Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Opening Our Mind to Love

Forgiveness recognizes what you thought your brother did to you has not occurred. ²It does not pardon sins and make them real. ³It sees there was no sin. ⁴And in that view are all your sins forgiven. ⁵What is sin, except a false idea about God’s Son? ⁶Forgiveness merely sees its falsity, and therefore lets it go. ⁷What then is free to take its place is now the Will of God.

An unforgiving thought is one which makes a judgment that it will not raise to doubt, although it is not true. ²The mind is closed, and will not be released.

In frantic action it pursues its goal, twisting and overturning what it sees as interfering with its chosen path. ³Distortion is its purpose…

Forgiveness, on the other hand, is still, and quietly does nothing. ²It offends no aspect of reality, nor seeks to twist it to appearances it likes. ³It merely looks, and waits, and judges not. …he who would forgive himself must learn to welcome truth exactly as it is. (A Course in Miracles, W-pII.1.1:1–2:2;3:2-3;4:1-3,5)

The unforgiving ego mind diligently hangs on to the past. It judges the present based on these memories. But the past is gone; it does not exist now. So the ego’s judgments are always unfounded and meaningless. Only our belief in the ego and its carefully guarded past keeps our mind closed to the recognition that only the changelessness of God’s Love is real.

The Course is teaching us to open our minds to the possibility that our judgments may be wrong. The Holy Spirit’s vision teaches us to see the reality of Love in our brothers and learn of Love’s reality in us. In the Light of Love we see that our true Self, which is shared with every brother, is invulnerable. It shares the changelessness of God’ Love being forever united with our Creator.

The ego always attempts to teach that harm and loss are real. We need the Light of Holy Spirit’s vision to dispel these dark, mistaken beliefs. In this Light, we forgive and awaken to the truth that we are Love and nothing else.

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Accepting the Holy Spirit’s Lessons in Love

All things are lessons God would have me learn.

²A lesson is a miracle which God offers to me, in place of thoughts I made that hurt me. ³What I learn of Him becomes the way I am set free. ⁴And so I choose to learn His lessons and forget my own.

Love is the way I walk in gratitude.

²The Holy Spirit is my only Guide. ³He walks with me in Love. ⁴And I give thanks to Him for showing me the way to go.

⁵I am not a body. ⁶I am free.
⁷For I am still as God created me. (A Course in Miracles, W-213.1:1-4. W-215.1. See also ACIM Lesson 215 Insights.)

If we perceive a situation or event as disturbing our peace, we need to remember that this situation was not made by God; It is a reflection of what we believe about ourselves. If we are willing to let the Holy Spirit guide our vision, the perception becomes a lesson to show us the belief that needs healing in our mind. This is the lesson God would have us learn. We are not separate, but eternally united with Him in His Love.

When we choose the Holy Spirit’s vision in place of the ego’s judgment, we open our mind to a miracle. We learn to see past the appearance to the eternal, changeless reality of Love. With this awareness comes gratitude, for we have accepted God’s gift in place of the ego’s empty substitute.

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Learning to Trust the Love We Are

Trusting [the truth in] your brothers is essential to establishing and holding up your faith in your ability to transcend doubt and lack of sure conviction in yourself. ²When you attack [judge] a brother, you proclaim that he is limited by what you have perceived in him. ³You do not look beyond his errors. ⁴Rather, they are magnified, becoming blocks to your awareness of the Self that lies beyond your own mistakes, and past his seeming sins as well as yours.

…if a brother’s sins occur to us, our narrowed focus will restrict our sight, and turn our eyes upon our own mistakes, which we will magnify and call our “sins.” ³So, for a little while, without regard to past or future, should such blocks arise we will transcend them with instructions to our minds to change their focus, as we say:

⁴It is not this that I would look upon.
⁵I trust my brothers, who are one with me.

…as our focus goes beyond mistakes, we will behold a wholly sinless world. ⁴When seeing this is all we want to see, when this is all we seek for in the name of true perception, are the eyes of Christ inevitably ours. ⁵And the Love He feels for us becomes our own as well. ⁶This will become the only thing we see reflected in the world and in ourselves. (A Course in Miracles, W-181.1;6:2-5;8:3-6. See also ACIM Lesson 181 Insights.)

We attack our brothers and ourselves when we believe we are a body. The truth is that we are all one in God’s Love. We are not to a body, but united in the one Mind of Love.

We have conditioned ourselves to believe that what is perceived through the body is real. The ego’s interpretation of these perceptions is based upon the past. This is the only frame of reference the ego has. But the past does not exist in truth, so the ego’s interpretations are based on meaningless “memories.”

This lesson is providing a way to train our mind to disregard the past and future to allow our mind to welcome the presence of God’s Love. The reality of Love is in the eternal present. Only in the present can we be aware of the truth that our brother is Love and nothing else. As we welcome this awareness, we remember the truth in ourselves.

Love does not judge. It sees only Itself. When we let the eyes of Christ show us the truth in our brother, we recognize he is one with us, united as God’s one Son in His Love. Today we focus on our desire to remember the Love we are and experience the joy of joining with the Love in our brothers.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Reclaiming the Certainty of God’s Love

⁵God is the strength in which I trust.

…try to slip past all concerns related to your own sense of inadequacy. ²It is obvious that any situation that causes you concern is associated with feelings of inadequacy, for otherwise you would believe that you could deal with the situation successfully. ³It is not by trusting yourself that you will gain confidence. ⁴But the strength of God in you is successful in all things.

The recognition of your own frailty is a necessary step in the correction of your errors, but it is hardly a sufficient one in giving you the confidence which you need, and to which you are entitled. ²You must also gain an awareness that confidence in your real strength is fully justified in every respect and in all circumstances.

…try to reach down into your mind to a place of real safety. ²You will recognize that you have reached it if you feel a sense of deep peace, however briefly. ³Let go all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind, and reach down and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven. ⁴There is a place in you where there is perfect peace. ⁵There is a place in you where nothing is impossible. ⁶There is a place in you where the strength of God abides.

³Remember that peace is your right, because you are giving your trust to the strength of God. (A Course in Miracles, W-47.4:5–7:6;8:3). See also ACIM Lesson 47 Insights.

We have taught ourselves to trust what the body’s senses tell us. We are trusting in the ego’s denial of Love, the only thing that is real in the world. But the ego has no strength of its own, no understanding of Reality and cannot Love. This misplaced reliance on the body and the ego leaves us in a constant state of uncertainty. Nothing in the ego or the body’s perception is stable.

The Love of God is eternal. It never changes. It is the only source of strength. We find peace when we shift our allegiance to the Truth in us, the Love of God. In His Love we are invulnerable. We can be certain of our safety in Love’s changelessness.

As we practice pausing to let our mind settle into the quiet place within where God’s Love dwells eternally, the uncertainty and apprehension we experience in the world fades. Peace replaces conflict. Love replaces fear. The darkness in our mind is dispelled by the Light of Love. Today is a good day to practice.

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Being True to the Will We Share with God

Perception selects, and makes the world you see. ²It literally picks it out as the mind directs. ³The laws of size and shape and brightness would hold, perhaps, if other things were equal. ⁴They are not equal. ⁵For what you look for you are far more likely to discover than what you would prefer to overlook. ⁶The still, small Voice for God is not drowned out by all the ego’s raucous screams and senseless ravings to those who want to hear It. ⁷Perception is a choice and not a fact. ⁸But on this choice depends far more than you may realize as yet. ⁹For on the voice you choose to hear, and on the sights you choose to see, depends entirely your whole belief in what you are. ¹⁰Perception is a witness but to [what you believe you are], and never to reality.

³Listen to what the ego says, and see what it directs you see, and it is sure that you will see yourself as tiny, vulnerable and afraid. ⁴You will experience depression, a sense of worthlessness, and feelings of impermanence and unreality.

There is another vision and another Voice in which your freedom lies, awaiting but your choice. ²And if you place your faith in Them, you will perceive another Self in you. ³This other Self sees miracles as natural. ⁴They are as simple and as natural to it as breathing to the body. ⁵They are the obvious response to calls for help, the only one [this Self] makes. ⁶Miracles seem unnatural to the ego because it does not understand how separate minds can influence each other. ⁷Nor could they do so. ⁸But minds cannot be separate. ⁹This other Self is perfectly aware of this. ¹⁰And thus it recognizes that miracles do not affect another’s mind, only its own. ¹¹They always change your mind. ¹²There is no other [mind].

God’s plan is simple; never circular and never self-defeating. ²He has no Thoughts except the Self-extending, and in this your will must be included. ³Thus, there must be a part of you that knows His Will and shares It. (A Course in Miracles, T-21.V.1:1-10;2:3-4;3;6:1-3. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

When we believe we are a body, we are listening to the ego which tells us that we are little, vulnerable, of little value and we need to be afraid in the world. With this belief, happiness and Love allude us, for the ego actively denies their Source.

But we can choose to listen to the Voice for God instead. This choice tells us we are one with the Mind of God and with every brother. This Voice directs our thoughts to recognize the presence of Love everywhere. It tells us we share God’s strength, joy and Love, for we remain eternally one with Him. His Will is to extend Love, and so it is our will as well.

When we perceive a brother who is unaware of the Love he is, we naturally respond with Love. Our true Self dismisses the ego’s denial when we are willing to see with the eyes of Love. Today we choose to let Love guide our thoughts and vision, for we would be true to the Will we share with God.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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True Vision Reveals Love’s Presence Everywhere

It is important to remember that miracles and vision necessarily go together. ²This needs repeating, and frequent repeating. ³It is a central idea in your new thought system, and the perception that it produces. ⁴The miracle is always there. ⁵Its presence is not caused by your vision; its absence is not the result of your failure to see. ⁶It is only your awareness of miracles that is affected. ⁷You will see them in the light; you will not see them in the dark [absence of Love].

³You do not doubt that the body’s eyes can see. ⁴You do not doubt the images they show you are reality. ⁵Your faith lies in the darkness, not the light. ⁶How can this be reversed?

…instruct yourself that you are not a body. ³Faith goes to what you want, and you instruct your mind accordingly. ⁴Your will remains your teacher, and your will has all the strength to do what it desires. ⁵You can escape the body if you choose. ⁶You can experience the strength in you.

⁷What you think you are is a belief to be undone. ⁸But what you really are must be revealed to you. ⁹The belief you are a body calls for correction, being a mistake. ¹⁰The truth of what you are calls on the strength in you to bring to your awareness what the mistake conceals.

³Remember that all sense of weakness is associated with the belief you are a body, a belief that is mistaken and deserves no faith.

…your efforts, however meager, are fully supported by the strength of God and all His Thoughts. (A Course in Miracles, W-91.1;3:3-6;5:2-6;6:7-10;9:3;10:1. See also ACIM Lesson 91 Insights.)

Our true Self is God’s Son, at one with Him in His Love. This unity means that all the strength of God is ours. He holds nothing back from His Creation.

The belief we are a body denies the oneness of our true Self with God. This mistaken belief is the cause that made the body with its inability to see the Light of Love. Our belief makes the body seem real, but it is only a veil that hides the truth.

We call upon the truth in us as we remind ourselves that we are not a body and ask the Holy Spirit for His vision to help us see the Light of Love. In this Light, we see Love everywhere, for so It is. Love is the truth in our brother as It is in ourselves. In truth nothing exists but Love. As we accept the strength of God in us to help us see truly, we withdraw our belief in the body. We remember God’s strength, Love, peace and joy are ours now.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Release from Our Self-Made Prison

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. ²We have misunderstood all things. ³But we have not made sinners of the holy Sons of God. ⁴What You created sinless so abides forever and forever. ⁵Such are we. ⁶And we rejoice to learn that we have made mistakes which have no real effects on us. ⁷Sin is impossible, and on this fact forgiveness rests upon a certain base more solid than the shadow world we see. ⁸Help us forgive, for we would be redeemed. ⁹Help us forgive, for we would be at peace. (A Course in Miracles, W-359. See also ACIM Lesson 359 Insights.)

Over and over, in many ways, the Course tells us that we are not what we think we are. In truth we remain eternally united with God’s Love as His holy Son. This fact cannot be changed because God’s Love never changes. This is our assurance that we remain held safely in His Love, invulnerable to dreams of sin, guilt, fear and hate. We can count on this invulnerability as the foundation of our release from dreams of separation. What is not real can have no effect on Reality.

The prayer in this lesson expresses willingness to receive the healing forgiveness offers. It reminds us that we have Help to forgive, even the things we think are unforgivable. Let’s join together affirming this prayer to bring release from our self-made prison and awaken to the Love we are in God.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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