Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Being Willing to Accept God’s Peace

…the essential thing is learning that you do not know. Knowledge is power, and all power is of God. You who have tried to keep power for yourself have “lost” it. You still have the power, but you have interposed so much between it and your awareness of it that you cannot use it. Everything you have taught yourself has made your power more and more obscure to you. …Yet all that stands between you and the power of God in you is but your learning of the false, and of your attempts to undo the true.

Never believe that any lesson you have learned apart from Him means anything. T-14.XI.5. You have one test, as sure as God, by which to recognize if what you learned is true. If you are wholly free of fear of any kind, and if all those who meet or even think of you share in your perfect peace, then you can be sure that you have learned God’s lesson, and not your own.

…say to yourself:

I do not know what anything, including this, means. And so I do not know how to respond to it. And I will not use my own past learning as the light to guide me now.

By this refusal to attempt to teach yourself what you do not know, the Guide Whom God has given you will speak to you. He will take His rightful place in your awareness the instant you abandon it, and offer it to Him. (A Course in Miracles, T-14.XI.1:1-5,9;4:9-5:2;6:7-11. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

If our peace is disturbed in the slightest, we are using the ego’s lessons from the past as the basis for the meaning we are giving to our perception. A sigh of frustration, a feeling of sadness or loneliness, a wish that a present circumstance be different, a feeling of guilt for something done or not done in the past, all the way to intense rage or terror, are all the same attempt to apply past learning to the present. This is how the ego thought system is maintained to hide the perfect peace that is our natural condition as God’s Son.

All signs of lack of peace are an opportunity to release them; a lesson God would have us learn. We need only be willing to turn them over to the Holy Spirit. When we willingly release our thoughts to Him, He replaces them with the vision that shows us the perfect Love and peace that are always present behind the false meanings the ego offers.

Our job is only to be willing to release our own meanings to the Holy Spirit to be undone. In that moment of willingness, we welcome the peace of God. We accept the Light of Love into our mind and the ego’s dark thoughts are shined away. We return to the peace of our holy mind.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Seeing the Love Beyond Appearances

God is my strength. Vision is His gift.

Let me not look to my own eyes to see today. Let me be willing to exchange my pitiful illusion of seeing for the vision that is given by God. Christ’s vision is His gift, and He has given it to me. Let me call upon this gift today, so that this day may help me to understand eternity.

God is my Source. I cannot see apart from Him.

I can see what God wants me to see. I cannot see anything else. Beyond His Will lie only illusions. It is these I choose when I think I can see apart from Him. It is these I choose when I try to see through the body’s eyes. Yet the vision of Christ has been given me to replace [what I see through the body’s eyes]. It is through this vision that I choose to see.

God is the light in which I see.

I cannot see in darkness. God is the only light. Therefore, if I am to see, it must be through Him. I have tried to define what seeing is, and I have been wrong. Now it is given me to under­stand that God is the light in which I see. Let me welcome [Christ’s] vision and the happy world it will show me. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 59, W-pI.59.2-4. See also ACIM Lesson 59 Insights.)

What the body’s eyes see are images the ego has made to tempt us to believe we are separated from our Creator. They are illusions hiding the presence of God’s Light and Love, our true Home.

The vision of Christ, given us by God, sees past the ego’s image-making to the Love that is eternally united with God. In His Presence, we are safe; we are loved; we are at Home in perfect peace.

Today we will remind ourselves often, “Beyond the world I see is Love and nothing else. Beyond these appearances this Love unites me with the truth in every brother.” As we remember this throughout the day, we will recognize appearances which seem to be unloving as calls for Love. The Love that we are in truth will offer Love in answer to the calls. Together we will remember our unity in Love.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Breaking Out of the Ego’s Shell of Separation

Illusion makes illusion. Except one. Forgiveness is illusion that is answer to the rest.

Forgiveness sweeps all other dreams away, and though it is it­self a dream, it breeds no others. All illusions save this one must multiply a thousandfold. But this is where illusions end. For­giveness is the end of dreams, because it is a dream of waking. It is not itself the truth. Yet does it point to where the truth must be, and gives direction with the certainty of God Himself. It is a dream in which the Son of God awakens to his Self and to his Father, knowing They are one.

Forgiveness is the only road that leads out of disaster, past all suffering, and finally away from death. How could there be an­other way, when this one is the plan of God Himself?

Is it not wiser to be glad you hold the answer to your problems in your hand? Is it not more intelligent to thank the One Who gives salvation, and accept His gift with gratitude?

Accept the one illusion which proclaims there is no condemna­tion in God’s Son, and Heaven is remembered instantly; the world forgotten, all its weird beliefs forgotten with it, as the face of Christ appears unveiled at last in this one dream. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 198, W-pI.198.2:8-4:2;5:1-2;10:1. See also ACIM Lesson 198 Insights.)

The ego offers a plan to fix every perceived problem. Yet the best it can offer is a substitute illusion that cannot bring lasting peace and the memory of our Home in God.

God has given us an illusion that will lift us out of ego’s quicksand of illusions. Forgiveness frees us from the dream of limitation to a body. We have been given the Holy Spirit to teach us how to forgive the ego’s illusions that seem so real in the world. But we must be willing to accept His lessons.

The practice of pausing in the midst of our daily activity to step back and focus on the center of peace within opens our mind to be taught how to see with the vision of Christ. With His vision we recognize calls for Love and the Love we are automatically responds with Love.

Our true Self was created kind, peaceful, gentle, caring and loving. It sees Itself reflected in everyone. Forgiveness sets our true Self free from the shell the ego made to hide from Love. When forgiveness is complete, fear has gone and we dwell in the joy of God’s Love.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Forgiveness Brings Gratitude to Our Heart

…learn to let forgiveness take away the sins you think you see outside yourself, and you can never think the gifts of God are lent but for a little while, before He snatches them away again in death. For death will have no meaning for you then.”

…gratitude remains a part of love.

Thanks be to you, the holy Son of God. For as you were cre­ated, you contain all things within your Self. And you are still as God created you. Nor can you dim the light of your perfection. In your heart the Heart of God is laid. He holds you dear, because you are Himself. All gratitude belongs to you, because of what you are.

Give thanks as you receive it. Be you free of all ingratitude to anyone who makes your Self complete. And from this Self is no one left outside. Give thanks for all the countless channels which extend this Self. All that you do is given unto Him. All that you think can only be His Thoughts, sharing with Him the holy Thoughts of God. Earn now the gratitude you have denied yourself when you forgot the function God has given you. But never think that He has ever ceased to offer thanks to you. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 197, W-pI.197.6:2-3;7:5-9:8. See also ACIM Lesson 197 Insights.)

The ego never gives freely. It’s gifts always come with a price. At the very least, the gifts must be received with some form of gratitude. It projects this same attitude on God, teaching that what God gives in any moment can be taken away if we do not meet His demands. This perception makes us afraid of God and His Love.

Forgiveness is the key to releasing this fear. Our perception of guilt induces fear of punishment in our mind. Love cannot conceive of guilt, for it sees only Itself everywhere, in everything. As we forgive our thoughts of guilt, we open our minds to the Light of Love.

Whenever guilt is perceived—manifesting as sadness, fear, anger or loss—we need to remember to ask the Holy Spirit to help us heal this mistaken misperception. With His help, we give the gift of forgiveness to the world and our self. Forgiveness lets our true Self come forward to join with the Love that is everywhere, always. Our hearts fill with gratitude.

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

Knowledge is not the motivation for learning this course. Peace is. This is the prerequisite for knowledge only because those who are in conflict are not peaceful, and peace is the condition of knowledge because it is the condition of the Kingdom. Knowledge can be restored only when you meet its conditions.

…the ego may seem to interfere with your learning, but the ego has no power to distract you unless you give it the power to do so. The ego’s voice is an hallucination. You cannot expect it to say “I am not real.” Yet you are not asked to dispel your hallucinations alone. You are merely asked to evaluate them in terms of their results to you. If you do not want them on the basis of loss of peace, they will be removed from your mind for you.

Your past learning must have taught you the wrong things, simply because it has not made you happy. On this basis alone its value should be questioned.

You cannot learn simultaneously from two teachers who are in total disagreement about everything. Their joint curriculum presents an impossible learning task. They are teaching you entirely different things in entirely different ways, which might be possible except that both are teaching you about yourself. Your reality is unaffected by both, but if you listen to both, your mind will be split about what your reality is. (A Course in Miracles, T-8.I.1:1-4;2;4:1-2;6:2-5. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The ego teaches conflict — separation and differences. The perception of loss or harm can only come with the belief in conflicting differences. In the oneness of God’s Love, differences are impossible. Conflict is unknown. His Teacher offers lessons in perception that lead us past conflict to the peace of unity in Love. If we want to experience peace consistently, we need to learn that nothing the ego teaches is real and thus it has no real effect on our true Self.

In every moment we choose which teacher we would follow. Let us join together in choosing the Teacher of Peace as our Guide. We will be guided to bring peace to the world as we teach what we need to learn. United in Love, we will learn that we are Love and nothing else. We will learn that God’s Will is our own.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Answering the World’s Call for Love

This world is not the Will of God, and so it is not real.

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 [separation] oppresses you, and speaks of His Companionship when you perceive your­self as lonely and afraid.

He speaks as well of what becomes your will when you accept these gifts, and recognize they are your own.

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.166.2:2;11:3-4;12:7;15:2-7. See also ACIM Lesson 166 Insights.)

God created our true Self by giving It all His Love and Its attributes. His Love is ours to give. It is in the giving that we affirm we have accepted God’s gifts.

Much of the world is crying out for Love. With the Holy Spirit as our Guide, it is our sole function to answer this call with Love. It begins with accepting Christ’s vision as our own. He shows us that beyond the pain, suffering and fear lies the Love everyone seeks.

As we share this vision, we become part of the answer that brings healing to the world. When we accept our function, we will be guided how to think, where to go, what to do and say. Our job is to let the Light of Love guide our way. As we do, we learn of the Love we are and of the certainty of our eternal presence in the Heaven of God’s Love. We know we are blessed by the gifts of God.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Finding the Truth of the Love We Are

No one remains in hell, for no one can abandon his Creator, nor affect His perfect, timeless and unchanging Love. You will find Heaven. Everything you seek but this will fall away. Yet not because it has been taken from you. It will go because you do not want it. You will reach the goal you really want as certainly as God created you in sinlessness.

No one can fail who seeks to reach the truth, and it is truth we seek to reach today. We will …ask to see the rising of the real world to replace the foolish images that we hold dear, with true ideas arising in the place of thoughts that have no meaning, no effect, and neither source nor substance in the truth.

For several minutes watch your mind and see, although your eyes are closed, the senseless world you think is real. Review the thoughts as well which are compatible with such a world, and which you think are true. Then let them go, and sink below them to the holy place where they can enter not. There is a door beneath them in your mind, which you could not completely lock to hide what lies beyond.

Put out your hand, and see how easily the door swings open with your one intent to go beyond it. Angels light the way, so that all darkness vanishes, and you are standing in a light so bright and clear that you can understand all things you see.

You cannot fail today. There walks with you the Spirit Heaven sent you, that you might approach this door some day, and through His aid slip effortlessly past it, to the light. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 131, W-pI.131.5;10:2-3;11:5-8;13:1-2;14:1-2. See also ACIM Lesson 131 Insights.)

Our true Self remains in Heaven, where God created It to be. We have hidden this Self from our awareness under layers of illusions of bodies which seem more real because of the belief we invest in them. We make the choice for this belief in every moment. But we can make another choice.

Today we choose to set these beliefs aside for a moment and let our thoughts sink past them to the center of peace within — our true Self. Here we find Its radiant Light that is God’s Love. This Love dispels the darkness of our fear-based thoughts. It reminds us that we are still the Love we were created to be, safe in Heaven. This is the truth we seek, the Love we thought we lost but remains forever What we are.

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