You who have tried to banish love have not succeeded, but you who choose to banish fear must succeed. ²The Lord is with you, but you know it not. ³Yet your Redeemer liveth, and abideth in you in the peace out of which He was created. ⁴Would you not exchange [the awareness of peace] for the awareness of fear? ⁵When we have overcome fear—not by hiding it, not by minimizing it, and not by denying its full import in any way—this is what you will really see. ⁶You cannot lay aside the obstacles to real vision without looking upon them, for to lay aside means to judge against. ⁷If you will look, the Holy Spirit will judge, and He will judge truly. ⁸Yet He cannot shine away what you keep hidden, for you have not offered it to Him and He cannot take it from you.
We are therefore embarking on an organized, well-structured and carefully planned program aimed at learning how to offer to the Holy Spirit everything you do not want. ²He knows what to do with it. ³You do not understand how to use what He knows. ⁴Whatever is given Him that is not of God is gone. ⁵Yet you must look at it yourself in perfect willingness, for otherwise His knowledge remains useless to you. ⁶Surely He will not fail to help you, since help is His only purpose. ⁷Do you not have greater reason for fearing the world as you perceive it, than for looking at the cause of fear and letting it go forever? (A Course in Miracles, T-12.II.9:1–10:7. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)
We each have an important role to play in the process of awakening to Love. But while we must do our part, we cannot awaken without the Holy Spirit’s help. We must be willing to look at our fears and offer them to Him. When we release them to Him, He will take them and they will disappear.
As it always does, the ego will try to usurp the Holy Spirit’s role. It will tell us that we must analyze the fear and convince ourselves that forgiveness is justified. But forgiveness on the ego’s terms can never be justified because the it will never contribute to its own demise. It will always direct us on a circular journey that goes nowhere and does nothing. To protect its domain, it will try hide fear and make us afraid of approaching it.
We begin by recognizing when we are not at peace so we must be having a fearful thought. This is when we need to call upon the strength of the Holy Spirit in us to help us look upon our fears. With Him as our Comforter, we know it is safe to look at the fear. Then we must offer it to Him. We can use a simple prayer, “Holy Spirit, please heal my fear-based thoughts.” This practice will lead to our awakening to Love.
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