Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Finding God’s Love Within

Simply do this: Be still, and lay aside all thoughts of what you are and what God is; all concepts you have learned about the world; all images you hold about yourself. Empty your mind of everything it thinks is either true or false, or good or bad, of every thought it judges worthy, and all the ideas of which it is ashamed. Hold onto nothing.

Is it not He Who knows the way to you? You need not know the way to Him. Your part is simply to allow all obstacles that you have interposed between the Son and God the Father to be quietly removed forever. God will do His part in joyful and immediate response. Ask and receive. But do not make demands, nor point the road to God by which He should appear to you. The way to reach Him is merely to let Him be. For in that way is your reality proclaimed as well.

And so today we do not choose the way in which we go to Him. But we do choose to let Him come. And with this choice we rest. And in our quiet hearts and open minds, His Love will blaze its pathway of itself. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 189, W-pI.189.7:1-3;8:1-9:4. See also ACIM Lesson 189 Insights.)

The ego is the wish to usurp the Will of God and control its own domain. It is a control freak. It tries to tell us what we need to do to be happy and at peace. But the ego does not know what brings true happiness and peace.

To remember God’s gifts of joy and peace, we need to set aside the attempts of the ego to stay in control. We simply need to let go and let God. We have such a strong habit of trying to do everything by ourselves, separate from God, that it takes vigilance to set aside all thoughts of trying to do what it takes to remember our true Self. The ego is insulted by how little is required of it.

As we let go of our ideas for how to find the Love of God, we open the door to receive His Love. In that opening we accept the Love that has always been there, hidden only by the ego’s substitutes for Love. We no longer choose to accept substitutes. We want the real thing. We want the Light of Love to shine upon the world. We want to see the forgiven world that disregards the ego’s illusions and sees with the eyes of Christ.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Transforming Our Relationships to Be Holy

God established His relationship with you to make you happy, and nothing you do that does not share His purpose can be real. The purpose God ascribed to anything is its only function. Because of His reason for creating His relationship with you, the function of relationships became forever “to make happy.” And nothing else. To fulfill this function [to make happy] you relate to your creations as God to His. For nothing God created is apart from happiness, and nothing God created but would extend happiness as its Creator did. Whatever does not fulfill this function cannot be real.

In this world it is impossible to create. Yet it is possible to make happy. I have said repeatedly that the Holy Spirit would not deprive you of your special relationships, but would transform them. And all that is meant by that is that He will restore to them the function given them by God. The function you have given them is clearly not to make happy. But the holy relationship shares God’s purpose, rather than aiming to make a substitute for it. Every special relationship you have made is a substitute for God’s Will, and glorifies yours instead of His because of the illusion that they are different. (A Course in Miracles, T-17.IV.1-2. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

It is helpful to remember that only Love creates and only like Itself. Because Love is one, Love’s creations remain united with It. The unified relationship of Love with Its creations is the holy relationship. The purpose of the holy relationship is to maintain and extend Love’s oneness.

The ego cannot create because it is the denial of Love, the sole Source of Creation. The most the ego can do is to make substitute illusions that offer temporary pleasure. But these illusions are devoid of Love and cannot offer the happiness that comes with accepting God’s gift of Love. If we believe the illusions are real, we are blind to the reality of Love. Since the purpose of Creation is to make happy by extending Love, the ego’s special relationships are transformed when we accept Love’s purpose to extend Its happiness instead of the ego’s purpose to multiply loveless illusions of separation.

Today we join with the Holy Spirit to offer only Love in our relationships. With His help, our relationships will be transformed into holy relationships.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Learning to Be a Teacher of God

The centrality of open-mindedness, perhaps the last of the attributes the teacher of God acquires, is easily understood when its relation to forgiveness is recognized. Open-mindedness comes with lack of judgment. As judgment shuts the mind against God’s Teacher, so open-mindedness invites Him to come in. As condemnation judges the Son of God as evil, so open-mindedness permits him to be judged by the Voice for God on His behalf. As the projection of guilt upon him would send him to hell, so open-mindedness lets Christ’s image be extended to him. Only the open-minded can be at peace, for they alone see reason for it.

How do the open-minded forgive? They have let go all things that would prevent forgiveness. …Forgiveness is the final goal of the curriculum. It paves the way for what goes far beyond all learning. The curriculum makes no effort to exceed its legitimate goal. Forgiveness is its single aim, at which all learning ultimately converges. It is indeed enough.

It is the function of God’s teachers to bring true learning to the world. Properly speaking it is unlearning that they bring, for that is “true learning” in the world. It is given to the teachers of God to bring the glad tidings of complete forgiveness to the world. Blessed indeed are they, for they are the bringers of salvation.” (A Course in Miracles, M-4.X.1;2:1-2,9-12;3:6-9)

Whenever we judge, our mind is closed against the Voice of Love. We are blind to seeing that only Love is real. We have learned the “ability” to judge, a construct of the ego made to maintain separation. This ability is unlearned through forgiveness.

It is helpful to remind ourselves often throughout the day, everyday, that on our own we do not know what anything means. This practice opens our mind to the Holy Spirit with willingness to accept the meaning He offers in place of our misperceptions.

The Holy Spirit knows that Love is the Source of all meaning. As we practice letting the Holy Spirit teach us His lessons in forgiveness, we serve as a teacher of God. We demonstrate that we have unlearned the ego’s lessons in division and accepted the Holy Spirit’s lessons in the unity of Love. As we hold our minds open to the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we move forward on the journey of awakening to Love.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Awakening to the Christ Within

The name of Jesus is the name of one who was a man but saw the face of Christ [the symbol of forgiveness] in all his brothers and remembered God. So he became identified with Christ, a man no longer, but at one with God. The man was an illusion, for he seemed to be a separate being, walking by himself, within a body that appeared to hold his self from Self, as all illusions do. Yet who can save unless he sees illusions and then identifies them as what they are? Jesus remains a Savior because he saw the false without accepting it as true. And Christ needed his form that He might appear to men and save them from their own illusions.

In his complete identification with the Christ—the perfect Son of God, His one creation and His happiness, forever like Himself and One with Him—Jesus became what all of you must be. He led the way for you to follow him. He leads you back to God because he saw the road before him, and he followed it. He made a clear distinction, still obscure to you, between the false and true. He offered you a final demonstration that it is impossible to kill God’s Son; nor can his life in any way be changed by sin and evil, malice, fear or death.

Yet still it is [Jesus’] lesson most of all that he would have you learn, and it is this:

There is no death because the Son of God is like his Father. Nothing you can do can change Eternal Love. Forget your dreams of sin and guilt, and come with me instead to share the resurrection of God’s Son. And bring with you all those whom He has sent to you to care for as I care for you. (A Course in Miracles, C-5.2-3;6:8-12)

Jesus demonstrated what happens when we forgive all the illusions of the world without exception. Seeing the face of Christ means seeing the innocence of Love in our brother and nothing else. It means we see Love’s Reality and dismiss as meaningless the ego’s illusions of the body and other images in the world.

Seeing the face of Christ without exception is our single vocation in the world. Every encounter in our daily life experience is an opportunity to practice. In every instant we choose between seeing the face of Christ or believing that the ego’s illusions are real. Choosing Christ’s vision leads us to remember our true Self, the Christ, the perfect Son of God.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting the Peace and Stillness of God

This is a day of stillness and of peace.

Christ’s vision looks through me today. His sight shows me all things forgiven and at peace, and offers this same vision to the world. And I accept this vision in its name, both for myself and for the world as well. What loveliness we look upon today! What holiness we see surrounding us! And it is given us to recognize it is a holiness in which we share; it is the Holiness of God Himself.

This day my mind is quiet, to receive the Thoughts You offer me. And I accept what comes from You, instead of from myself. I do not know the way to You. But You are wholly certain. Father, guide Your Son along the quiet path that leads to You. Let my forgiveness be complete, and let the memory of You return to me. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 291, W-pII.291. See also ACIM Lesson 291 Insights.)

We have a choice of two ways of seeing in the world. We can choose the body’s eyes which show us images founded on the belief that separation is real. Yet the Love of God is all that is real. Love has no form and cannot be limited to an image. Thus what the body’s eyes show us is not real.

The other choice for seeing is Christ’s vision. It overlooks the images the body’s eyes show us. Christ’s vision looks upon the reality of Love. This vision is available to us as we forgive, or let go of, the value we have given the images of the world. Images that are not real can have no value of their own.

That is why Christ’s vision sees a forgiven world where the meaning we have given it has been let go. Now is the presence of Love accepted as all there is. Our brothers are recognized as part of our one Self, united in Love. All conflict has faded away in Its Light. Peace comes to our mind through forgiveness of our mistaken values based on the belief in separation. We rest in the stillness of Love.

Today we ask the Holy Spirit to show us Christ’s vision in place of our perceptions in the world, for we want to know the peace and stillness of God.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Remembering Our Strength and Safety

I am one Self, united with my Creator.

Serenity and perfect peace are mine, because I am one Self, completely whole, at one with all creation and with God.

Salvation comes from my one Self.

From my one Self, Whose knowledge still remains within my mind, I see God’s perfect plan for my salva­tion perfectly fulfilled. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 113, W-pI.113. See also ACIM Lesson 113 Insights.)

In the world the self we are aware of is limited and fragile. It needs to be protected physically and emotionally. Most of our time and thoughts focus on keeping this self identity safe and providing for its needs. But this is a pseudo self, the ego’s made up image that hides the Self that Love created one with Itself. This is why it is important to remind ourselves frequently that we are one Self, united with our Creator.

This Self has no needs and is eternally safe in the changelessness of God’s Love. We need to change our mind about what we think we are. We are not the pseudo self the ego made. We are the eternal, changeless extension of God’s Love.

It is the pseudo self that we need to be saved from. Our one Self has the strength of God and so we simply need to claim what we have always been in truth. This is our salvation from the false image we thought we were.

Today we practice remembering that are we one Self, united with our Creator. And as we think of a brother we remind ourselves he is part of our one Self, united with us in our Creator. These thoughts, wholly accepted, save us from the false image we have believed we are.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Remembering Our Completion in Love

Idols are quite specific. But your will is universal, being limitless. And so it has no form, nor is content for its expression in the terms of form. Idols are limits. [Idols] are the belief that there are forms that will bring happiness, and that, by limiting, is all attained. It is as if you said, “I have no need of everything. This little thing I want, and it will be as everything to me.” And this must fail to satisfy, because it is your will that everything be yours. Decide for idols and you ask for loss. Decide for truth and everything is yours.

Behind the search for every idol [form] lies the yearning for completion. Wholeness has no form because it is unlimited. To seek a special person or a thing to add to you to make yourself complete, can only mean that you believe some form is missing. And by finding this, you will achieve completion in a form you like. This is the purpose of an idol; that you will not look beyond it, to the source of the belief that you are incomplete. Only if you had sinned could this be so. For sin is the idea you are alone and separated off from what is whole. And thus it would be necessary for the search for wholeness to be made beyond the boundaries of limits on yourself. (A Course in Miracles, T-30.III.1;3. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

We believe that we are separate and alone, disconnected from our Creator and our brothers. Feeling incomplete is the consequence of this belief. Everyone in the world feels incomplete because we have accepted the limitations of a separate body as what we are. The inevitable emptiness that comes with believing we are a limited form triggers a constant search for completion. The ego directs us to look for some form that will make us happy. Yet anything that is limited cannot complete us. The ego has no answer for our search for completion.

The Holy Spirit has the only answer that will satisfy our true Self, the Son of God. It is our will to be complete because we share God’s Will for us. The Holy Spirit’s answer to the call from our heart is to lead us to remember the Reality of God’s Love for us. His Love unites us with Him. It is eternal and changeless. Here is where our true meaning lies, for we complete God as God completes us. We share the limitless extension of Love that is God.

Dissatisfaction is symptom that we have chosen the limitation of a form or idol to be our completion. Today we practice being mindful of any perception that disturbs our peace. We acknowledge that we have mistakenly chosen a form as a substitute for our completion in the Love of God. We ask the Holy Spirit to help us let this go and remember our completion is in Love.

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