Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Finding Peace of Mind

God is my refuge and security.

I will identify with what I think is refuge and security. I will behold myself where I perceive my strength, and think I live within the citadel where I am safe and cannot be attacked. Let me today seek not security in danger, nor attempt to find my peace in murderous attack. I live in God. In Him I find my ref­uge and my strength. In Him is my Identity. In Him is everlast­ing peace. And only there will I remember Who I really am.

Let me not seek for idols. I would come, my Father, home to You today. I choose to be as You created me, and find the Son whom You created as my Self. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 261, W-pII.261. See also ACIM Lesson 261 Insights.)

What do we believe is our identity? If we believe the body is our identity, we will seek to shelter the body. If we believe we are the Son of God, we will be certain of our safety in Him. There is no need to seek to shelter the Son of God, for he is eternally sheltered within His Love.

The Course is leading us on a gentle path of awakening from belief in a separate identity to an acceptance of our true Identity as God’s Love. As we let go of our insistence on separation, our fear subsides and our level of peace increases.

While the body seems to be our Home, it is important to let the Holy Spirit guide us on how to protect it. He will teach us what to do, where to go, what to say and think in a way that softens our investment in separation and helps us see past it to our safety in the changelessness of Love.

The Holy Spirit’s function is to lead us out of fear and into Love. We are not asked to deny our belief in the body as our identity. But we are encouraged to choose the Holy Spirit as our Guide rather than the ego, whose objective is always to foster guilt and increase fear.

Today we choose the Holy Spirit as our Guide, for we know He will guide us to peace of mind.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Answer for All Our Needs

Today our theme is our defenselessness. We clothe ourselves in it, as we prepare to meet the day. We rise up strong in Christ, and let our weakness disappear, as we remember that His strength abides in us. We will remind ourselves that He remains beside us through the day, and never leaves our weakness unsup­ported by His strength. We call upon His strength each time we feel the threat of our defenses undermine our certainty of pur­pose. We will pause a moment, as He tells us, “I am here.”

The ministers of God can never fail, because the love and strength and peace that shine from them to all their brothers come from Him. These are His gifts to you. Defenselessness is all you need to give Him in return. You lay aside but what was never real, to look on Christ and see His sinlessness. (W-pI.153.19;20:4-7)

All the ego’s defenses are ultimately defenses against God. When we believe we are separate, defensiveness is inevitable; we believe it is possible to harm our little self identity and so we must defend against perceived attacks. What the ego teaches is our identity is actually a defense against God. Our defensiveness keeps the seeming reality of separation in our mind. It blocks our awareness of our true Self that remains one with God.

This is why defenselessness is essential to healing our mind and accepting God’s Love. Thinking we know what our perceptions mean closes our mind to the Holy Spirit’s healing interpretation. Our own interpretations are always based on the assumption of weakness, and lack of Love.

Willingness to consider that we do not really know what anything means opens our mind to receive the Holy Spirit’s reinterpretation. He brings the certainty of changeless Love to shine away the false images of the ego. As we let go of defending our little self and choose our true Self’s perception, we become ministers of God. We become channels of God’s Love to a sickened world that is hungry for the Love that answers all our needs.

Today we come before our true Self with wholly empty hands and no preconceptions to receive and give the blessing of God’s Love.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Blessing of Following Holy Spirit’s Directives

If you will accept the fact that I am with you, you are denying the world and accepting God. My will is His, and your decision to hear me is the decision to hear His Voice and abide in His Will. As God sent me to you so will I send you to others. And I will go to them with you, so we can teach them peace and union.

If you want to have [peace] of me, you must give it. Healing does not come from anyone else. You must accept guidance from within. The guidance must be what you want, or it will be meaningless to you. That is why healing is a collaborative venture. I can tell you what to do, but you must collaborate by believing that I know what you should do. Only then will your mind choose to follow me.

The decision to unite must be unequivocal, or the mind itself is divided and not whole. …All things are possible through our joint decision…” (A Course in Miracles, T-8.IV.3:8-11;4:4-10;5:6,11. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Jesus, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, is always with us because we are united in the oneness of God’s Love. We cannot be separated in truth. Only the ego’s illusions manifested in the world seem to separate us. We can leave these thoughts of separation behind by choosing to accept His Presence in our mind.

By joining with Him, we deny the ego’s denial of Love. We accept the truth of What we are — Love and nothing else. While we try to follow the ego’s directives as well as the Holy Spirit’s, we dwell in uncertainty. But when we fully accept the Holy Spirit—our true Self—wholeheartedly, we become bringers of peace to the world.

The choice to accept Love’s oneness is the choice to give Love and peace to the world. The practice of choosing to follow the Holy Spirit’s directives heals our mind of mistaken beliefs and reminds us of our unity with every brother and God.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Re-experiencing the Peace of God

Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes. The light is in them now. Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all. Light is not of the world, yet you who bear the light in you are alien here as well. The light came with you from your native home, and stayed with you because it is your own. It is the only thing you bring with you from Him Who is your Source. It shines in you because it lights your home, and leads you back to where it came from and you are at home.

The peace of God is shining in you now, and from your heart extends around the world. It pauses to caress each living thing, and leaves a blessing with it that remains forever and forever.

The peace of God can never be contained. Who recognizes it within himself must give it. And the means for giving it are in his understanding. He forgives because he recognized the truth in him. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 188, W-pI.188.1;3:1-2;5:1-4. See also ACIM Lesson 188 Insights.)

God created His Son as an extension of Himself. The Son has all the attributes of God — His joy, His peace and Love. Our true Self is God’s Son. By aligning with the ego, we have hidden our true Self beneath an illusion of a shell that separates us from God and every brother.

This Self remains unaffected by the shell that seems to hide It. It’s Light remains and is always available to us. We need only step back from our allegiance to the ego and look within in our mind to reconnect with the Self God created one with Him. Here we re-experience the peace of God that has always been there. As we identify with our Self, the Light we are shines through the ego’s shell and brings Love’s blessing to the world.

The unity of Love is shared with all and reflects the Light back to us. We are enlightened along with all the world as we remember we remain as God created us in His peace, joy and Love.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Choosing the Teacher of Happiness

The ego’s plan for salvation centers around holding griev­ances. It maintains that, if someone else spoke or acted differ­ently, if some external circumstance or event were changed, you would be saved. Thus, the source of salvation is constantly per­ceived as outside yourself. Each grievance you hold is a declara­tion, and an assertion in which you believe, that says, “If this were different, I would be saved.” The change of mind necessary for salvation is thus demanded of everyone and everything except yourself.

God’s plan for salvation works simply because, by following His direction, you seek for salvation where it is. But if you are to succeed, as God promises you will, you must be willing to seek there only. Otherwise, your purpose is divided and you will at­tempt to follow two plans for salvation that are diametrically op­posed in all ways. The result can only bring confusion, misery and a deep sense of failure and despair.

Ask Him very specifically:

What would You have me do?
Where would You have me go?
What would You have me say, and to whom?

Give Him full charge of the rest of the practice period, and let Him tell you what needs to be done by you in His plan for your salvation. He will answer in proportion to your willingness to hear His Voice. Refuse not to hear. The very fact that you are doing the exercises proves that you have some willingness to lis­ten. This is enough to establish your claim to God’s answer. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 71, W-pI.71.2;5;9:2-10. See also ACIM Lesson 71 Insights.)

The ego has a million plans which it claims will make us happy or safe. It does not tell us that all it is doing is substituting an illusion of safety or happiness for an illusion of unhappiness or danger. The ego’s purpose is to keep us in a closed loop of illusions by convincing us they are real.

The Course is teaching us, “Don’t believe the ego’s lessons.” It is teaching us to follow God’s Guide to salvation. He has given us His Teacher in our mind to help us overlook the illusions to see the certainty of our unbreakable connection with God’s Love. Here is where we know with certainty that harm is impossible and Love is our Reality.

The daily, moment-by-moment practice of letting His Guide direct our thoughts and perceptions frees us from the ego’s closed loop of illusions. We choose to follow His plan today.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Pausing to Welcome the Voice for Love

When you are still an instant, when the world recedes from you, when valueless ideas cease to have value in your restless mind, then will you hear His Voice.

Take time today to lay aside your shield which profits nothing, and lay down the spear and sword you raised against an enemy without existence. Christ has called you friend and brother. He has even come to ask your help in letting Him go home today, completed and completely. [Christ] has come as does a little child, who must beseech his father for protection and for love. He rules the universe, and yet He asks unceasingly that you return with Him, and take illusions as your gods no more.

You have not lost your innocence. It is for this you yearn. This is your heart’s desire. This is the voice you hear, and this the call which cannot be denied. The holy Child remains with you. His home is yours. Today He gives you His defenselessness, and you accept it in exchange for all the toys of battle you have made. And now the way is open, and the journey has an end in sight at last. Be still an instant and go home with Him, and be at peace a while.” (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 182, W-pI.182.8:1;11-12. See also ACIM Lesson 182 Insights.)

Our true Self is innocent. This is a fact guaranteed by God because our true Self remains eternally united with Him. It is only our belief that we have separated from God that makes it seem as though we have lost our innocence. This belief causes us to wander in a wilderness of guilt and fear where Love cannot be found. This is not our natural state; it is not our Home.

Yet the innocence of our true Self calls to us to return Home. This call often goes unheard, blotted out by the noise of the world of conflict, differences and lack of Love. This is why it is important to take time daily to step back from this world into the stillness within. We value the Love we are. It is our Source of peace and happiness. In this place we remember our Home. We remember our eternal unity in Love.

Today we practice pausing to still our mind and welcome the Love of our true Self.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Today We Follow Love’s Lead

God’s answer is some form of peace. All pain
Is healed; all misery replaced with joy.
All prison doors are opened. And all sin
Is understood as merely a mistake.

Father, today we will forgive Your world, and let creation be Your Own. We have misunderstood all things. But we have not made sinners of the holy Sons of God. What You created sinless so abides forever and forever. Such are we. And we rejoice to learn that we have made mistakes which have no real effects on us. Sin is impossible, and on this fact forgiveness rests upon a certain base more solid than the shadow world we see. Help us forgive, for we would be redeemed. Help us forgive, for we would be at peace. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 359, W-pII.359. See also ACIM Lesson 359 Insights.)

We appear to be separate identities in the world. Yet this is just a projection of the ego’s choice to deny Love’s oneness. Appearances do not make reality, but belief makes them seem real. Remove the veil on which the projections are displayed and the Light of Love is revealed as all their is.

Our true Self lives in this Light, forever complete, forever loving and forever loved. This is our Home. We have wandered far to a world that has forgotten our real Home. But we have a Guide Whose sole purpose is to help us let go of false beliefs to clear away the veil that hides our Home. He will help us see the truth beyond the imaginings fostered by the ego.

Today we ask the Holy Spirit to guide our thoughts in the way of Love; to see with Christ’s vision the presence of Love, now and forever. We would only follow His lead, for we would remember the Love we are.

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