Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Choosing the Teacher of Happiness

The ego’s plan for salvation centers around holding griev­ances. It maintains that, if someone else spoke or acted differ­ently, if some external circumstance or event were changed, you would be saved. Thus, the source of salvation is constantly per­ceived as outside yourself. Each grievance you hold is a declara­tion, and an assertion in which you believe, that says, “If this were different, I would be saved.” The change of mind necessary for salvation is thus demanded of everyone and everything except yourself.

God’s plan for salvation works simply because, by following His direction, you seek for salvation where it is. But if you are to succeed, as God promises you will, you must be willing to seek there only. Otherwise, your purpose is divided and you will at­tempt to follow two plans for salvation that are diametrically op­posed in all ways. The result can only bring confusion, misery and a deep sense of failure and despair.

Ask Him very specifically:

What would You have me do?
Where would You have me go?
What would You have me say, and to whom?

Give Him full charge of the rest of the practice period, and let Him tell you what needs to be done by you in His plan for your salvation. He will answer in proportion to your willingness to hear His Voice. Refuse not to hear. The very fact that you are doing the exercises proves that you have some willingness to lis­ten. This is enough to establish your claim to God’s answer. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 71, W-pI.71.2;5;9:2-10. See also ACIM Lesson 71 Insights.)

The ego has a million plans which it claims will make us happy or safe. It does not tell us that all it is doing is substituting an illusion of safety or happiness for an illusion of unhappiness or danger. The ego’s purpose is to keep us in a closed loop of illusions by convincing us they are real.

The Course is teaching us, “Don’t believe the ego’s lessons.” It is teaching us to follow God’s Guide to salvation. He has given us His Teacher in our mind to help us overlook the illusions to see the certainty of our unbreakable connection with God’s Love. Here is where we know with certainty that harm is impossible and Love is our Reality.

The daily, moment-by-moment practice of letting His Guide direct our thoughts and perceptions frees us from the ego’s closed loop of illusions. We choose to follow His plan today.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Pausing to Welcome the Voice for Love

When you are still an instant, when the world recedes from you, when valueless ideas cease to have value in your restless mind, then will you hear His Voice.

Take time today to lay aside your shield which profits nothing, and lay down the spear and sword you raised against an enemy without existence. Christ has called you friend and brother. He has even come to ask your help in letting Him go home today, completed and completely. [Christ] has come as does a little child, who must beseech his father for protection and for love. He rules the universe, and yet He asks unceasingly that you return with Him, and take illusions as your gods no more.

You have not lost your innocence. It is for this you yearn. This is your heart’s desire. This is the voice you hear, and this the call which cannot be denied. The holy Child remains with you. His home is yours. Today He gives you His defenselessness, and you accept it in exchange for all the toys of battle you have made. And now the way is open, and the journey has an end in sight at last. Be still an instant and go home with Him, and be at peace a while.” (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 182, W-pI.182.8:1;11-12. See also ACIM Lesson 182 Insights.)

Our true Self is innocent. This is a fact guaranteed by God because our true Self remains eternally united with Him. It is only our belief that we have separated from God that makes it seem as though we have lost our innocence. This belief causes us to wander in a wilderness of guilt and fear where Love cannot be found. This is not our natural state; it is not our Home.

Yet the innocence of our true Self calls to us to return Home. This call often goes unheard, blotted out by the noise of the world of conflict, differences and lack of Love. This is why it is important to take time daily to step back from this world into the stillness within. We value the Love we are. It is our Source of peace and happiness. In this place we remember our Home. We remember our eternal unity in Love.

Today we practice pausing to still our mind and welcome the Love of our true Self.

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Today We Follow Love’s Lead

God’s answer is some form of peace. All pain
Is healed; all misery replaced with joy.
All prison doors are opened. And all sin
Is understood as merely a mistake.

Father, today we will forgive Your world, and let creation be Your Own. We have misunderstood all things. But we have not made sinners of the holy Sons of God. What You created sinless so abides forever and forever. Such are we. And we rejoice to learn that we have made mistakes which have no real effects on us. Sin is impossible, and on this fact forgiveness rests upon a certain base more solid than the shadow world we see. Help us forgive, for we would be redeemed. Help us forgive, for we would be at peace. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 359, W-pII.359. See also ACIM Lesson 359 Insights.)

We appear to be separate identities in the world. Yet this is just a projection of the ego’s choice to deny Love’s oneness. Appearances do not make reality, but belief makes them seem real. Remove the veil on which the projections are displayed and the Light of Love is revealed as all their is.

Our true Self lives in this Light, forever complete, forever loving and forever loved. This is our Home. We have wandered far to a world that has forgotten our real Home. But we have a Guide Whose sole purpose is to help us let go of false beliefs to clear away the veil that hides our Home. He will help us see the truth beyond the imaginings fostered by the ego.

Today we ask the Holy Spirit to guide our thoughts in the way of Love; to see with Christ’s vision the presence of Love, now and forever. We would only follow His lead, for we would remember the Love we are.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Claiming God’s Peace as Our Own

God’s peace and joy are mine.

Today I will accept God’s peace and joy, in glad ex­change for all the substitutes that I have made for happiness and peace.

Let me be still and listen to the truth.

Let my own feeble voice be still, and let me hear the mighty Voice for Truth Itself assure me that I am God’s perfect Son. (W-pI.118)

When we have an instant response of defensiveness, it comes from belief in our guilt. We are not accepting our Identity as God’s Son. Our true Self is Love and nothing else. It shares God’s innocence. Our Self cannot conceive of harm or attack, for they do not exist in the oneness of Love.

As God’s Son, we live in His happiness and peace. This Self is eternally invulnerable. Its only desire is to be Love and give Love. It sees defensiveness as a call for Love and answers with Love.

Today we claim the peace of God as our own. We ask the Holy Spirit’s help to heal our defensive thoughts, for our desire is to live in peace and joy.

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Remembering Our True Home

Now are we one with Him Who is our Source.

What time but now can truth be recognized? The present is the only time there is. And so today, this instant, now, we come to look upon what is forever there; not in our sight, but in the eyes of Christ. He looks past time, and sees eternity as represented there. He hears the sounds the senseless, busy world en­genders, yet He hears them faintly. For beyond them all He hears the song of Heaven, and the Voice for God more clear, more meaningful, more near.

…Christ gives you His sight and hears for you, and answers in your name the Call He hears!

There is a silence into which the world can not intrude. There is an ancient peace you carry in your heart and have not lost. There is a sense of holiness in you the thought of sin has never touched.

Open the curtain in your practicing by merely letting go all things you think you want. Your trifling treasures put away, and leave a clean and open space within your mind where Christ can come, and offer you the treasure of salvation. He has need of your most holy mind to save the world. Is not this purpose wor­thy to be yours? Is not Christ’s vision worthy to be sought above the world’s unsatisfying goals? (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 164, W-pI.164.1;3:1;4:1-3;8. See also ACIM Lesson 164 Insights.)

While we identify with the ego, our thoughts are based on memories of the past. Our thoughts about the future are also built upon the past. The ego ignores the eternal present, which it covers over with perceptions projected from the past.

Beneath the ego’s projections lies the reality of changeless Love. Here is the Home of our true Self, the extension of God’s Love. Our Self lives and has Its being in the joy and peace of God’s Love. This never changes because God does not change His Will, which is to forever share Himself with His extension.

Today we practice pausing to quiet our mind. We set aside our goals and desires and settle gently into the quiet peace within. Here Christ’s vision shows us the Love that fills the world in truth, now. It is here to be seen with the eyes of Christ.

As we shift our attention to His vision, the discord of the world fades to the background. The Light of Love shines everywhere and warms our heart. We join with that Love everywhere. And in our joining, Love blesses the world as It blesses us. We remember our true Home.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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We Want to Remember We Are Love

The attraction of guilt produces fear of love, for love would never look on guilt at all. It is the nature of love to look upon only the truth, for there it sees itself, with which it would unite in holy union and completion. As love must look past fear, so must fear see love not. For love contains the end of guilt, as surely as fear depends on it. Love is attracted only to love. Overlooking guilt completely, it sees no fear. Being wholly without attack, it could not be afraid. Fear is attracted to what love sees not, and each believes that what the other looks upon does not exist. Fear looks on guilt with just the same devotion that love looks on itself. And each has messengers which it sends forth, and which return to it with messages written in the language in which their going forth was asked.

Love’s messengers are gently sent, and return with messages of love and gentleness. The messengers of fear are harshly ordered to seek out guilt,… What fear would feed upon, love overlooks. What fear demands, love cannot even see.

If you send forth only the messengers the Holy Spirit gives you, wanting no messages but theirs, you will see fear no more. The world will be transformed before your sight, cleansed of all guilt and softly brushed with beauty. (A Course in Miracles, T-19.IV.A.10;11:1-2,4-5;15:1-2. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

We perceive what we want to perceive. If we identify with the ego, we will see images that confirm separation is real and harm is possible; with harm possible, guilt and fear are justified.

If we identify with our true Self, the extension of God’s Love, we will perceive only Love reflected in the world. We will see kindness, gentleness, helpfulness, beauty and opportunities to give and receive Love. If this is not what we see, we have chosen to identify with the ego. But we can choose our real Identity at any moment.

We have God’s Teacher in our mind to help us make this choice. He will help us learn that the ego offers nothing of value we really want. As we learn that the ego’s illusions are empty and offer us nothing to treasure, we freely let them go. No one keeps what they recognize as valueless.

Today we ask the Holy Spirit to teach us true perception. We want to see the Reality of Love. We want to experience Love’s blessing. We want to see Love’s reflection everywhere. We want to identify with our true Self.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Choose to Learn the Truth

My holy brother, think of this awhile: The world you see does nothing. It has no effects at all. It merely represents your thoughts. And it will change entirely as you elect to change your mind, and choose the joy of God as what you really want. Your Self is radiant in this holy joy, unchanged, unchanging and unchangeable, forever and forever. And would you deny a little corner of your mind its own inheritance, and keep it as a hospital for pain; a sickly place where living things must come at last to die?

Pain is illusion; joy, reality. Pain is but sleep; joy is awakening. Pain is deception; joy alone is truth.

And so again we make the only choice that ever can be made; we choose between illusions and the truth, or pain and joy, or hell and Heaven. Let our gratitude unto our Teacher fill our hearts, as we are free to choose our joy instead of pain, our holiness in place of sin, the peace of God instead of conflict, and the light of Heaven for the darkness of the world. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 190, W-pI.190.6;10:4-6;11. See also ACIM Lesson 190 Insights.)

The world we see is a reflection of our thoughts based on the belief that separation is real. But this belief denies the eternal oneness of God’s Love. A false belief can only lead to illusions which are not true.

Fortunately a belief can be changed. Even in this world everyone has experienced learning that a belief they held was wrong and let it go. This was accomplished with help by someone who was not limited by the false belief. Likewise we can learn that the core belief that holds the world together (belief in separation) can be corrected.

The Holy Spirit provides the help we need to heal our minds. He sees the world we perceive but does not believe it. As God’s answer to our mistaken belief, He can help us learn the truth instead of hanging on to the belief that denies truth. The choice to let the Holy Spirit reinterpret all our perceptions clears away the veil that hides the joy, peace and Love of our true Self.

Today we dedicate to letting the Holy Spirit heal our misperceptions. We choose to believe the Truth. We want to remember the peace, joy and Love given us by God.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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