How easily are God and guilt confused by those who know not what their thoughts can do. Deny your strength [Love], and weakness [guilt] must become salvation to you. See yourself as bound, and bars become your home. Nor will you leave the prison house, or claim your strength, until guilt and salvation are not seen as one, and freedom and salvation are perceived as joined, with strength beside them, to be sought and claimed, and found and fully recognized.
The world must thank you when you offer it release from your illusions. Yet your thanks belong to you as well, for [the world’s] release can only mirror yours. Your gratitude is all your gifts require, that they be a lasting offering of a thankful heart, released from hell forever. Is it this you would undo by taking back your gifts, because they were not honored? It is you who honor them and give them fitting thanks, for it is you who have received the gifts.
It does not matter if another thinks your gifts unworthy. In his mind there is a part that joins with yours in thanking you. It does not matter if your gifts seem lost and ineffectual. They are received where they are given. In your gratitude are they accepted universally, and thankfully acknowledged by the Heart of God Himself. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 197, W-pI.2:1-4:5, emphasis added. See also ACIM Lesson 197 Insights.)
The ego needs guilt to maintain its seeming existence. It uses judgment to project guilt on others to maintain perception of differences and separation. It sees the perception of guilt in others as relief from its own guilt. But this doesn’t really work because thoughts do not leave their source. Perception of guilt in another depends upon acceptance of guilt in the ego-self.
Forgiveness is the only way to relieve the guilt we hold in our minds. It does not matter if the seemingly external object of our forgiveness acknowledges or appreciates the forgiveness. The real gift of forgiveness is to our Self, for it releases our self from guilt. This is the only gift that matters. It is the release from the prison of the ego’s guilt we have believed is our own. We are not the ego and its guilt does not belong to us.
God is grateful for our forgiveness because it opens the door to the limitless flow of His Love, which has been blocked by guilt. We were created worthy of all of God’s Love and we remain worthy of It. Today we ask the Holy Spirit to help us release our unforgiving thoughts and welcome the eternal gift of Love. With this practice we will be blessed by this Love as we offer It to the world.
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