Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Following Plans That Heal Our Mind

A healed mind does not plan. It carries out the plans that it receives through listening to wisdom that is not its own. It waits until it has been taught what should be done, and then proceeds to do it. It does not depend upon itself for anything except its adequacy to fulfill the plans assigned to it. [The healed mind] is secure in certainty that obstacles can not impede its progress to accomplishment of any goal that serves the greater plan established for the good of everyone.

A healed mind is relieved of the belief that it must plan, al­though it cannot know the outcome which is best, the means by which it is achieved, nor how to recognize the problem that the plan is made to solve. [The mind] must misuse the body in its plans until it recognizes this is so. But when it has accepted this as true, then is [the mind] healed, and lets the body go. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 135, W-pI.135.11-12. See also ACIM Lesson 135 Insights.)

To follow a leader that actively denies reality is clearly insane. That is exactly what we do when we choose the ego as our identity and follow its lead. The ego’s plans are always designed to keep us imprisoned in the belief system of limitation, lack of Love and guilt.

We have a Guide in our mind Whose plans always lead us to the experience of freedom from limitation. It shows us that we are Love, forever held in the safety of Its sure protection. Nothing can harm the Love we are, for nothing else is real. We accept the lead of our inner Guide by our willingness to turn over our thoughts and perceptions to be cleansed of all remnants of belief in separation.

As we do this, our mind is healed. We see the world through the eyes of Love. We no longer seek Love where it cannot be found, but accept that we have and are Love. Each time we release a fear-based thought with the Holy Spirit’s help, we experience greater peace of mind. Happiness is our daily experience. We become increasingly willing to follow Holy Spirit’s lead instead of the ego’s plans as we experience the blessings His plans bring.

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

The body is a fence the Son of God imagines he has built, to separate parts of his Self from other parts.

The body is a dream. Like other dreams it sometimes seems to picture happiness, but can quite suddenly revert to fear, where every dream is born. For only love creates in truth, and truth can never fear. Made to be fearful, must the body serve the purpose given it. But we can change the purpose that the body will obey by changing what we think that it is for.

The body is the means by which God’s Son returns to sanity. Though it was made to fence him into hell without escape, yet has the goal of Heaven been exchanged for the pursuit of hell. The Son of God extends his hand to reach his brother, and to help him walk along the road with him. Now is the body holy.

Love is your safety. Fear does not exist. Identify with love, and you are safe. Identify with love, and you are home. Identify with love, and find your Self. (A Course in Miracles Workbook 5. What Is the Body?, W-pII.5.1:1;3:1-4:4;5:4-8. See also ACIM Lesson Insights.)

All dreams are born of fear because they come from the belief in lack of Love. From within the dream there is no remedy for this fear. The best the ego can offer is empty images to cover the fear. Sometimes we like the images it offers. But sooner or later their fearful foundation comes to the surface. This cycle is repeated over and over until we reach the limit of our tolerance for pain.

In the midst of the dream our true Self calls to us unceasingly from within our mind to return to Love. This call draws us to continue searching for the Love we believe we are missing. But it calls with the Voice of Love. It calls softly and can seem to be drowned out by the ego’s fearful chatter. But we can hear this Voice if we are willing to disown the chatter, quiet our mind and welcome the peace within our mind where our true Self lives and has Its being.

We can choose to listen to this Voice in every moment. Just like we can listen selectively with the body’s ears, disregarding what we don’t want to hear, we can select to listen to the Voice of Love in our mind. It will guide us to see past the barriers the ego erects. Love’s vision shows us the Love we are that unites us with every brother. When we choose to see with Love’s eyes, the past fades away and we recognize that we live now and always in the Presence of Love. We remember Heaven is our Home.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Claiming the Love We Inherited

Father, I will but to remember You.

What can I seek for, Father, but Your Love? Perhaps I think I seek for something else; a something I have called by many names. Yet is Your Love the only thing I seek, or ever sought. For there is nothing else that I could ever really want to find. Let me remember You. What else could I desire but the truth about myself?

This is your will, my brother. And you share this will with me, and with the One as well Who is our Father. To remember Him is Heaven. This we seek. And only this is what it will be given us to find. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 231, W-pII.231. See also ACIM Lesson 231 Insights.)

We seek for many things in the world—a good job, a special relationship, shelter, status, things we believe will enhance our value and more. All these forms are the ego’s substitutes for the Love of God the ego denies. These substitutes are empty shells and never satisfy our heart’s longing to remember the Love that is our Home, our very Nature.

This longing can only be satisfied by accepting God’s gift of all of His Love. This is our Home, our safety, our strength, our happiness and peace. All this is ours now. We have not lost It. Only our denial makes It unknown to us. To break the habit of this denial, we need to be vigilant for all thoughts and perceptions that disturb our peace, for this is a sign we are denying the Love we long for. These are not our real Thoughts, the Thoughts we share with God.

To break the habit, we need to pause and focus on the peace within us where we receive the Holy Spirit’s guidance to correct our perception and show us that we already have and are the Love we seek. This practice will transform our lives from states of fear and guilt to peace of mind, indescribable joy and acceptance of Love by sharing It freely. This is how we claim the Love we inherited from our Creator.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Teaching That We Are Only Love

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.

Teaching but reinforces what you believe about yourself. Its fundamental purpose is to diminish self-doubt. This does not mean that the self you are trying to protect is real. But it does mean that the self you think is real is what you teach.

Except for God’s teachers there would be little hope of salvation, for the world of sin would seem forever real.… God. They are not perfect, or they would not be here. Yet it is their mission to become perfect here, and so they teach perfection over and over, in many, many ways, until they have learned it. (A Course in Miracles, M-In.2:1-3;3:7-10;5:1,5-6)

When we identity with the ego, we believe everything in the world is real. Fear and guilt seem justified because we believe everything that happened to us in our “life” actually happened and had effects. We believe bodies are real and what they do has consequences; ours and others’ actions justify fear and guilt. What we believe about others teaches us what we are. We seem to be in a closed loop continually reinforcing the “reality” of separation.

Yet there is another Thought system we can choose to accept. It is a Thought system based upon the acceptance that only the oneness of Love is real. Nothing but Love exists. This Thought system sees no separation. Yet we have thoroughly taught ourselves that Love does not exist. This mistaken belief can be undone by Truth. But we need a Teacher from outside the false thought system to teach us that separation is not true—to teach only Love and learn that we are Love.

Today we practice asking our inner Teacher to guide our perceptions, for we want to awaken from the dream of separation and accept our true Identity in the oneness of God’s Love.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Developing the Habit of Accepting God’s Peace

The stillness of the peace of God is mine.

Perhaps we are now ready for a day of undisturbed tranquility. If this is not yet feasible, we are content and even more than satisfied to learn how such a day can be achieved. If we give way to a disturbance, let us learn how to dismiss it and return to peace. We need but tell our minds, with certainty, “The stillness of the peace of God is mine,” and nothing can intrude upon the peace that God Himself has given to His Son.

Father, Your peace is mine. What need have I to fear that anything can rob me of what You would have me keep? I cannot lose Your gifts to me. And so the peace You gave Your Son is with me still, in quietness and in my own eternal love for You. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 273, W-pII.273. See also ACIM Lesson 273 Insights.)

Here we have a simple process we can follow to awaken from the dream of separation. We need only be willing to be vigilant for any thought or perception that disturbs our peace of mind. The important followup to this recognition is the practice of offering the thought to the Holy Spirit with willingness to accept His help to see it with Christ’s vision. As we accept His gift, we take another step to the full experience of the peace of God in Heaven.

Only a habit of believing separation is real without question stands in the way of our peace. But habits can be changed, if we are willing. Today we affirm the fact that God gave us His peace. It is ours now. We are willing to accept His gift and awaken to Love.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting Our True Self as God Created It

God has condemned me not. No more do I.

My Father knows my holiness. Shall I deny His knowledge, and believe in what His knowledge makes impossible? Shall I accept as true what He proclaims as false? Or shall I take His Word for what I am, since He is my Creator, and the One Who knows the true condition of His Son?

Father, I was mistaken in myself, because I failed to realize the Source from which I came. I have not left that Source to enter in a body and to die. My holiness remains a part of me, as I am part of You. And my mistakes about myself are dreams. I let them go today. And I stand ready to receive Your Word alone for what I really am. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 228, W-pII.228. See also ACIM Lesson 228 Insights.)

Most of us view the world through a lens of guilt and shame. We believe we are guilty of denying God and deserve to be punished for this sin. It manifests in our dream as harm to the body in the forms of sickness and bodily harm. We are ashamed of what we have done and believe we are unworthy of Love and appreciation. This is the condition of our experience identified with the ego.

We have condemned ourselves to this. But God has not. He knows His Son, our true Self, remains one with Him in the innocence and changelessness of Love. He has not changed His Mind about His creation. We remain eternally united with our Source. He judges us worthy of His Love, forever innocent, forever whole. This is His Word about His Son. We remain forever at Home in the Heaven of God’s Love, invulnerable to any change.

Today let us remind ourselves frequently that we remain as God created us, forever loved and forever loving. And when we look upon a brother, we affirm that he is forever loved and loving. As we accept this thought, we free ourselves from the dream of separation.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Remembering the Love We Share with God

I walk with God in perfect holiness.

Today’s idea but states the simple truth that makes the thought of sin impossible. It promises there is no cause for guilt, and being causeless it does not exist. [This idea] follows surely from the basic thought so often mentioned in the text; ideas leave not their source. If this be true, how can you be apart from God? How could you walk the world alone and separate from your Source?

You cannot walk the world apart from God, because you could not be without Him. He is what your life is. Where you are He is. There is one life. That life you share with Him. Nothing can be apart from Him and live.

Yet where He is, there must be holiness as well as life. No attribute of His remains unshared by everything that lives. What lives is holy as Himself, because what shares His life is part of Holiness, and could no more be sinful than the sun could choose to be of ice; the sea elect to be apart from water, or the grass to grow with roots suspended in the air. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 156, W-pI.156.1;2:4-3-3. See also ACIM Lesson 156 Insights.)

Our existence depends upon our unbreakable connection with our Source. We exist solely as God’s Son—the extension of His Love. This existence has nothing to do with our image of a self limited to a body in a dream of separation. Dreams do not exist in truth. What we seem to experience in a dream has no effect on our real existence in God.

Our only meaningful purpose in the world is to bring the illusions of the dream to truth — to bring our misperceptions to the Holy Spirit for His loving correction. We are not alone. We cannot harm or be harmed in truth. As we learn that we are not a body, we learn that we are free from harm, from sin, from anything other than Love. Only Love is real. This is the foundation of God’s plan for our salvation, our release from the mistaken belief in being separate.

Today we remember that we walk with God in perfect holiness. The perception of anything other than this is a call for Love. We respond to this call by asking for the Holy Spirit’s help to see past the error to the Love we are, united in God.

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