Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Forgiveness Frees Us from Self-Imprisonment

Forgiveness represents your function here.

Only forgiveness can relieve the mind of thinking that the body is its home. Only forgiveness can restore the peace that God intended for His holy Son. Only for­giveness can persuade the Son to look again upon his holiness.

Therefore, hold no one prisoner. Release instead of bind, for thus are you made free. The way is simple. Every time you feel a stab of anger, realize you hold a sword above your head. And it will fall or be averted as you choose to be condemned or free. Thus does each one who seems to tempt you to be angry represent your savior from the prison house of death. And so you owe him thanks instead of pain.

Be merciful today. The Son of God deserves your mercy. It is he who asks that you accept the way to freedom now. Deny him not. His Father’s Love for him belongs to you. Your function here on earth is only to forgive him, that you may accept him back as your Identity. He is as God created him. And you are what he is. Forgive him now his sins, and you will see that you are one with him. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 192, W-pI.192.2:3;5:5-7;9-10. See also ACIM Lesson 192 Insights.)

A central teaching of A Course in Miracles is the body is not our home. God is only Mind and therefore His extension is Mind. The body was made by the ego to imprison the mind, making it seem to be separate from the Mind of God.

We forgive our brother by seeing him with Christ’s vision, which looks past the body to his Identity as Love. Because Love is one, this vision frees us to see that we are also Love, at one with our brothers. Forgiveness is the way we let go of believing we are a body and accept our true Identity in God’s Love.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Choice to Be Love

There is no end to all the peace and joy, And all the miracles that I will give, When I accept God’s Word. Why not today?

Why should I wait, my Father, for the joy You promised me? For You will keep Your Word You gave Your Son in exile. I am sure my treasure waits for me, and I need but reach out my hand to find it. Even now my fingers touch it. It is very close. I need not wait an instant more to be at peace forever. It is You I choose, and my Identity along with You. Your Son would be Himself, and know You as his Father and Creator, and his Love. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 355, W-pII.355. See also ACIM Lesson 355 Insights.)

We placed ourselves in exile from our Home in Love when we chose to believe in separation. All that stands between what we think we are and our true Home is a mistaken belief. In every moment we have the option to choose to let go of the false belief and accept God’s Word that we remain eternally united with Him in His Love.

The choice to accept God’s Word is frightening to our ego-based identity because it seems that this choice would mean annihilation, a complete loss of identity. It is true that the ego identity would be lost. But it is instantly replaced by the certainty of our Self Who is God’s Son, eternally united with Him. Because of the fear of loss, we must be gently taught to recognize that the separate identity we cling to does not serve us. It brings with it only fear and guilt, pain and suffering.

The Holy Spirit in our mind offers us His vision of the truth as we are willing to turn over all our perceptions for His loving correction. Each time we accept His help, we take another step toward the final decision that releases us from the ego’s bonds and returns us to our Home in Love.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Teaching Ourselves That We Are Love

…to teach is to learn, so that teacher and learner are the same. It also emphasizes that teaching is a constant process; it goes on every moment of the day, and continues into sleeping thoughts as well.

To teach is to demonstrate. There are only two thought systems, and you demonstrate that you believe one or the other is true all the time. From your demonstration others learn, and so do you. The question is not whether you will teach, for in that there is no choice. The purpose of the course might be said to provide you with a means of choosing what you want to teach on the basis of what you want to learn. You cannot give to someone else, but only to yourself, and this you learn through teaching. Teaching is but a call to witnesses to attest to what you believe. It is a method of conversion. This is not done by words alone. Any situation must be to you a chance to teach others what you are, and what they are to you. No more than that, but also never less. (A Course in Miracles, M-in.1:5-2:11)

When we are believing in the ego thought system, we see our brothers as bodies and react to them as i they were real. When we feel defensive, angry or disturbed in any way by what a brother says or does, we are teaching our brother that he is a body and teach ourselves the same lesson. This lesson keeps us imprisoned in the ego thought system, for this system is complete within itself. It walls off the reality of Love to protect the integrity of the belief in separation.

The thought of Love’s oneness is a threat to the seeming reality of the ego thought system. This thought system seems true and real only because we have taught ourselves to believe in it. And we continue to reinforce this teaching by believing the world of form we perceive is real. Fortunately this carefully learned self deception has no effect on reality. The reality of Love’s oneness is changeless.

In every instant we can choose the thought system of Love’s oneness. We can choose Love as our Guide even in the world of form. We do this by offering our perceptions to the vision of Love for reinterpretation. This opens our mind to be taught by thoughts of Love instead of thoughts of separation. This practice gently teaches us to overlook appearances of the world to see the Love and the calls for Love that awaken the Love in us.

We practice this today by frequently asking in our mind, “How would Love see this? What would Love do in this situation?” By this practice, we teach ourselves that we are Love.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Laws of Love Are Our Salvation

I am entitled to miracles. I am entitled to miracles because I am under no laws but God’s. His laws release me from all grievances, and replace them with miracles. And I would accept the miracles in place of the griev­ances, which are but illusions that hide the miracles beyond. Now I would accept only what the laws of God entitle me to have, that I may use it on behalf of the function He has given me.

Let miracles replace all grievances. By this idea do I unite my will with the Holy Spirit’s, and per­ceive them as one. By this idea do I accept my release from hell. By this idea do I express my willingness to have all my illusions be replaced with truth, according to God’s plan for my salvation. I would make no exceptions and no substitutes. I want all of Heaven and only Heaven, as God wills me to have. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 89, W-pI.89:1,3. See also ACIM Lesson 89 Insights.)

God is Love, thus His laws are the laws of Love. Because Love is one, it is always the same, given equally to all. There can be no differences in oneness. Only Love is real. It does not condemn because Love sees only Love. Love extends only Love. It cannot harm and therefore is eternally innocent.

When we accept the Love we are, we experience all that Love is. This is the miracle that heals our mind of mistaken beliefs that separation could be real, harm be possible and condemnation justified. The ego’s illusions of separation dissolve in the presence of Love’s oneness.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Awakening to the Love We Are

The world you see has nothing to do with reality. It is of your own making, and it does not exist.”

God did not create a meaningless world” is another step in learning to let go the thoughts that you have written on the world, and see the Word of God in their place. …Our direction is toward perfect safety and perfect peace.

With eyes closed, think of all the horrors in the world that cross your mind. Name each one as it occurs to you, and then deny its reality. God did not create it, and so it is not real. Say, for example:

God did not create that war, and so it is not real.
God did not create that airplane crash, and so it is not real.
God did not create that disaster [specify], and so it is not real.

Suitable subjects for the application of today’s idea also in­clude anything you are afraid might happen to you, or to anyone about whom you are concerned.

These things are part of the world you see. Some of them are shared illusions, and others are part of your personal hell. It does not matter. What God did not create can only be in your own mind apart from His. Therefore, it has no meaning. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 14, W-pI.14.1:4-5;3:1,6;4:1-5:1;6:2-6. See also ACIM Lesson 14 Insights.)

The world we see seems very real to us. Yet we are told not only that it is not real, but it is of our own making. The Course uses the metaphor of dreams to help us grasp this truth. In our sleeping dreams, what we see seems very real to us. We react to it as if it were real, sometimes with happiness, but probably more often with fear. When we awaken from the dream, we realize that what we were reacting to was only a dream.

The Course tells us that when we waken from a sleeping dream, we are still dreaming. To waken from this dream world, we need to let go of our belief in its reality, just as we dismissed the reality of our sleeping dream when we awoke from it.

We need help from beyond this dream to learn to let go of the mistaken beliefs that make the dream world seem real. This Help is the Holy Spirit in our mind. He sees the dreams we believe in but does not believe them. Knowing their unreality, He helps us bridge from our mistaken perceptions to His true perception. From true perception, we easily recognize the mistaken beliefs and dismiss them just as we easily dismissed our sleeping dream when we woke up.

Today we practice reminding ourselves that God did not create the world we see. We ask the Holy Spirit to help us see truly, for we would remember that we are God’s Love and nothing else.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Lifting the Veil of Unforgiveness

What could you want forgiveness cannot give? Do you want peace? Forgiveness offers it. Do you want happiness, a quiet mind, a certainty of purpose, and a sense of worth and beauty that transcends the world? Do you want care and safety, and the warmth of sure protection always? Do you want a quietness that cannot be disturbed, a gentleness that never can be hurt, a deep abiding comfort, and a rest so perfect it can never be upset?

All this forgiveness offers you, and more. It sparkles on your eyes as you awake, and gives you joy with which to meet the day. It soothes your forehead while you sleep, and rests upon your eyelids so you see no dreams of fear and evil, malice and attack. And when you wake again, it offers you another day of happiness and peace. All this forgiveness offers you, and more.

Forgiveness lets the veil be lifted up that hides the face of Christ from those who look with unforgiving eyes upon the world. It lets you recognize the Son of God, and clears your memory of all dead thoughts so that remembrance of your Father can arise across the threshold of your mind. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 122, W-pI.122.1:1-3:2. See also ACIM Lesson 122 Insights.)

The ego’s images of bodies and forms are attempts to hide the loving Son of God from our awareness. These illusions were made out of the ego’s anger against God for not giving the specialness it requested. Love, being one, loves all that is equally. Specialness is an attempt to make inequality real.

The ego’s illusions are the veil that must be lifted for us to recognize the presence of the Son of God everywhere. There are no gaps in the oneness of God’s Love. He has extended His Love to all that is. Forgiveness clears our mind to accept God’s gift and remember His Will is ours. We remain as God created us. Love’s innocence is ours.

To lift the veil of unforgiveness, we need Help from outside the ego’s thought system — the Holy Spirit. As we give up interpreting our perceptions and offer them to the Holy Spirit with willingness to receive His vision, the ego’s illusions are recognized as ineffectual. The face of Christ, the presence of Love, are recognized as all that is real. With this recognition, we accept God’s gifts of Love, joy and peace.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Remembering We Are Love

I am as God created me.

If you remain as God created you fear has no meaning, evil is not real, and misery and death do not exist.

If you remain as God created you, appearances cannot replace the truth, health cannot turn to sickness, nor can death be substi­tute for life, or fear for love. All this has not occurred, if you remain as God created you. You need no thought but just this one, to let redemption come to light the world and free it from the past.

We will remember Him throughout the day with thankful hearts and loving thoughts for all who meet with us today. For it is thus that we remember Him. And we will say, that we may be reminded of His Son, our holy Self, the Christ in each of us:

I am as God created me.

Let us declare this truth as often as we can. This is the Word of God that sets you free. This is the key that opens up the gate of Heaven, and that lets you enter in the peace of God and His eternity. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 110, W-pI.110.1:4;3;11. See also ACIM Lesson 110 Insights.)

When we remember God, we remember that only Love is real. Love has no form because it is unlimited by time or space. When we accept that we are as God created us, we accept our limitlessness in the oneness of Love. We accept God’s strength as ours, along with His peace and His joy. We no longer choose appearances made by the ego in place of the experience of unlimited, eternal Love. We remember Who we are. All this comes to our quiet mind when we accept we are as God created us.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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