Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Forgiveness Makes Way for Love’s Return

It is your Father’s holy Will that you complete Himself, and that your Self shall be His sacred Son, forever pure as He, of love created and in love preserved, extending love, creating in its name, forever one with God and with your Self.

³Forgiveness represents your function here.

…God created One Who has the power to translate in form the wholly formless. ⁶What He makes are dreams, but of a kind so close to waking that the light of day already shines in them, and eyes already opening behold the joyful sights their offerings contain.

Forgiveness gently looks upon all things unknown in Heaven, sees them disappear, and leaves the world a clean and unmarked slate on which the Word of God can now replace the senseless symbols written there before. ²Forgiveness is the means by which the fear of death is overcome, because it holds no fierce attraction now and guilt is gone. ³Forgiveness lets the body be perceived as what it is; a simple teaching aid, to be laid by when learning is complete, but hardly changing him who learns at all. (A Course in Miracles, W-192.1:1;2:3;3:5–4:3. See also ACIM Lesson 192 Insights.)

The world we perceive represents the ego’s refusal to accept God’s gift of all of His Love. Because only Love is real, the ego made a dream which seems to present an alternate reality. It could never be true. But if we believe it is true, we cannot experience the reality of the Love we are, forever held within God’s Love.

God’s Voice calls us to awaken as He gently guides us to forgive our misperceptions. Each forgiven misperception loosens our attachment to the ego’s wish for specialness. We have diligently taught ourselves to believe the dream is real. Now we must learn the Holy Spirit’s lessons which show us that nothing the ego offers will satisfy our need to be the Self God created one with Him.

As we learn that the dream offers nothing of value, we lay it down. We open our mind to the Light of Love which shows us our unity with every brother. Forgiveness offers us the means to awaken from the dream and accept our place in the Home God created one with Him.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Putting Love in Charge

This holy instant would I give to You. Be
You in charge. For I would follow You,
certain that Your direction gives me peace.

And if I need a word to help me, He will give it to me. ²If I need a thought, that will He also give. ³And if I need but stillness and a tranquil, open mind, these are the gifts I will receive of Him. ⁴He is in charge by my request. ⁵And He will hear and answer me, because He speaks for God my Father and His holy Son. (A Course in Miracles, W-361-365. See also ACIM Lesson 361 Insights.)

When we put the ego in charge, our experience is filled disruptions, disunity, disorder and discord. When we put the Holy Spirit in charge, we experience the constancy and unity of changeless Love. There is no conflict for His vision shows us the singularity of Love. In every instant we choose between these two options.

By beginning each day with a dedication to follow the Holy Spirit’s lead, we affirm our willingness to follow His direction. It is a choice to be happy and loving because we are accepting our Self as God created It.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Fulfilling Our Function Brings Peace and Happiness

²My function here is to forgive the world for all the errors I have made. ³For thus am I released from them with all the world.

²God’s Will is perfect happiness for me. ³And I can suffer but from the belief there is another will apart from His.

²I share my Father’s Will for me, His Son. ³What He has given me is all I want. ⁴What He has given me is all there is. (A Course in Miracles, W-115.1:2-3. W-116.1:2-3;2:2-4. See also ACIM Lesson 116 Insights.)

The messy world we perceive comes from believing we have a will different from God. As a whole it is not a happy world. But God’s Will for His Son is perfect happiness. The mess we see in the world demonstrates our mistaken belief in a will separate from God’s. This is the belief that must be forgiven to make way for the happiness God Wills for us.

Forgiveness is letting go of the wish to be separate and have our own will separate from God’s. This wish appears in myriad forms. Our function is to forgive each form that interferes with our experience of God’s joy. The Holy Spirit is ever present in our mind to help us forgive. We cannot do it alone.

The ego would have us believe there are so many things to forgive that complete forgiveness would take forever. But each form is an aspect of the one error of belief in separation. The practice of forgiveness generalizes. With practice, we recognize more and more the commonality of the error. Situations that used to upset us no longer trigger reactions. Our state of mind is increasingly happy and peaceful. It’s worth the practice.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Finding God’s Happiness

My present happiness is all I see.

Unless I look upon what is not there, my present happiness is all I see. ²Eyes that begin to open see at last. ³And I would have Christ’s vision come to me this very day. ⁴What I perceive without God’s Own Correction for the sight I made is frightening and painful to behold. ⁵Yet I would not allow my mind to be deceived by the belief the dream I made is real an instant longer. ⁶This the day I seek my present happiness, and look on nothing else except the thing I seek.

With this resolve I come to You, and ask Your strength to hold me up today, while I but seek to do Your Will. ²You cannot fail to hear me, Father. ³What I ask have You already given me. ⁴And I am sure that I will see my happiness today. (A Course in Miracles, W-290. See also ACIM Lesson 290 Insights.)

Happiness cannot be found in a fantasy that denies the Source of happiness. A dream that relies on the past to project future happiness overlooks the only point in time where true happiness exists. Happiness is in the eternal now. We welcome happiness when we forgive the past; when we forgive the wish for specialness.

Forgiveness seems to be difficult only because we are heavily invested in the belief that the past predicts the future. But as we are willing to accept the Help given us, we have the strength of God that supersedes the ego’s meaningless offerings.

An old friend used to pray, “Lord, prop me up on the leaning side.” Today we ask God’s help to strengthen us where our willingness is weak so we can forgive our belief in weakness. He does not judge us for our belief in weakness, but offers His help to find true happiness in His Love.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Choosing to See Love Reflected in the World

You may complain that this course is not sufficiently specific for you to understand and use. ²Yet perhaps you have not done what it specifically advocates. ³This is not a course in the play of ideas, but in their practical application. ⁴Nothing could be more specific than to be told that if you ask you will receive. ⁵The Holy Spirit will answer every specific problem as long as you believe that problems are specific. ⁶His answer is both many and one, as long as you believe that the one is many. ⁷You may be afraid of His specificity, for fear of what you think it will demand of you. ⁸Yet only by asking will you learn that nothing of God demands anything of you. ⁹God gives; He does not take. ¹⁰When you refuse to ask, it is because you believe that asking is taking rather than sharing.

Little child of God, you do not understand your Father. ²You believe in a world that takes, because you believe that you can get by taking. ³And by that perception you have lost sight of the real [forgiven] world. …⁷Blessed are you who are willing to ask the truth of God without fear, for only thus can you learn that His answer is the release from fear. (A Course in Miracles, T-11.VIII.5;7:1-3,7. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

As long as we value specialness, we will be afraid of God’s Will for us. With the quest for specialness comes the demand for sacrifice. We cannot have more than another without demanding sacrifice by soemone whom we would be different from. The ego’s forms of specialness are myriad. But we cannot want to be better than someone without asking the other to be less. This is the demand for sacrifice.

The ego projects its demand for sacrifice on God, for it perceives only itself. Of course we will believe that God demands sacrifice while we identify with the ego. This is why it is essential that we forgive our misperceptions, a wish for specialness, for only then will we welcome God’s gift of all of His Love.

Forgiveness brings willingness to receive His Answer. His Answer will unify us in His Thought of Love. It will show us the truth of Love in every brother and we will recognize it as a reflection of What we are. Christ, the Son of Love, sees Himself in everyone.

Today we choose to be watchful of how we are seeing our brothers. Do we see the Love in Him? Do we recognize His calls for Love and answer with Love? As we answer yes to these questions, our mind is healed. We remember the Love we are.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Remembering Love Is Our Reality

I have already chosen what You will.

Father, I thought I wandered from Your Will, defied it, broke its laws, and interposed a second will more powerful than Yours. ²Yet what I am in truth is but Your Will, extended and extending. ³This am I, and this will never change. ⁴As You are One, so am I one with You. ⁵And this I chose in my creation, where my will became forever one with Yours. ⁶That choice was made for all eternity. ⁷It cannot change, and be in opposition to itself. ⁸Father, my will is Yours. ⁹And I am safe, untroubled and serene, in endless joy, because it is Your Will that it be so.

Today we will accept our union with each other and our Source. ²We have no will apart from His, and all of us are one because His Will is shared by all of us. ³Through it we recognize that we are one. ⁴Through it we find our way at last to God. (A Course in Miracles, W-329. See also ACIM Lesson 329 Insights.)

We don’t remember that we chose to accept God’s Will as ours because all we remember is the ego’s dream that denies God’s Will. But denial does not change the fact. It only makes us unaware of it. The fact is that everything God is, His Son is. This means that if we are not supremely happy, in a state of peace that does not change and sharing the eternal extension of God’s Love, we are denying Reality. We are denying our very existence.

We can reclaim our unity with God by letting go of our allegiance to the ego’s denial of God’s Love. We let go through forgiveness of our wish to be different from God’s Creation. This is what forgiveness does. We have a mighty Companion Whose purpose is to help us forgive. But we need to be willing to accept this help.

Today we affirm that we accept the Will of God as ours as It has always been in truth. We choose Reality today instead of fantasy. We choose Love instead of fear. We choose peace and joy.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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A Recipe for a Happy Day

…you cannot make decisions by yourself. ⁴The only question really is with what you choose to make them.

Your day is not at random. ²It is set by what you choose to live it with, and how the friend [ego or Holy Spirit] whose counsel you have sought perceives your happiness. ³You always ask advice before you can decide on anything.

…you and your adviser must agree on what you want before it can occur. ³It is but this agreement that permits all things to happen. ⁴Nothing can be caused without some form of union, be it with a dream of judgment or the Voice for God. ⁵Decisions cause results _because_ they are not made in isolation.

It needs but two [you and Holy Spirit] who would have happiness this day to promise it to all the world. ²It needs but two to understand that they cannot decide alone, to guarantee the joy they asked for will be wholly shared. …⁵These two are joined before there can be a decision. ⁶Let this be the one reminder that you keep in mind, and you will have the day you want, and give it to the world by having it yourself. ⁷Your judgment has been lifted from the world by your decision for a happy day. ⁸And as you have received, so must you give. (A Course in Miracles, T-30.I.14:3-4;15:1-3;16:2-5;17:1-2,5-8. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The consequence of choosing to believe that specialness will make us happy is the dream of conflict, loss, guilt and fear we experience. We have made an “advisor,” the ego, that we rely on as a guide in all decision making to guide us to the specialness we seek. The ego cannot offer true and lasting happiness. The best it can offer are substitute fantasies that bring us temporary happiness. This happiness never lasts because it has no reliable foundation.

In answer for our self-made advisor, God gave us His Advisor, the Holy Spirit. In every instant we can choose the Holy Spirit as our advisor. We can rely on Him to guide us to true and lasting happiness. He guides us to remember the joy that is innate in the Love we are as created by God.

The recipe to have a happy day is to choose the Holy Spirit as our Advisor. When we join with Him, we unite with the Love of God. There is no greater joy than experiencing the presence of God’s Love. His Love is ours. His joy is ours.

We start today by committing to the practice of judging nothing on our own. Instead we ask of the Holy Spirit, “How would You see this? What would You have me do or say? I would only follow You.”

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