Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Undoing the Wish for Specialness

Yet the essential thing is learning that you do not know. ²Knowledge is power, and all power is of God. ³You who have tried to keep power for yourself have “lost” it. ⁴You still have the power, but you have interposed so much between it and your awareness of it that you cannot use it. ⁵Everything you have taught yourself has made your power more and more obscure to you. …⁹Yet 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.

⁵Learn of [God’s] happiness, which is yours. ⁶But to accomplish this, all your dark lessons must be brought willingly to truth, and joyously laid down by hands open to receive, not closed to take. ⁷Every dark lesson that you bring to Him Who teaches light He will accept from you, because you do not want it. ⁸And He will gladly exchange each one for the bright lesson He has learned for you. ⁹Never believe that any lesson you have learned apart from Him means anything.

You have one test, as sure as God, by which to recognize if what you learned is true. ²If 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. ³Unless all this is true, there are dark lessons in your mind that hurt and hinder you, and everyone around you. ⁴The absence of perfect peace means but one thing: You think you do not will for God’s Son what his Father wills for him. ⁵Every dark lesson teaches this, in one form or another. ⁶And each bright lesson with which the Holy Spirit will replace the dark ones you do not accept, teaches you that you will with the Father and His Son. (A Course in Miracles, T-14.XI.1:1-5,9;4:5–5:6. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The ego is our answer to our wish for specialness. It provides a dream that blocks out awareness of the reality of God’s Love. In Its place, the ego offers a dream that seems to provide the specialness we seek. But only at the cost of Heaven. The condition of Heaven is the oneness of God’s Love. Separation and oneness are mutually exclusive; we cannot have both.

The ego’s offerings require constant defense because they oppose our true Will, which we share with God. The ego defends itself by offering myriad forms to convince us that its dream is real. These forms appeal to us because they seem to offer what we want. But they are meaningless illusions which offer only temporary satisfaction.

The Holy Spirit’s lessons start with showing us the price we pay for wanting specialness. The price is loss of peace and lasting happiness. As we learn the Holy Spirit’s lessons, the ego’s defenses of separation become less willingly accepted. Each Holy Spirit lesson, learned and accepted, brings increasing peace of mind and happiness. Our willingness to accept God’s Will as ours increases.

Let us dedicate today to welcoming Holy Spirit’s lessons in Love, for we would return to the peace and joy of Heaven.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Learning from the Guide to Truth

²To forgive is to overlook. ³Look, then, beyond error and do not let your perception rest upon it, for you will believe what your perception holds. ⁴Accept as true only what your brother is, if you would know yourself. ⁵Perceive what he is not and you cannot know what you are, because you see him falsely. ⁶Remember always that your Identity [Love] is shared, and that Its sharing is Its reality.

²You do not understand how to overlook errors, or you would not make them. ³It would merely be further error to believe either that you do not make them, or that you can correct [errors] without a Guide to correction. ⁴And if you do not follow this Guide, your errors will not be corrected. ⁵The plan is not yours because of your limited ideas about what you are. ⁶This sense of limitation is where all errors arise. ⁷The way to undo them, therefore, is not of you but for you.

The Atonement is a lesson in sharing, which is given you because you have forgotten how to do it [share]. ²The Holy Spirit merely reminds you of the natural use of your abilities. ³By reinterpreting the ability to attack into the ability to share [Love], He translates what you have made into what God created. (A Course in Miracles, T-9.IV.1:2-6;2:2–3:3. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

While we believe we are a body, we are believing in a false identity. This has no effect on our true Identity as Love, but it does make us unaware of It. We have taught ourselves to believe a lie is true. Because we have embraced this insane thought system, we need help from a Guide Who can lead us out of our insanity. This is the Holy Spirit’s purpose.

We need to be willing to follow our Guide to truth to regain awareness of our true Self as Love, united with all in that Love. When we are willing to question our interpretations and ask for the Holy Spirit’s re-interpretation of our perceptions, we open the door to return to Love. Love is always there, ready to be seen and shared. It waits only on our willingness. Love cannot go where It is not welcome.

In every moment of every day we choose between the ego’s “gifts” of specialness or God’s gift of all His Love eternally. Today we practice stepping back from our perceptions to receive the Holy Spirit’s interpretations which will always lead us to sharing Love. This practice will bring us joy and peace as we join in Love.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Choosing the Holy Spirit’s Lessons in Love

The ego does not recognize the real source of “threat,” and if you associate yourself with the ego, you do not understand the situation as it is. ²Only your allegiance to it gives the ego any power over you. ³I have spoken of the ego as if it were a separate thing, acting on its own. ⁴This was necessary to persuade you that you cannot dismiss it lightly, and must realize how much of your thinking is ego-directed. ⁵We cannot safely let it go at that, however, or you will regard yourself as necessarily conflicted as long as you are here, or as long as you believe that you are here. ⁶The ego is nothing more than a part of your belief about yourself. ⁷Your other [real] life has continued without interruption, and has been and always will be totally unaffected by your attempts to dissociate it.

The ego and the spirit do not know each other. ²The separated mind cannot maintain the separation except by dissociating. ³Having done this, it denies all truly natural impulses [to extend Love], not because the ego is a separate thing, but because you want to believe that you are [separate]. ⁴The ego is a device for maintaining this belief, but it is still only your decision to use the device that enables it to endure.

How can you teach someone the value of something he has deliberately thrown away? ²He must have thrown it away because he did not value it. ³You can only show him how miserable he is without it, and slowly bring it nearer so he can learn how his misery lessens as he approaches it. …⁶I am teaching you to associate misery with the ego and joy with the spirit. (A Course in Miracles, T-4.VI.1:1-7;4:1–5:3,6. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

God created His Son as an extension of His Love, sharing It equally with all without limit. Love’s nature is to extend Itself. It is natural that our true Self maintains the eternal extension of Love that is God’s Will for His Son.

By our choice to be separate from God’s Love, we have chosen to throw away the only thing in the universe that has value. This choice leaves us with feeling empty and alone. In our hearts, we miss the Love that God has given us. We long to recover the experience of unity in God’s Love. But while we associate ourselves with the ego, we will search for Love where It cannot be found. This futile search leaves us miserable, depressed, angry and guilty. All this comes from throwing away our awareness of Love’s presence.

Out of His Love for His Son, God gave us the Holy Spirit to gently and lovingly teach us we are not separate. We still have and are all of His Love. We still share His joy and peace. This is the reward we receive when we are willing to accept the Holy Spirit’s lessons in Love. Each time we accept a lesson, our willingness to be taught increases. Our journey of return is lightened by the Love we accept. Today we choose the Holy Spirit as our Guide, for we would remember the peace and joy of our Home in Love.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Letting Love Guide Us to Heaven

The Thought of God created you. ²It left you not, nor have you ever been apart from it an instant. ³It belongs to you. ⁴By it you live. ⁵It is your Source of life, holding you one with it, and everything is one with you because it left you not. ⁶The Thought of God protects you, cares for you, makes soft your resting place and smooth your way, lighting your mind with happiness and love. ⁷Eternity and everlasting life shine in your mind, because the Thought of God has left you not, and still abides with you.

Deny not Heaven. ²It is yours today, but for the asking.

Ask with desire. ²You need not be sure that you request the only thing you want. ³But when you have received, you will be sure you have the treasure you have always sought. ⁴What would you then exchange for it? ⁵What would induce you now to let it fade away from your ecstatic vision? ⁶For this sight proves that you have exchanged your blindness for the seeing eyes of Christ; your mind has come to lay aside denial, and accept the Thought of God as your inheritance. (A Course in Miracles, W-165.2;4:1-2;5. See also ACIM Lesson 165 Insights.)

God is only Love, so His only Thought is Love. Thus our true Self must be only Love. The body’s eyes cannot see Love, for they were made to see only the absence of Love in a dream of separation. If we choose to believe what the body’s eyes see, we choose to be blind to the truth. We are joining with the ego’s denial of God’s Love. But denial does not change God’s Creation—the extension of His Love. It only blocks Love from our awareness.

God’s gift of Heaven needs only our willingness to accept It to know we are in Heaven now. If we are not experiencing the Love, joy and peace of God as ours, it is only because we are denying our true Self.

Today we will remind ourselves frequently that Heaven is ours now. It is our Home and we desire to be at Home now. We want to rest in God’s peace and safety. Our heart’s desire is to remember the Love we share with every brother. We want to give Christ’s vision priority over the appearances the body perceives. With this priority, we walk toward Heaven with Love as our Guide.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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We Are Eternally in Love’s Presence

You are one Self, united and secure in light and joy and peace. ²You are God’s Son, one Self, with one Creator and one goal; to bring awareness of this oneness to all minds, that true creation may extend the allness and the unity of God. ³You are one Self, complete and healed and whole, with power to lift the veil of darkness from the world, and let the light in you come through to teach the world the truth about yourself.

You are one Self, in perfect harmony with all there is, and all that there will be. ²You are one Self, the holy Son of God, united with your brothers in that Self; united with your Father in His Will. ³Feel this one Self in you, and let It shine away all your illusions and your doubts. ⁴This is your Self, the Son of God Himself, sinless as Its Creator, with His strength within you and His Love forever yours. ⁵You are one Self, and it is given you to feel this Self within you, and to cast all your illusions out of the one Mind that is this Self, the holy truth in you.

²To everyone you meet today, be sure to give the promise of today’s idea and tell him this:

³You are one Self with me, united with our Creator in this Self. ⁴I honor you because of What I am, and What He is, Who loves us both as One. (A Course in Miracles, W-95.12:1–13:5;15:2-4. See also ACIM Lesson 95 Insights.)

It is time to claim our inheritance. It is waiting only for our acceptance. We have mistakenly identified with the ego’s rejection of God’s unlimited gift of all of Himself. We can change our mind and remember our safety, our happiness and peace as we dwell in the Heart of God. We have not left His Home, though we dream of being in a far away place, alone and powerless.

Today we accept the truth that we are one Self, forever united with our Creator. We share His Will to be Love and extend Love. We want only to be truly helpful to our brothers by joining with the Love they are. With our willingness, we will be guided in what to think, say and do that extends Love in the world. This is our heart’s desire. We give thanks that we remain as God created us, eternally in the presence of Love.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Christ’s Vision Sees Our Unity with All in Love

Let me not see myself as limited.

Let me behold the Son of God today, and witness to his glory. ²Let me not try to obscure the holy light in him, and see his strength diminished and reduced to frailty; nor perceive the lacks in him with which I would attack his sovereignty.

He is Your Son, my Father. ²And today I would behold his gentleness instead of my illusions. ³He is what I am, and as I see him so I see myself. ⁴Today I would see truly, that this day I may at last identify with him. (A Course in Miracles, W-250. See also ACIM Lesson 250 Insights.)

The world we see is a projection of what we believe about ourselves. We see a world of separate things and separate bodies because we believe we are a body, separate from all others. But we can learn to see our brothers differently with the Holy Spirit’s help. We ask the Holy Spirit to be our interpreter of all our perceptions. We want to see with Christ’s vision which overlooks the form to the eternal presence of Love.

As we accept Christ’s vision, we recognize the Love our brother is and naturally join with It. The Love we are always joins with Love. As we accept Christ’s vision, we learn that our true Self is not separate and alone. It is forever united with God in His Love along with all our brothers. As we accept this, we feel the strength of God in us. We feel His peace and gentleness. We know we are safe in the sure protection of God’s changeless Love.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Our Peace and Happiness Depend on God’s Gift

I will accept Atonement for myself.

Here is the end of choice. ²For here we come to a decision to accept ourselves as God created us. ³And what is choice except uncertainty of what we are? ⁴There is no doubt that is not rooted here. ⁵There is no question but reflects this one. ⁶There is no conflict that does not entail the single, simple question, “What am I?”

Yet who could ask this question except one who has refused to recognize himself?

Nothing the world believes is true. ²It is a place whose purpose is to be a home where those who claim they do not know themselves can come to question what it is they are. ³And they will come again until the time Atonement is accepted, and they learn it is impossible to doubt yourself, and not to be aware of what you are.

Only acceptance can be asked of you, for what you are is certain.

…our mission is:

³I will accept Atonement for myself, for I remain as God created me.

⁴We have not lost the knowledge that God gave to us when He created us like Him. ⁵We can remember it for everyone, for in creation are all minds as one. ⁶And 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, W-139.1:1–2:1;7:1–8:1;11:2-6. See also ACIM Lesson 139 Insights.)

The Course is consistent and unequivocal in its statement that nothing the world believes is true. Our salvation depends on this fact. Beliefs can be changed. We are always free to choose what we believe. Instead of choosing the ego’s denial of reality, we can choose to accept the truth that we remain as God created us. We are still one with Him in His Love. Everyone is one with us in that Love. No exceptions. There are no conditions we must meet to qualify for God’s Love. He has not changed His Mind about His Creations. They remain forever at one with Him.

The only condition is that we must be willing to accept only the truth and nothing but the truth. We must accept no substitutes for God’s Love. Everything the ego offers that seems to be attractive or valuable is a substitute for Love. Being the denial of Reality, the ego offers only illusions with no meaning whatsoever in truth.

Today we make a choice. We choose to accept God’s gift of all of His Love. We welcome His loving embrace. We take comfort in the changelessness of His Love. As we look upon the world today, we remind ourselves that beyond what we see in the world is the Reality of God’s Love. Our happiness and peace depend upon this practice.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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