Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Recognizing the Need for Holy Spirit’s Help

There is nothing to fear.

The idea for today simply states a fact. ²It is not a fact to those who believe in illusions, but illusions are not facts. ³In truth there is nothing to fear. ⁴It is very easy to recognize this. ⁵But 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. ²The 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. ³The instant you are willing to do this there is indeed nothing to fear. (A Course in Miracles, W-48.1;3. See also ACIM Lesson 48 Insights.)

We have been given a clear indicator that tells us when we are believing in illusions. If we experience fear, anxiety or worry we are believing illusions are real. Release these symptoms by forgiving our wish for specialness. Illusions come in to our mind when we prefer specialness over the unity of God’s Love. Specialness demands differences. But there can be no differences in Love’s oneness.

We need help from beyond the ego’s thought system to let go of illusions. When we are willing to give up our fears, our wish for specialness, we need to call upon the Holy Spirit for help. He recognizes our mistaken beliefs but does not believe in them.

As we accept His help, we can see past the illusions to the certainty of God’s changeless Love. The fear-based images are replaced by acceptance of the peace and joy that God’s Love offers us. This is our focus for today.

© 2024, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Letting Love Be Our Guide

God is the Love in which I forgive.

³Forgiveness is the great need of this world, but that is because it is a world of illusions. ⁴Those who forgive are thus releasing themselves from illusions, while those who withhold forgiveness are binding themselves to them. ⁵As you condemn only yourself, so do you forgive only yourself.

Yet although God does not forgive, His Love is nevertheless the basis of forgiveness. ²Fear condemns and love forgives. ³Forgiveness thus undoes what fear has produced, returning the mind to the awareness of God. ⁴For this reason, forgiveness can truly be called salvation. ⁵It is the means by which illusions disappear.

⁴God is the Love in which I forgive you, [name].

³God is the Love in which I forgive myself.

⁵God is the Love with which I love myself.
⁶God is the Love in which I am blessed.

³I cannot be guilty because I am a Son of God.
⁴I have already been forgiven.
⁵No fear is possible in a mind beloved of God.
⁶There is no need to attack because love has forgiven me. (W-46.1:3–2:5;4:4;5:3,5-6;6:3-6)

Love does not condemn. A thought of judgment must therefore not be a thought of Love. Judgment denies Love. It is a construct of the thought of separation which is impossible in the oneness of Love.

Love is the basis of all forgiveness. When we forgive, the Light of Love brightens our mind. We see the world in Its Light, which dispels the darkness of judgment.

Today we choose Love as our guiding Light, for we would see the world that God sees. Thus we will remember we remain one with Him in perfect holiness.

© 2024, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Returning to Our Function of Extending Love

My only function is the one God gave me.

The idea for today reaffirms your commitment to salvation. ²It also reminds you that you have no function other than that. ³Both these thoughts are obviously necessary for a total commitment. ⁴Salvation cannot be the only purpose you hold while you still cherish others. ⁵The full acceptance of salvation as your only function necessarily entails two phases; the recognition of salvation as your function, and the relinquishment of all the other goals you have invented for yourself.

³This is the only way in which you can find peace of mind.

²Today’s idea offers you escape from all your perceived difficulties. ³It places the key to the door of peace, which you have closed upon yourself, in your own hands. ⁴It gives you the answer to all the searching you have done since time began.

…set apart the time for God…

…close your eyes, repeat the idea to yourself once again, and watch your mind carefully to catch whatever thoughts cross it. ³At first, make no attempt to concentrate only on thoughts related to the idea for the day. ⁴Rather, try to uncover each thought that arises to interfere with it. ⁵Note each one as it comes to you, with as little involvement or concern as possible, dismissing each one by telling yourself:

⁶This thought reflects a goal that is preventing me from accepting my only function.

⁴On this clean slate let my true function be written for me.

⁵You need not use these exact words, but try to get the sense of being willing to have your illusions of purpose be replaced by truth.

²My only function is the one God gave me. ³I want no other and I have no other. (A Course in Miracles, W-65.1;2:3;3:2-4;4:3;5:2-6;6:4-5;8:2-3. See also ACIM Lesson 65 Insights.)

Because God is Love, He must have given us, His Son, the function to extend Love. In the dream of separation, we need to forgive the wish for separation which is a barrier to Love’s extension. Thus true forgiveness is Love’s reflection in the dream.

Today’s practice is an opportunity to become aware of the many functions we have given ourself to make separation seem real. As we forgive the many forms that the wish for specialness takes, we make way for the natural flow of Love’s extension that is our true function. As we let Love flow, we will experience the peace that is characteristic of God’s Love.

© 2024, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Time Is Now to Welcome God

Forget not once this journey is begun the end is certain. ²Doubt along the way will come and go and go to come again. ³Yet is the ending sure. ⁴No one can fail to do what God appointed him to do. ⁵When you forget, remember that you walk with Him and with His Word upon your heart. ⁶Who could despair when hope like this is his? ⁷Illusions of despair may seem to come, but learn how not to be deceived by them. ⁸Behind each one there is reality and there is God. ⁹Why would you wait for this and trade it for illusions, when His Love is but an instant farther on the road where all illusions end? ¹⁰The end is sure and guaranteed by God.

You are a stranger here. ²But you belong to Him Who loves you as He loves Himself. ³Ask but my help to roll the stone away, and it is done according to His Will. ⁴We have begun the journey. ⁵Long ago the end was written in the stars and set into the Heavens with a shining Ray that held it safe within eternity and through all time as well. ⁶And holds it still; unchanged, unchanging and unchangeable.

³Now we are sure we do not walk alone. ⁴For God is here, and with Him all our brothers. ⁵Now we know that we will never lose the way again.

⁴The morning star of this new day looks on a different world where God is welcomed and His Son with Him. ⁵We who complete Him offer thanks to Him, as He gives thanks to us. ⁶The Son is still, and in the quiet God has given him enters his home and is at peace at last. (C-ep.1:1-10;2;4:3-5;5:4-6)

We are never alone. No matter what illusions we may entertain, we walk with God. His Love surrounds us and protects us. Our illusions can have no effect on the Self God created one with Himself. We remain Love, unchangeable, unchanged and forever one.

Now is the time to accept the Holy Spirit’s help to change our perception of ourself. There is nothing to fear, for the strength of Love has no opposition. There is no cause for guilt because we have never changed the Self God created as His Son. As we accept the Self as we were created, we return to the peace and joy of our Home with our Father in Heaven.

© 2024, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Awakening to Our Life in God

Let us be still an instant, and forget all things we ever learned, all thoughts we had, and every preconception that we hold of what things mean and what their purpose is. ²Let us remember not our own ideas of what the world is for. ³We do not know. ⁴Let every image held of everyone be loosened from our minds and swept away.

Be innocent of judgment, unaware of any thoughts of evil or of good that ever crossed your mind of anyone. ²Now do you know him not. ³But you are free to learn of him, and learn of him anew. ⁴Now is he born again to you, and you are born again to him, without the past that sentenced him to die, and you with him. ⁵Now is he free to live as you are free, because an ancient learning passed away, and left a place for truth to be reborn. (A Course in Miracles, T-31.I.12–13. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Judgment makes us unaware of our true Identity. To the ego, judgment is necessary for survival. But we need to learn what is the Source of Life. Only our real Life is the Life we live in God, in Love’s oneness.

We remind ourselves today that we do not know what anything means. We relinquish the past and ask the Holy Spirit to judge the present on our behalf. His judgment is always based on the single fact that only Love is real.

When we accept His Help, we will learn to overlook the forms of this world to see Love’s presence. We will learn to recognize any moment when there seems to be a lack of love as a call for Love. With His help we will remember the Love we are and answer the calls with the only real Answer. With this practice, we will awaken to the Life we live in God.

© 2023, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Learning to Welcome God’s Peace and Joy

I seek but what belongs to me in truth.

…joy and peace are not but idle dreams. ²They are your right, because of what you are. ³They come to you from God, Who cannot fail to give you what He wills. ⁴Yet must there be a place made ready to receive His gifts. ⁵[Joy and peace] are not welcomed gladly by a mind that has instead received the gifts it made where His belong, as substitutes for them.

Today we would remove all meaningless and self-made gifts which we have placed upon the holy altar where God’s gifts belong. ²His [joy and peace] are the gifts that are our own in truth. ³His are the gifts that we inherited before time was, and that will still be ours when time has passed into eternity. ⁴His are the gifts that are within us now, for they are timeless. ⁵And we need not wait to have them. ⁶They belong to us today.

So do we clear the way for Him today by simply recognizing that His Will is done already, and that joy and peace belong to us as His eternal gifts. …we bring to mind as often as we can:

⁴I seek but what belongs to me in truth.
⁵God’s gifts of joy and peace are all I want. (A Course in Miracles, W-104.1–2;5:1,3-5. See also ACIM Lesson 104 Insights.)

The wish for specialness denies the Will of God. It denies the oneness of His Love. Differences cannot exist in what is one.

The ego offers us the specialness we seek as a substitute for God’s gift of Eternal Love. What the ego labels as love actually denies God’s gift of Love. The ego’s version always brings fear with it. Because of the uncertainty and changeability of the ego’s gifts, we naturally don’t trust that these gifts will last. Even if we feel we have this special love, we believe it must be defended and protected lest it fade away or turn against us.

But God’s gift of His Love is eternal and changeless. In His Love we are perfectly safe. There is nothing to defend against or protect. With His gift, we have everything we could ever desire in truth. He has given us all that is real.

Today we ask the Holy Spirit to help us let go of the belief in specialness so we may welcome and peace and joy that are our inheritance.

© 2023, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Choosing to See with Christ Vision

You see the flesh or recognize the spirit. ²There is no compromise between the two. ³If one is real the other must be false, for what is real denies its opposite. ⁴There is no choice in vision but this one. ⁵What you decide in this determines all you see and think is real and hold as true. ⁶On this one choice does all your world depend, for here have you established what you are, as flesh or spirit in your own belief. ⁷If you choose flesh, you never will escape the body as your own reality, for you have chosen that you want it so. ⁸But choose the spirit, and all Heaven bends to touch your eyes and bless your holy sight, that you may see the world of flesh no more except to heal and comfort and to bless.

Salvation is undoing. ²If you choose to see the body, you behold a world of separation, unrelated things, and happenings that make no sense at all. ³This one appears and disappears in death; that one is doomed to suffering and loss. ⁴And no one is exactly as he was an instant previous, nor will he be the same as he is now an instant hence. ⁵Who could have trust where so much change is seen, for who is worthy if he be but dust? ⁶Salvation is undoing of all this. ⁷For constancy arises in the sight of those whose eyes salvation has released from looking at the cost of keeping guilt, because they chose to let it go instead.

Your will be done, you holy child of God. ²It does not matter if you think you are in earth or Heaven. ³What your Father wills of you can never change. ⁴The truth in you remains as radiant as a star, as pure as light, as innocent as love itself. ⁵And you are worthy that your will be done! (A Course in Miracles, T-31.VI.1–2;7. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Our only real seeing is Christ vision. It sees only the real. It sees only the oneness of Love everywhere, always. We welcome this vision by turning over all our perceptions to the Holy Spirit for His interpretation. Of ourself, we do not know what anything means. The body’s eyes show us only illusions.

But when we let the Holy Spirit be our Interpreter, the images of the world are recognized as meaningless, not real. We see the reality of Love when we let the Holy Spirit be our Guide. Spirit is recognized as our Reality. As we accept His interpretations, we become messengers of Love to the world. We answer calls for Love with Love. The happiness and peace that are attributes of Love become increasingly strong in our experience.

Today we choose to accept that we are Spirit. Guilt fades away and we remember we remain at Home in Love.

© 2023, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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