of the ego.

In every moment we are free to choose our true Self’s thoughts. Our mind is not the victim or slave of the ego. We can direct our mind to listen to the thoughts of our true Self. These are the thoughts we share with God. These are our real thoughts which extend Love and bring peace to the world.

Holy Spirit, help us choose our real Thoughts today. We place our minds in Your service today, for we would remember Love.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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How to Accept God’s Gifts

God’s Will does not oppose. It merely is. It is not God you have imprisoned in your plan to lose your Self. He does not know about a plan so alien to His Will. There was a need He did not understand, to which He gave an Answer. That is all. And you who have this Answer given you have need no more of anything but this.

Now do we live, for now we cannot die. The wish for death is answered, and the sight that looked upon it now has been replaced by vision which perceives that you are not what you pretend to be. One walks with you Who gently answers all your fears with this one merciful reply, “It is not so.” He points to all the gifts you have each time the thought of poverty oppresses you, and speaks of His Companionship when you perceive yourself as lonely and afraid.

Yet [the Holy Spirit] reminds you still of one thing more you had forgotten. For His touch on you has made you like Himself. The gifts you have are not for you alone. What He has come to offer you, you now must learn to give. This is the lesson that His giving holds, for He has saved you from the solitude you sought to make in which to hide from God. He has reminded you of all the gifts that God has given you. He speaks as well of what becomes your will when you accept these gifts, and recognize they are your own. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 166, W-pI.166.10-12. See also ACIM Lesson 166 Insights.)

We accept God’s gifts of Love and peace and joy by offering them to everyone without exception. One judgment treasured denies all of God’s gifts. That is why forgiveness is the key to happiness and peace. That is why forgiveness is our function here.

To truly forgive, we must accept the Holy Spirit’s help. It is only as we let the Holy Spirit’s vision supersede what we see through the body’s eyes that we are able to see our brothers truly. With true vision, we recognize our brother’s changeless innocence, the Love he is and the joy He brings as we unite with Him.

Today we welcome the Holy Spirit’s vision as our Guide to seeing that we may accept and give God’s gifts.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Letting Love Transform Our Perception

Perception rests on choosing; knowledge does not. Knowledge has but one law because it has but one Creator. But this world has two who made it, and they do not see it as the same. To each it has a different purpose, and to each it is a perfect means to serve the goal for which it is perceived.

There is another purpose in the world that error made, because it has another Maker Who can reconcile its goal with His Creator’s purpose. In His perception of the world, nothing is seen but justifies forgiveness and the sight of perfect sinlessness. Nothing arises but is met with instant and complete forgiveness.

Everyone here has entered darkness, yet no one has entered it alone. Nor need he stay more than an instant. For he has come with Heaven’s Help within him, ready to lead him out of darkness into light at any time. The time he chooses can be any time, for help is there, awaiting but his choice. And when he chooses to avail himself of what is given him, then will he see each situation that he thought before was means to justify his anger turned to an event which justifies his love. He will hear plainly that the calls to war he heard before are really calls to peace. He will perceive that where he gave attack is but another altar where he can, with equal ease and far more happiness, bestow forgiveness. And he will reinterpret all temptation as just another chance to bring him joy. (A Course in Miracles, T-25.III.3:1-4;5:1-3;6:1-8. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

Whenever we allow ourselves to perceive with Love, our hearts are always filled with joy. As we accept Heaven’s help within us, this can be our constant perception. Though the ego made the world we perceive as a place to be alone and separate, we are never truly alone. Our Creator instantly answered the wish for separation with the Link that keeps us connected with Him. We are never truly alone.

In every moment we can choose to accept the Help provided to see as Love sees. And we will see a forgiven world, where Love is recognized as all that is real and joy is complete. Each time we choose the Holy Spirit’s vision, perceptions of fear and guilt are transformed to Love and innocence.

Today we practice choosing Holy Spirit’s Help.

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

Correction is not your function. It belongs to One Who knows of fairness, not of guilt. If you assume correction’s role, you lose the function of forgiveness. No one can forgive until he learns correction is but to forgive, and never to accuse.

Correction must be left to One Who knows correction and forgiveness are the same. With half a mind this is not understood. Leave, then, correction to the Mind that is united, functioning as one because it is not split in purpose, and conceives a single function as its only one. …In His acceptance of this function lies the means whereby your mind is unified. His single purpose unifies the halves of you that you perceive as separate. And each forgives the other, that he may accept his other half as part of him. (A Course in Miracles, T-27.II.10:1-4;16:1-3,5-7. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

If we perceive that anything or anyone is wrong, we must believe that we know what is right. But this perception is based on our identification with the ego thought system of separation. It is our perception that is wrong. And we are incapable of correcting the wrong from this viewpoint. This is why all correction must come from the Holy Spirit, Whose only purpose is to bring truth to the part of our mind that believes that separation is true. It is essential that we give up the idea that we know what anything in this world of separation means if we want to find peace.

We ask today for the Holy Spirit’s perception of the Truth to replace our misperceptions based on the belief in being separate and alone. As we accept this correction in our perception, our minds are returned to sanity. We will remember that nothing has happened to change our one Self, God’s one Son. This is how we are healed.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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What Brings True and Lasting Comfort?

To mean you want the peace of God is to renounce all dreams. For no one means these words who wants illusions, and who therefore seeks the means which bring illusions. He has looked on them, and found them wanting. Now he seeks to go beyond them, recognizing that another dream would offer nothing more than all the others. Dreams are one to him. And he has learned their only difference is one of form, for one will bring the same despair and misery as do the rest.

The mind which means that all it wants is peace must join with other minds, for that is how peace is obtained. And when the wish for peace is genuine, the means for finding it is given, in a form each mind that seeks for it in honesty can understand. Whatever form the lesson takes is planned for him in such a way that he can not mistake it, if his asking is sincere. But if he asks without sincerity, there is no form in which the lesson will meet with acceptance and be truly learned. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 185, W-pI.185.5-6). See also ACIM Lesson 185 Insights.

What do we think will comfort us? We need to look how we answer this. Do we think comfort will come by having attention given us by a certain someone? Do we think we will be comforted by attaining a particular status or by having more money or living in a certain place?

If we answer yes to questions like these, we are looking to forms to bring us comfort, to make us happy. But forms are empty, having no meaning of their own. If we truly mean we want the peace of God, we must overlook all forms to welcome the formless, eternal Love that is God’s gift to us as our one Self.

When we are not at peace, it is because we have judged against what we perceive is our situation or relationship. We are believing that if we can somehow change the form to our liking, we will be happy. We are looking for comfort in a form, but a form cannot bring true and lasting peace.

Today we will redirect our attention to seek beyond form to accept God’s gift of perfect peace.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Light and Joy and Peace Abide in You

Whatever mistakes you made, the truth about you is unchanged. Creation is eternal and unalterable. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. You are and will forever be exactly as you were created. Light and joy and peace abide in you because God put them there.

Try to experience the unity of your one Self. Try to appreciate Its Holiness and the love from which It was created. Try not to interfere with the Self which God created as you…. Let It come into Its Own. Here you are; This is You. And light and joy and peace abide in you because this is so.

Should you be tempted to become angry with someone, tell him silently:

Light and joy and peace abide in you.
Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God.

You can do much for the world’s salvation today. You can do much today to bring you closer to the part in salvation that God has assigned to you. And you can do much today to bring the conviction to your mind that [light and joy and peace abide in you] is true indeed. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 93, W-pI.93.7:3-7;9:3-8;11:2-7. See also ACIM Lesson 93 Insights.)

We cannot change the Self that God created as His one Son. We can deny It and ignore It, but we cannot change It. When we identify with the body as what we are, we are denying the Self that God created. Likewise, we are denying the Self when we believe anyone is a body. It is this false identification which must be undone for us to experience the Light and joy and peace that abide in us.

The body is the ego’s mechanism for making separation and harm seem real. Thus it is the body that is the target of all judgment and guilt. But belief that we are a body does not change the Self that God created. Thus our sinlessness is guaranteed by God.

Today we remind ourselves frequently that Light and joy and peace abide in us and our sinlessness is guaranteed by God. To the ego this thought seems farfetched and arrogant. Yet to the Self God created, It is simply the truth. As we affirm this truth, we loosen our identification with a false identity. The dark world of separation becomes less and less convincing as we accept with greater certainty that we are as God created us.

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