Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Accept No Substitutes

You do not ask too much of life, but far too little. When you let your mind be drawn to bodily concerns, to things you buy, to eminence as valued by the world, you ask for sorrow, not for happiness. This course does not attempt to take from you the little that you have. It does not try to substitute utopian ideas for satisfactions which the world contains. There are no satisfactions in the world.

Heaven itself is reached with empty hands and open minds, which come with nothing to find everything and claim it as their own. We will attempt to reach this state today, with self-deception laid aside, and with an honest willingness to value but the truly valuable and the real. …begin with this:

I will not value what is valueless, and only what has value do I seek, for only that do I desire to find.

And then receive what waits for everyone who reaches, unen­cumbered, to the gate of Heaven, which swings open as he comes. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 133, W-pI.133.2;13;14:1. See also ACIM Lesson 133 Insights.)

When we identify with the ego as what we are, we choose limitation. We feel incomplete because we are denying our only completion, which comes from our unity with God. To fill the perceived void, the ego offers illusionary substitutes which seem to be valuable. Yet because they are illusions, they are truly valueless.

No images in the world will truly comfort us because only our eternal unity with Love satisfies. Love is our only need. But God has already given us all of His Love, all that is Real. We only seem to need Love when we deny we have It by choosing the ego. The lack of Love we feel is dispelled when we choose not to value the valueless and welcome the only real value. No more do we choose against Love, but now welcome It as our true Identity. We are accepting the Gift that has always been ours.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting Our True Function

Your Father loves you. All the world of pain is not His Will. Forgive yourself the thought He wanted this for you. Then let the Thought with which He has replaced all your mistakes enter the darkened places of your mind that thought the thoughts that never were His Will.

This part belongs to God, as does the rest. It does not think its solitary thoughts, and make them real by hiding them from Him. Let in the light, and you will look upon no obstacle to what He wills for you. Open your secrets to His kindly light, and see how bright this light still shines in you.

It is God’s Will your mind be one with His. It is God’s Will that He has but one Son. It is God’s Will that His one Son is you.

Forgive all thoughts which would oppose the truth of your completion, unity and peace. You cannot lose the gifts your Father gave. You do not want to be another self. You have no function that is not of God. Forgive yourself the one [function] you think you made. Forgiveness and salvation are the same. Forgive what you have made and you are saved. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 99, W-pI.99.7:3-8:5;9:2-4;10. See also ACIM Lesson 99 Insights.)

Our dark thoughts come from the split mind that believes separation is real. They are not our real Thoughts because they deny the truth that only Love is real. They deny the Light of Love.

Our only function is to extend God’s Thought of Love. This extension occurs naturally from our right mind, which is one with God’s Mind. But the denial of Love in our split mind makes the appearance of lovelessness seem real, bringing with it all the pain and suffering, fear and guilt we experience in the world. Yet this appearance cannot be real and is therefore nothing more than an illusion.

To fulfill our true function, we need to bring all our dark thoughts that deny Love to the Holy Spirit to receive His loving correction. Hiding these dark thoughts only perpetuates the ego’s dark stories. The practice of bringing all our thoughts of fear and guilt to the Holy Spirit is the means to save ourselves from our mistaken beliefs. With the Holy Spirit’s help, we learn that these beliefs are meaningless and have no effect because they are not real. As we forgive the false beliefs, we recognize that God’s Will is ours; our only function is to Love and be Loved.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Foundation of Awakening to Love

Nothing in madness is dependable. It holds out no safety and no hope. But such a world is not real. I have given it the illusion of reality, and have suffered from my belief in it. Now I choose to withdraw this belief, and place my trust in reality. In choosing this, I will es­cape all the effects of the world of fear, because I am acknowledg­ing that it does not exist.

Whatever I see reflects my thoughts. It is my thoughts that tell me where I am and what I am. The fact that I see a world in which there is suffering and loss and death shows me that I am seeing only the representation of my insane thoughts, and am not allowing my real thoughts to cast their beneficent light on what I see. Yet God’s way is sure. The images I have made cannot prevail against Him because it is not my will that they do so. My will is His, and I will place no other gods [thoughts] before Him. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 53, W-pI.53.3:3-7;5:2-7. See also ACIM Lesson 53 Insights.)

Our only real thoughts are the Thoughts we share with God. Therefore they must be Thoughts of Love and nothing else. The world we experience through the body’s senses represent the insane thoughts of separation made by the ego. They are insane thoughts because they oppose the Reality of Love’s oneness.

It is helpful to remember that these insane thoughts are not ours because we are not the ego. Believing that these insane thoughts are real is nothing more than a mistake. But mistakes can be undone with the Holy Spirit’s help. And when they are, the effects of the mistakes disappear for they were never real. Letting go of our mistaken beliefs is the foundation which we can build upon to awaken to the real Thoughts we share with God.

As we practice following the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we learn to recognize mistaken beliefs and let them go. Our world is increasingly lit by the Light of God’s Love within us and the shadows of fear fade into the nothingness from which they came. We remember our true Self, the Son of God.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Happy Dream of Complete Forgiveness

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…. 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. (A Course in Miracles, T-27.VII.13;14:1-4,6-8. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

What the Course calls the real world is a dream of complete forgiveness. The images in this dream serve only to remind us of the Love that surrounds us and is in us. It is a happy dream because the barriers to Love’s presence have been let go.

This dream is fully under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. With Him we perceive only Love or calls for Love that are answered with Love. Fear has faded away for we have let go of the ego’s demands for separation and specialness.

We wish only to acknowledge the Love in every brother and ourselves. We are ready to accept God’s Will for us that we remain united with Him eternally and without limit. We accept His welcome in peace and joy.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Hearing God’s Voice in Our Brothers

There is a place in you where this whole world has been forgotten; where no memory of sin and of illusion lingers still. There is a place in you which time has left, and echoes of eternity are heard. There is a resting place so still no sound except a hymn to Heaven rises up to gladden God the Father and the Son.

The still infinity of endless peace surrounds you gently in its soft embrace, so strong and quiet, tranquil in the might of its Creator, nothing can intrude upon the sacred Son of God within.

Nothing is asked of you but to accept the changeless and eternal that abide in [your brother, God’s Son], for your Identity is there. The peace in you can but be found in him. And every thought of love you offer him but brings you nearer to your wakening to peace eternal and to endless joy.

Be very still and hear God’s Voice in [your brother], and let It tell you what his function is.

Forgiving dreams are means to step aside from dreaming of a world outside yourself. And leading finally beyond all dreams, unto the peace of everlasting life. (A Course in Miracles, T-29.V.1:1-3;2:4;3:3-5;4:2;8:5-6. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Everyone in this world is searching for peace. This peace is available to be found in every instant. We find peace by paying attention to the Voice for God in our mind and letting It show us our oneness with every brother, united as God’s one Son. As we accept our unity, we accept our Self as God created It.

Our dedication to listening to the Voice of Oneness, speaking through our brother, leads us to remember the peace of God is ours now. This Voice speaks of our unity, where there is no conflict. Only Love is there. Bodies are overlooked as illusions, for we have joined with the Holy Spirit’s vision, which sees only Love. We commit to this today.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Claiming Love’s Invincibility

My holiness shines bright and clear today.

Today I wake with joy, expecting but the happy things of God to come to me. I ask but them to come, and realize my invitation will be answered by the Thoughts [of God] to which [my invitation] has been sent by me. And I will ask for only joyous things the instant I accept my holiness. For what would be the use of pain to me, what purpose would my suffering fulfill, and how would grief and loss avail me if insanity departs from me today, and I accept my holiness instead?

Father, my holiness is Yours. Let me rejoice in [my oneness], and through for­giveness [seeing past illusions of separation] be restored to sanity. Your Son is still as You created him. My holiness is part of me, and also part of You. And what can alter Holi­ness Itself? (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 285, W-pII.285. See also ACIM Lesson 285 Insights.)

The ego is in a constant state of alert to defend against impending danger. This is because the ego has denied the innate power of God, which is our inheritance. Denying the only Source of strength is clearly insane. When we identify with the ego, we begin the day with a sense of fear, ranging from mild anxiety to fear and depression. We start the day making plans to protect and make safe the self we think we are.

When we accept our holiness as God’s Son, we awaken with joy. All we see ahead of us is the opportunity to be and extend Love. This is our Will, united with our Creator. In the awareness of Love, we are certain of our safety, for we have accepted the strength of God as ours.

The Love we are is invincible, for nothing other than Love exists. This is our natural state of mind. To claim it, we need only accept the Self that God created as His Son as our Identity. We remind ourselves throughout this day and every day that we are God’s Son, complete and whole and safe in His Love.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Practice That Brings Us Joy

Creation is the sum of all God’s Thoughts, in number infinite, and everywhere without all limit. Only love creates, and only like itself. There was no time when all that it created was not there. Nor will there be a time when anything that it created suffers any loss. Forever and forever are God’s Thoughts exactly as they were and as they are, unchanged through time and after time is done.

Creation is the opposite of all illusions, for Creation is the truth. Creation is the holy Son of God, for in creation is His Will complete in every aspect, making every part container of the whole.

We are Creation; we the Sons of God. We seem to be discrete, and unaware of our eternal unity with Him. Yet back of all our doubts, past all our fears, there still is certainty. For love remains with all its Thoughts, its sureness being theirs. God’s memory is in our holy minds, which know their oneness and their unity with their Creator. Let our function be only to let this memory return, only to let God’s Will be done on earth, only to be restored to sanity, and to be but as God created us. (W-pII.11.1;3:1-2;4)

All God’s Thoughts are the Sons of God. Because thoughts do not leave their source, God’s Sons remain united with Him. Our true Self, God’s Son, remains united with God and all Creation. As God’s Son, we share His function to Create — to extend Love without limit. Joining in God’s extension of Love is the Source of all joy, for we are fulfilling our sole function.

Whenever we are not wholly joyous, we are limiting the extension of Love through us because we are accepting the ego’s goal of separation and limitation in place of God’s Will to extend His Love eternally. Today we practice letting Love guide all our thoughts and actions.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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