Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Awakening to Love in the Present

In sleep you are alone, and your awareness is narrowed to yourself. And that is why the nightmares come. You dream of isolation because your [spiritual] eyes are closed. You do not see your brothers, and in the darkness you cannot look upon the light you gave to them.

And yet the laws of love are not suspended because you sleep. And you have followed them through all your nightmares, and have been faithful in your giving, for you were not alone. Even in sleep has Christ protected you, ensuring the real world for you when you awake. In your name He has given for you, and given you the gifts He gave. God’s Son is still as loving as his Father. Continuous with his Father, he has no past apart from Him. So he has never ceased to be his Father’s witness and his own. Although he slept, Christ’s vision did not leave him. And so it is that he can call unto himself the witnesses that teach him that he never slept. (A Course in Miracles, T-13.VI.12:4-13:9. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Only in dreams does there seem to be a past and future. Time is part of the ego dream, used to hide the present beneath layers of “memories” from the past. Even our thoughts about the future are constructed out of past memories.

Love is one, eternal and changeless. By this definition, Love cannot have a past, nor is the future any different than now. This is the reality of our true Self, the Son of God. We find the Love in the eternal present by forgiving the thoughts and beliefs we bring with us from the past. Forgiveness allows the Light of Love in the present to shine through the barriers the dream builds against present Love.

Thankfully dreams have no effect on the reality of Love. Love continuously extends Love, whether or not we sleep with our spiritual eyes closed to Love’s presence. Our true Self gives and receives Love continuously. We recognize and accept this Love as we forgive the barriers to Love that hold the dream in place. Today we practice frequently pausing to ask Christ’s vision to show us how to see past the barriers to the presence of Love.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Setting Ourselves Free to Be Our True Self

Let me remember what my purpose is.

If I forget my goal I can be but confused, unsure of what I am, and thus conflicted in my actions. No one can serve contradict­ing goals and serve them well. Nor can he function without deep distress and great depression. Let us therefore be determined to remember what we want today, that we may unify our thoughts and actions meaningfully, and achieve only what God would have us do this day.

Father, forgiveness is Your chosen means for our salvation. Let us not forget today that we can have no will but Yours. And thus our purpose must be Yours as well, if we would reach the peace You will for us. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 257, W-pII.257. See also ACIM Lesson 1 Insights.)

In every moment we choose between two goals. If we choose the ego’s goal, we are choosing independence from God’s Will. This choice produces a world of lovelessness, fear and guilt. If we choose our true Will, which is God’s Will, we choose the Love and peace of Heaven. Confusion comes when we believe we have a choice between purposes. But this choice is between Reality and illusion. Our belief in this choice deceives us, making it seem like it’s a real choice. Actually it’s a choice between everything and nothing.

While we perceive ourselves to be in the ego’s world of separation, we have a special purpose that will set us free. Forgiveness is this purpose. When we forgive, we let go of mistaken beliefs by letting the Holy Spirit show us the reality of Love beyond the appearances in the world. As we accept His help, we free ourselves from the ego’s dream of limitation, lack and lovelessness. We awaken to the Will we share with God and remember only Love is real.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Choosing the Strength and Vision of Christ

Trials are but lessons that you failed to learn presented once again, so where you made a faulty choice before you now can make a better one, and thus escape all pain that what you chose before has brought to you. In every difficulty, all distress, and each perplexity Christ calls to you and gently says, “My brother, choose again.” He would not leave one source of pain unhealed, nor any image left to veil the truth. He would remove all misery from you whom God created altar unto joy. He would not leave you comfortless, alone in dreams of hell, but would release your mind from everything that hides His face from you. His Holiness is yours because He is the only power that is real in you. His strength is yours because He is the Self that God created as His only Son.

The images you make cannot prevail against what God Himself would have you be. Be never fearful of temptation, then, but see it as it is; another chance to choose again, and let Christ’s strength prevail in every circumstance and every place you raised an image of yourself before. For what appears to hide the face of Christ is powerless before His majesty, and disappears before His holy sight. The saviors of the world, who see like Him, are merely those who choose His strength instead of their own weakness, seen apart from Him. They will redeem the world, for they are joined in all the power of the Will of God. And what they will is only what He wills. (A Course in Miracles, T-31.VIII.3-4. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The strength and vision of Christ are ever present in our mind. But we are unaware of Christ’s presence when we choose the ego as our guide. By the grace of God, we are always free to choose the Christ within instead of the ego. Christ sees only the face of Christ in everyone. We claim this vision through our acceptance of it.

“To accept Christ into our life” means to choose to see as He sees, to be the Love that God created us to be. Our savior is already within us. It is not about the man, Jesus. He was the demonstration of one who accepted the Christ in him wholeheartedly. Like an elder brother, we can use His example to show us what we already have and simply need to choose to accept. No one has an exclusive right to claim Christ. Everyone has the universal option to choose to see the innocence of Love in everyone — to see the face of Christ. This choice is our salvation and the salvation of the world.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Remembering the Love We Are

The Origins of Separation

To extend is a fundamental aspect of God [Love] which He gave to His Son. In the creation, God extended Himself to His creations and imbued them with the same loving Will to create [extend Love]. You have not only been fully created, but have also been created perfect. There is no emptiness in you. Because of your likeness to your Creator you are creative [loving]. No child of God can lose this ability because it is inherent in what he is, but he can use it inappropriately by projecting. The inappropriate use of extension, or projection, occurs when you believe that some emptiness or lack exists in you, and that you can fill it with your own ideas instead of truth. This process involves the following steps:

First, you believe that what God created can be changed by your own mind.
Second, you believe that what is perfect [the Son of God] can be rendered imperfect or lacking.
Third, you believe that you can distort the creations of God, including yourself.
Fourth, you believe that you can create yourself, and that the direction of your own creation is up to you.

These related distortions represent a picture of what actually occurred in the separation, or the “detour into fear.” None of this existed before the separation, nor does it actually exist now. Everything God created is like Him. Extension, as undertaken by God, is similar to the inner radiance that the children of the Father inherit from Him. …all loving creation is freely given in one continuous line, in which all aspects are of the same order [no difference, only oneness]. (A Course in Miracles, T-2.I.1;2:1-4,8. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

It is helpful to understand the beliefs we have accepted that are the foundation of the illusory world we perceive is real. When we forgive, or let go of, these beliefs, the dream of separation will disappear. We will awaken to the fact that the Love we were created to be never changed. We remain Love in the Heaven of Love’s oneness. We share the changelessness of God. He has given us all His Love and that will never change.

We can practice remembering this as we look upon a brother by reminding ourselves that the body we see is only a veil that hides the changeless Love he is. We can ask the Holy Spirit to help us see the truth beyond the veil. As we accept the Holy Spirit’s correction, the eternal presence of God’s Love becomes increasingly real to us and the appearances of the world diminish in their importance. When we have released all the mistaken beliefs in separation, we remember we are Love and nothing else, united with all Love.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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From Ego’s Projections to Christ’s Vision

There is no end to all the peace and joy, And all the miracles that I will give, When I accept God’s Word. Why not today?

Why should I wait, my Father, for the joy You promised me? For You will keep Your Word You gave Your Son in exile. I am sure my treasure waits for me, and I need but reach out my hand to find it. Even now my fingers touch it. It is very close. I need not wait an instant more to be at peace forever. It is You I choose, and my Identity along with You. Your Son would be Himself, and know You as his Father and Creator, and his Love. A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 1355, (W-pII.355. See also ACIM Lesson 355 Insights.)

Our perception of the world can change in an instant. We have all experienced how quickly our perception changes when we learn that what we thought we perceived was based on mistaken or false information. The truth sets us free from misperception. We accept God’s Word when we choose His Teacher as our Guide.

Our misperception comes from choosing the ego as our guide. The ego can only offer us the false information that we are alone, separate from everything we see and separate from our Source. We can claim God’s Word and all His gifts by disowning the ego and choosing Christ’s vision in place of the projections of separation the ego offers.

We do this by forgiving what we perceive happened. With the Holy Spirit’s help we see past the veil of separation and recognize that only Love is real. We remain united with the Love of God in every brother and in ourselves. This is how we offer miracles.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Bringing Heaven’s Reflection to the World

When no perception stands between God and His creations, or between His children and their own, the knowledge of creation must continue forever. The reflections you accept into the mirror of your mind in time but bring eternity nearer or farther. But eternity itself is beyond all time. Reach out of time and touch [eternity], with the help of its reflection in you. And you will turn from time to holiness, as surely as the reflection of holiness calls everyone to lay all guilt aside. Reflect the peace of Heaven here, and bring this world to Heaven. For the reflection of truth draws everyone to truth, and as they enter into it they leave all reflections behind.

In Heaven reality is shared and not reflected. By sharing its reflection here, its truth becomes the only perception the Son of God accepts. And thus, remembrance of his Father dawns on him, and he can no longer be satisfied with anything but his own reality. You on earth have no conception of limitlessness, for the world you seem to live in is a world of limits. In this world, it is not true that anything without order of difficulty can occur. The miracle, therefore, has a unique function, and is motivated by a unique Teacher Who brings the laws of another world to this one. The miracle is the one thing you can do that transcends order, being based not on differences but on equality.”\ (A Course in Miracles, T-14.X.1-2. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

In this world we are disconnected from everything. Things are defined by differences. Even the thoughts we are aware of are different from other people’s thoughts. We cannot know other people’s thoughts because of these perceived differences. The best we can do in this world is project our interpretations of what we perceive based on our past experiences. Thus everything we look on is colored by our past. Nothing is seen as it truly is now. We see only reflections of our past overlaid on the present.

What the world reflects back to us depends upon what we use as our point of reference. If we use our past for reference, the reflection is simply a repeat of our past, often disguised as another form. But we can choose another point of reference. We can choose to let the Holy Spirit purify our perceptions. His vision will show us what is real and eternal in every brother and ourselves.

The Holy Spirit’s perception thus reflects the limitlessness of Heaven. This reflection leads to forgiveness, for it shows us that the world and everything that seems to happen in it never occurred. Through this perception, we forgive the world for all we thought it was. We bring Heaven’s reflection to the world. When forgiveness is complete, we stand in peace at the door to Heaven, where we easily step into Love’s eternal oneness.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Return to Joy

My holiness is far beyond my own ability to understand or know. Yet God, my Father, Who created it, acknowledges my holiness as His. Our Will, together, understands it. And Our Will, together, knows that it is so.

Father, my holiness is not of me. It is not mine to be destroyed by sin. It is not mine to suffer from attack. Illusions can obscure it, but can not put out its radiance, nor dim its light. It stands forever perfect and untouched. In it are all things healed, for they remain as You created them. And I can know my holiness. For Holiness Itself created me, and I can know my Source because it is Your Will that You be known. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 299, W-pII.299. See also ACIM Lesson 299 Insights.)

The ego is the belief in being alone. It is why the world is a place of loneliness and depression. Joy is an attribute of our holiness and unity with God. But our belief in being alone makes us unaware of our innate joy. Though it will never tell us this, the ego is the choice to be unhappy, frightened and guilty. We can choose once again.

The moment we made the insane choice for loneliness, God gave us the means to return to joy and the eternal unity of Love. His Voice is ever present in our mind, ready to help us remember that our Will is united with our Source. Our Will is to share the holiness of our Creator. His Will that we share His holiness is eternal. When we choose to let the Holy Spirit guide all our thoughts, we choose happiness and peace.

Today we practice offering all our thoughts to the Holy Spirit for His loving transformation which reminds us that we share God’s holiness. It will be a happy day indeed.

© 2019, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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