Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Our Holy Relationship Includes Everyone

An unholy relationship is based on differences, where each one thinks the other has what he has not.

A holy relationship starts from a different premise. Each one has looked within and seen no lack. Accepting his completion, he would extend it by joining with another, whole as himself. He sees no difference between these selves, for differences are only of the body.

Think what a holy relationship can teach! Here is belief in differences undone. Here is the faith in differences shifted to sameness. And here is sight of differences transformed to vision. Reason now can lead you and your brother to the logical conclusion of your union. [Your union] must extend, as you extended when you and he joined. It must reach out beyond itself, as you reached out beyond the body, to let you and your brother be joined. And now the sameness that you saw extends and finally removes all sense of differences, so that the sameness that lies beneath them all becomes apparent. Here is the golden circle where you recognize the Son of God. For what is born into a holy relationship can never end. (A Course in Miracles, T-22.in.2:5;3:1-4;4. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

Love created us complete, wholly like Itself. Because Love lacks nothing, it has no needs and makes no demands. The holy relationship comes with the recognition of the complete Love within and sees that same Love in another. From the point of knowing completion, Love sees Itself everywhere, joining with all in the unity of Love. This is our natural state.

The ego is the denial of Love and therefore believes it lacks Love. This sense of lack drives its continuous search to find Love, to find completion. But the ego’s world of illusions cannot provide what the ego seeks. The way to find completion is to forgive; to let go of the belief in separation (lack of Love) as reality.

To see the truth of the complete Love within, we have to forgive all the mistaken beliefs that tell us we are incomplete. As we learn that we in fact need nothing for we already have all that is real, we no longer seek for completion in others. Instead we join with the completion in others, the Love that they are. Through forgiveness, our experience of the world shifts from fear and guilt to a joyful extension of Love without end. Our holy relationship includes everyone, for Love makes no exceptions.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Being Free to Be Our True Self

Salvation requires the acceptance of but one thought;—you are as God created you, not what you made of yourself. Whatever evil you may think you did, you are as God created you. Whatever mistakes you made, the truth about you is unchanged. Creation is eternal and unalterable. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. You are and will forever be exactly as you were created. Light and joy and peace abide in you because God put them there.

You are what God created or what you made. One Self is true; the other is not there. Try to experience the unity of your one Self. Try to appreciate Its Holiness and the love from which It was created. Try not to interfere with the Self which God created as you, by hiding Its majesty behind the tiny idols of evil and sinfulness you have made to replace It. Let It come into Its Own. Here you are; This is You. And light and joy and peace abide in you because this is so. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 93, W-pI.93.7;9. See also ACIM Lesson 93 Insights.)

God is Love and nothing else. Likewise, the Self He created is Love and nothing else. Love cannot harm, so it is wholly innocent. Out true Self shares these attributes. This is why our innocence is guaranteed by God.

The ego thought system of separation denies Love and therefore believes guilt and sin are real. We have taught ourselves to believe that we are the ego’s image of our self. It seems that, if we were to accept our innocence, we would lose our identity as the self-image made by the the ego thought system. The ego perceives this as death because it would mean the end of the ego’s image of the little self. This is true. But this is not loss. It is salvation. It clears away the illusion of separation that hides the Self God created from our awareness.

It is time to forgive or let go of the ego’s images of separation, guilt and sin. Our salvation lies in letting go of the false and accepting the truth that we remain as God created us. We are Love and nothing else. It is this acceptance that frees us and saves the world.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Finding God’s Strength Within

How does one overcome illusions? Surely not by force or anger, nor by opposing them in any way. Merely by letting reason tell you that they contradict reality. They go against what must be true. The opposition comes from [illusions], and not reality. Reality opposes nothing. What merely is needs no defense, and offers none. Only illusions need defense because of weakness. And how can it be difficult to walk the way of truth when only weakness interferes? You are the strong one in this seeming conflict. And you need no defense. Everything that needs defense you do not want, for anything that needs defense will weaken you.

Forget not, when you feel the need arise to be defensive about anything, you have identified yourself with an illusion. And therefore feel that you are weak because you are alone. This is the cost of all illusions. Not one [illusion] but rests on the belief that you are separate. Not one that does not seem to stand, heavy and solid and immovable, between you and your brother. And not one that truth cannot pass over lightly, and so easily that you must be convinced, in spite of what you thought it was, that it is nothing. If you forgive your brother, this must happen. For it is your unwillingness to overlook what seems to stand between you and your brother that makes it look impenetrable, and defends the illusion of its immovability. (A Course in Miracles, T-22.V.1;6. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

Our strength lies in our unity with God, the only Source of strength. We feel fearful and defensive only because we have identified with an illusion of our self, which denies God’s strength in us. Our belief in a false self that is powerless makes us unaware of our real strength. God’s strength is always with us, whether we are aware of it or not.

As long as we believe we are a powerless, separate self, we will defend this image even unto death. We need to be taught that there is another Self, the one Self we all share that is united with the strength of God. The Holy Spirit will teach us to see past the false separate image we project on our brother. Beyond that false image is the Light of Love, harmless yet with power that needs no defense.

Forgiveness teaches us that what appears to happen between “battling” images has no effect on our one Self. There is truly no need to defend what cannot harm nor be harmed. Today we forgive by welcoming the Holy Spirit’s vision, which will always show us the Light of Love beyond all images of separation.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Claiming God’s Strength as Ours

The idea for today [there is nothing to fear] simply states a fact. It is not a fact to those who believe in illusions, but illusions are not facts. In truth there is nothing to fear. It is very easy to recognize this. But it is very difficult to recognize it for those who want illusions to be true.

The presence of fear is a sure sign that you are trusting in your own strength. The awareness that there is nothing to fear shows that somewhere in your mind, though not necessarily in a place you recognize as yet, you have remembered God, and let His strength take the place of your weakness. The instant you are willing to [let His strength take the place of your weakness] there is indeed nothing to fear. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 48, W-pI.48:1;3. See also ACIM Lesson 48 Insights.)

The ego is weak because it denies the strength of God. Because God is all that is real, the ego cannot be real. To believe in the ego thought system is to believe in illusions and deny Reality.

Fear is a warning flag, not that we are in danger, but that we are believing in an illusion. It is not the illusion that needs to be defended against or fixed. It is the belief in the false idea that needs to be corrected. The practice of bringing all our fear thoughts, all our uncertainty and sense of weakness, to the Holy Spirit with willingness to receive His loving correction is the path to freedom from fear.

The Holy Spirit’s purpose is to remind us that the strength of God is ours. As we accept His help, we learn that there is nothing that can harm the truth of What we are. Our true Self remains eternally safe in God’s strength. The belief that we are something else that is vulnerable and weak will fade away as the Holy Spirit reminds us that we remain as God created us, with all His strength and all His Love.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Learning Lessons of Peace and Happiness

All things are lessons God would have me learn.

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

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 213, W-pI.213. See also ACIM Lesson 213 Insights.)

The ego believes in guilt and punishment. It projects this belief onto God. When bad things seem to happen to us, the ego interprets this as God’s punishing lesson. But this is the lesson the ego wants us to learn to justify the illusion of guilt and punishment.

God cannot conceive of punishment because Love sees only innocence. God’s lesson is that what we perceive as hurt, fear or guilt is based on a false idea that could never be true. His lesson would teach us to see our eternal harmlessness. God’s lesson always teaches that only Love is real. The perception of anything other than Love, peace and joy is nothing more than a mistaken belief that needs to be let go. What is not true does not exist and cannot affect God’s Son.

With this idea in mind, every perception that is less than peaceful and happy is a lesson that God would have us learn — to overlook the false that could never be true. If we are willing to accept the Holy Spirit’s help, we will learn the lesson presented to us by the false perception. Any pain associated with God’s lessons come from the ego’s misinterpretation. God’s lessons always lead to deeper peace and greater happiness.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Now Is the Time to Join with Love

There is no escape from fear in the ego’s use of time. For time, according to its teaching, is nothing but a teaching device for compounding guilt until it becomes all-encompassing, demanding vengeance forever.

The Holy Spirit would undo all of this now. Fear is not of the present, but only of the past and future, which do not exist. There is no fear in the present when each instant stands clear and separated from the past, without its shadow reaching out into the future. Each instant is a clean, untarnished birth, in which the Son of God emerges from the past into the present. And the present extends forever. It is so beautiful and so clean and free of guilt that nothing but happiness is there. No darkness is remembered, and immortality and joy are now.

Begin to practice the Holy Spirit’s use of time as a teaching aid to happiness and peace. Take this very instant, now, and think of it as all there is of time. Nothing can reach you here out of the past, and it is here that you are completely absolved, completely free and wholly without condemnation. From this holy instant wherein holiness was born again you will go forth in time without fear, and with no sense of change with time. (A Course in Miracles, T-15.I.7:6-8:7;9:4-7. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

In every instant we choose between guilt and innocence, hell and Heaven. There is no in-between, though we may vacillate between identifying with our true Self or with the image the ego has made as our identity. With the Holy Spirit’s help we can train ourselves to identify with our true Self. Our true Self is always present, now, but it is hidden while we bring the ego’s images of the past and overlay them on the present.

Pause for a moment and notice the thoughts that pass through your mind. If you are honest with yourself, you will see that these thoughts are always based on the past. While we identify with the ego, we will always perceive the present based on our memories of the past. Our true Self’s only memory is of the eternal, changeless Love of God.

The Holy Spirit was given us to teach us to identify with our true Self. In each now moment we can choose the Holy Spirit as our Teacher. He will teach us how to let go of the past and all its fear and guilt. As we accept the Holy Spirit’s lessons, we free ourselves to experience now in the brilliant Light of Love, free of the ego’s dark shadows of hate and guilt. Now is the time to join with the true Self we share with all our brothers.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Seeing Past Guilt to Innocence

This course has explicitly stated that its goal for you is happiness and peace. Yet you are afraid of it. You have been told again and again that [the course] will set you free, yet you sometimes react as if it is trying to imprison you. You often dismiss it more readily than you dismiss the ego’s thought system. To some extent, then, you must believe that by not learning the course you are protecting yourself. And you do not realize that it is only your guiltlessness that can protect you.

In the extreme, you are afraid of redemption and you believe it will kill you. Make no mistake about the depth of this fear. For you believe that, in the presence of truth, you might turn on yourself and destroy yourself.

Little child, this is not so. Your “guilty secret” is nothing, and if you will but bring it to the light, the light will dispel it. And then no dark cloud will remain between you and the remembrance of your Father, for you will remember His guiltless Son, who did not die because he is immortal. And you will see that you were redeemed with him, and have never been separated from him. In this understanding lies your remembering, for it is the recognition of love without fear. There will be great joy in Heaven on your homecoming, and the joy will be yours. For the redeemed son of man is the guiltless Son of God, and to recognize him is your redemption. (A Course in Miracles, T-13.II.7;8:4-9:7. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

It is always a happy day in God’s neighborhood because His Will is to be happy. If we are not experiencing happiness, we must believe in the ego thought system of separation from happiness and Love. We believe we have left God’s neighborhood. We have accepted a false identity as our reality. This false identity seems to be capable of harm and must therefore be guilty.

The ego is on constant alert for signs of guilt in others. Its judgments condemn the world as an attempt to hide the guilt it associates with our identity as a body. Thus it maintains the illusion that guilt is justified while seeming to maintain its own innocence. Yet the source of perceived guilt cannot claim innocence.

It is time to choose to learn from our inner Teacher Who will show us the truth of What we are. The Holy Spirit will teach us that we are still Love as Love created us. Love’s innocence is ours. As we let go of believing the ego thought system, we see the truth of Love’s innocence in our brother’s. And the innocence we see in our brothers we learn is true about us. This is the Course’s lesson of redemption. This is how we remember the Self God created one with Him.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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