Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Releasing Fear and Returning to Love

God is the Love in which I forgive.

God does not forgive because He has never condemned. And there must be condemnation before forgiveness is necessary. Forgiveness is the great need of this world, but that is because it is a world of illusions. Those who forgive are thus releasing themselves from illusions, while those who withhold forgiveness are binding themselves to them. As you condemn only yourself, so do you forgive only yourself.

Yet although God does not forgive, His Love is nevertheless the basis of forgiveness. Fear condemns and love forgives. Forgiveness thus undoes what fear has produced, returning the mind to the awareness of God. For this reason, forgiveness can truly be called salvation. It is the means by which illusions disappear. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 46, W-pI.46.1-2. See also ACIM Lesson 46 Insights.)

God has given us a very simple plan that will return us to the awareness that we are Love, Loved by our Creator and being Loving is our Nature. In the presence of Love, fear disappears because fear comes from the mistaken belief that Love is absent. This is a belief in an illusion, for only Love is real. Forgiveness is the means to undo the mistaken belief that Love is absent. This belief disconnects us from awareness of the oneness of Love.

Forgiveness is the means to release ourselves from the belief that Love is absent. This belief manifests in myriad forms. The central figure in this belief is the body, for it seems to make us separate from other bodies and the world. Bodies seem to cause harm, physically, mentally and emotionally.

Each time we take the perception of any kind of harm to the Holy Spirit for His loving correction, He shows us that the perception has no foundation in truth. The moment we recognize the fear was based on an illusion, we freely let it go. We release ourselves from the mistaken belief that caused the fear. This is God’s plan for our release from fear. It seems like a process that takes time only because we have many false images in our mind that seem to justify fear.

As we practice bringing these images to the Holy Spirit, we begin to recognize that the cause for each fearful image is the same. Our forgiveness generalizes and we experience greater and greater peace. The generalization of our forgiveness accelerates until we reach the point that we fully realize that there is nothing to forgive, for only Love is real.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Remembering Our True Nature Is Love

Father, I was created in Your Mind, a holy Thought that never left its home. I am forever Your Effect, and You forever and forever are my Cause. As You created me I have remained. Where You established me I still abide. And all Your attributes abide in me, because it is Your Will to have a Son so like his Cause that Cause and Its Effect are indistinguishable. Let me know that I am an Effect of God, and so I have the power to create like You. And as it is in Heaven, so on earth. Your plan I follow here, and at the end I know that You will gather Your effects into the tranquil Heaven of Your Love, where earth will vanish, and all separate thoughts unite in glory as the Son of God. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 326, W-pII.326.1. See also ACIM Lesson 326 Insights.)

Because God is Love and He created His Son to be exactly like Himself, our true Nature must be Love. As we learn to see through the vision of our true Nature, we see the Love in every brother and nothing else. Only belief in separation stands as a barrier to the recognition of the loving Nature in everyone.

It is our mistaken perceptions, based on the foundation of belief separation is real, that must be forgiven. God’s plan for our return to His Heaven is brought to us through His Voice. This is our Inner Teacher, Who will teach us lovingly to recognize that all our judgments, our guilt and our fears are based on a mistaken belief that separation is real.

If we are willing to receive His loving lessons, our thoughts will be transformed. Fear and guilt will fade away. We will see Christ in every brother and we will recognize that we are the Effect of Love’s extension. Today we ask our inner Teacher for His strength and His help to look past imagined separation to the true Nature of Love in everyone.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Choosing Holy Spirit’s Help

Your Friend [Holy Spirit] goes with you. You are not alone. No one who calls on Him can call in vain. Whatever troubles you, be certain that He has the answer, and will gladly give it to you, if you simply turn to Him and ask it of Him. He will not withhold all answers that you need for anything that seems to trouble you. He knows the way to solve all problems, and resolve all doubts. His certainty is yours. You need but ask it of Him, and it will be given you.

And now I place you in His hands, to be His faithful follower, with Him as Guide through every difficulty and all pain that you may think is real. Nor will He give you pleasures that will pass away, for He gives only the eternal and the good. Let Him prepare you further. He has earned your trust by speaking daily to you of your Father and your brother and your Self. He will continue. Now you walk with Him, as certain as is He of where you go; as sure as He of how you should proceed; as confident as He is of the goal, and of your safe arrival in the end.

His Love surrounds you, and of this be sure; that I will never leave you comfortless. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Epilogue, W-Ep.1:2-9;4;6:8. See also ACIM Lesson 365 Insights.)

We ask for help when we are willing to be helped. The ego wants us to believe that it has all the answers we need. But remember, the ego’s only goal is to seek and not find so it clearly has no answer that will be truly helpful.

In the Holy Spirit, our Creator has given us all the help we will ever need. His help will always lead us to freedom and our Home in Heaven. Today we choose the help of our inner Guide for all our thoughts and our doing in the world. Under His direction, we will learn of the Love that we are and extend It freely to all. Thus is the world healed along with us.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Claiming and Sharing God’s Gifts

Here is the paradox that underlies the making of the world. This world is not the Will of God, and so it is not real. Yet those who think it real must still believe there is another will, and one that leads to opposite effects from those He wills. Impossible indeed; but every mind that looks upon the world and judges it as certain, solid, trustworthy and true believes in two creators; or in one, himself alone. But never in one God.

Yet in his lonely, senseless wanderings, God’s gifts go with him, all unknown to him. He cannot lose them. But he will not look at what is given him. He wanders on, aware of the futility he sees about him everywhere, perceiving how his little lot but dwindles, as he goes ahead to nowhere. Still he wanders on in misery and poverty, alone though God is with him, and a treasure his so great that everything the world contains is valueless before its magnitude.

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.

Become the living proof of what Christ’s touch can offer everyone. God has entrusted all His gifts to you. Be witness in your happiness to how transformed the mind becomes which chooses to accept His gifts, and feel the touch of Christ. Such is your mission now. For God entrusts the giving of His gifts to all who have received them. He has shared His joy with you. And now you go to share it with the world. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 166, W-pI.166.2;5;11:3-4;15:2-8. See also ACIM Lesson 166 Insights.)

The Source of perfect happiness is in us, now and forever. If we do not feel supremely happy, we have turned our back on our Source. We have chosen to believe an insane idea that it is possible to have a separate identity in the hope that we might gain a special value we can call ours alone.

There is no way to have specialness without believing we are alone. For God gives His gifts equally to all. It is not His Will that we be alone. His Will that we remain united with Him and have all His gifts is eternal and changeless. He has given us His joy and His peace. He has given us all His Love. In His giving, He has entrusted us with the purpose of giving all that we have received of Him to all.

To know the gifts He has given, we must share His gifts without reservation or limitation. We cannot judge another as separate from us and give God’s gifts truly. This is why forgiveness is the key to removing the barriers to Love’s presence. Forgiveness frees us to see our equality with our brothers and freely give all of God’s gifts. It is this giving that teaches ourselves and all our brothers that they are one with us. We are teachers of God as we accept God’s gifts and give them away without judgment or limits.

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

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 [this help that] 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.

How can a misperception be a sin? Let all your brother’s errors be to you nothing except a chance for you to see the workings of the Helper given you to see the world He made instead of yours. What, then, is justified? What do you want? For these two questions are the same. And when you see them as the same, your choice is made. For it is seeing them as one that brings release from the belief there are two ways to see. This world has much to offer to your peace, and many chances to extend your own forgiveness. Such its purpose is, to those who want to see peace and forgiveness descend on them, and offer them the light.

The Maker of the world of gentleness has perfect power to offset the world of violence and hate that seems to stand between you and His gentleness. [The world of violence and hate] is not there in His forgiving eyes. And therefore it need not be there in yours. (A Course in Miracles, T-25.III.6:1-8:3. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

It is comforting to know that no matter how fearful, upsetting or depressing the world appears to be, we have help in our minds ready to guide us past it to the peace and joy God wills for us. But we must choose to accept the Help that is given us. As long as we believe we are a separate identity, housed in a body that can harm or be harmed, the world will continue to be an unhappy and fearful place.

But this belief can be changed if we are willing to accept the Holy Spirit’s help. We can choose to be happy. We can choose peace. We can choose to accept Love and extend Love instead of choosing the darkness of the ego thought system of lovelessness, guilt and fear. Every moment is an opportunity to accept the Holy Spirit’s vision which turns every perception in the world into an opportunity to forgive. We bring healing to the world by making this choice.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting Our Oneness in Love

We have a mission here. We did not come to reinforce the madness that we once believed in. Let us not forget the goal that we accepted. It is more than just our happiness alone we came to gain. What we accept as what we are proclaims what everyone must be, along with us. Fail not your brothers, or you fail yourself. Look lovingly on them, that they may know that they are part of you, and you of them.

This does Atonement teach, and demonstrates the Oneness of God’s Son is unassailed by his belief he knows not what he is. Today accept Atonement, not to change reality, but merely to accept the truth about yourself, and go your way rejoicing in the endless Love of God.

We start with this review of what our mission is:

I will accept Atonement for myself,
For I remain as God created me.

We have not lost the knowledge that God gave to us when He created us like Him. We can remember it for everyone, for in creation are all minds as one. And in our memory is the recall how dear our brothers are to us in truth, how much a part of us is every mind, how faithful they have really been to us, and how our Father’s Love contains them all. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 139, W-pI.139.9:1-10:2;11:2-6. See also ACIM Lesson 139 Insights.)

One of the Workbook lessons has us repeat frequently, “God is but Love and therefore so am I.” The Course also tells us that Love is one and only Love is real. Since God’s Son is only Love, we are united in Love as God’s one Son.

What is one cannot be divided and be Itself. To accept Atonement for ourselves is to accept our oneness with the Love of God. This acceptance is complete when we see every brother included in this oneness. We rest in perfect peace, for there is no conflict in the oneness of Love. We are of one Mind, united with the Mind of God.

As we accept this, we accept Atonement for all. This acceptance is the end of the ego belief in separation. Let us remind ourselves today as we think of any brother that we are one as God created us.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Escape from Loneliness

Whenever you are angry, you can be sure that you have formed a special relationship which the ego has “blessed,” for anger is its blessing. Anger takes many forms, but it cannot long deceive those who will learn that love brings no guilt at all, and what brings guilt cannot be love and must be anger. All anger is nothing more than an attempt to make someone feel guilty, and this attempt is the only basis the ego accepts for special relationships. Guilt is the only need the ego has, and as long as you identify with it, guilt will remain attractive to you. Yet remember this; to be with a body is not communication. And if you think it is, you will feel guilty about communication and will be afraid to hear the Holy Spirit, recognizing in His Voice your own need to communicate.

In the holy instant guilt holds no attraction, since communication has been restored. And guilt, whose only purpose is to disrupt communication, has no function here [in the holy instant]. Here there is no concealment, and no private thoughts. The willingness to communicate attracts communication to it, and overcomes loneliness completely. There is complete forgiveness here, for there is no desire to exclude anyone from your completion, in sudden recognition of the value of his part in [your completion]. In the protection of your wholeness, all are invited and made welcome. (A Course in Miracles, T-15.VII.10;14:2-7. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

True communication occurs only in the mind. It is joining in the one thought of God — Love. Because Love is one, joining in the thought of Love is uniting in the Mind of God.

The body is a fence the ego has constructed to attempt to separate part of the mind from its unity with God. Separation makes communication impossible. The belief in being separate carries with it an intense sense of loneliness. The ego’s answer for this loneliness is to seek relationships with other bodies. Such relationships do not resolve the loneliness.

It is only through realizing that we are Mind, not limited by the body, that we can have the experience of our completion and wholeness in the Love of God. When we experience that we are whole, loneliness is impossible. As we are willing to accept the Holy Spirit’s help to find our wholeness, we open to the holy instant in which we experience the unity of our Mind with the loving Mind of God. Loneliness is impossible when we know we are complete.

Whenever we are bothered by what another body appears to do or say, we are identifying ourselves as a body. The lesson the Holy Spirit would have us learn is that no one is a body. He would teach us to overlook the body and all its seeming behavior to see the radiant Son of God in everyone, including ourselves.

Today we practice bringing every thought or perception that disturbs our peace to the Holy Spirit. He will teach us to see that the cause for the disturbance is a mistaken belief that the body and separation are real. This practice will heal the loneliness, the guilt and the fear we experience. It will awaken us to the Self that is one with our Creator.

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