Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

Tweet

Subscribe

View all articles • Article index

We Are the Means to Extend God’s Love

Perception is a choice of what you want yourself to be; the world you want to live in, and the state in which you think your mind will be content and satisfied. It chooses where you think your safety lies, at your decision. It reveals yourself to you as you would have you be. …Perception is a part of what it is your purpose to behold, for means and end are never separate. And thus you learn what seems to have a life apart has none.

You are the means for God; not separate, nor with a life apart from His. His Life is manifest in you who are His Son. Each aspect of Himself is framed in holiness and perfect purity, in love celestial and so complete it wishes only that it may release all that it looks upon unto itself. Its radiance shines through each body that it looks upon, and brushes all its darkness into light merely by looking past [the body] to the Light. The veil is lifted through its gentleness, and nothing hides the face of Christ from its beholders. You and your brother stand before Him now, to let Him draw aside the veil that seems to keep you separate and apart. (A Course in Miracles, T-25.I.3:1-3,5-6;4:1-6. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

Perception requires a perceiver and an object perceived. Thus it is a mechanism of separation. But under the Holy Spirit’s direction, perception can be used as a means to look past the ego’s image making to see the face of Christ.

The face of Christ is a symbol of the holiness of God’s Son, wholly innocent and perfectly loving. It represents the truth in every brother. This perception can only be seen without the judgment of the ego. It is seen with the judgment of the Holy Spirit, which judges against the unreal and accepts only the reality of Love.

The practice of forgiveness disregards the ego’s judgment and accepts the Holy Spirit’s judgment in its place. Through forgiveness our perception is purified so that only the face of Christ is seen. When perception is wholly purified, it is no longer needed for we have accepted the oneness of Love. This is how we extend God’s Love.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Bringing Healing to the World

I feel the Love of God within me now.
The Love of God is what created me. The Love of God is
everything I am. The Love of God proclaimed me as His
Son. The Love of God within me sets me free.

I choose the joy of God instead of pain.
Pain is my own idea. It is not a Thought of God, but one I
thought apart from Him and from His Will. His Will is joy,
and only joy for His beloved Son. And that I choose, instead
of what I made.

I have a function God would have me fill.
I seek the function that would set me free from all the vain
illusions of the world. Only the function God has given me
can offer freedom. Only this I seek, and only this will I
accept as mine. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 209, W-pI.209.1:1-5;210.1:1-5;212.1:1-4. See also ACIM Lesson 209 Insights.)

When we look at events and behavior of people in the world, it doesn’t seem that there is much love to be seen. We see a lot more fear, anger, guilt, loss, chaos and lack of Love. This is because the body’s eyes can only see the images the ego made to hide the eternal Presence of Love.

We have a function given us by our Creator to see past the false images to the reality of Love. The ego cannot show us this. Our job is to turn away from the ego to the Voice for God within, with willingness to be guided to see truly. As we do this, we bring healing to our brothers and the world. Simultaneously we bring healing to ourselves, for pain is not a part of Love. When we accept the Love we are, there can be no pain, no loss, no guilt, nothing to fear.

Today we would accept the function we have been given by our Source.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Being Willing to Receive Christ’s Vision

Grace is acceptance of the Love of God within a world of seeming hate and fear. By grace alone the hate and fear are gone, for grace presents a state so opposite to everything the world contains, that those whose minds are lighted by the gift of grace can not believe the world of fear is real.

…an open mind can hear the Call to waken. It is not shut tight against God’s Voice. It has become aware that there are things it does not know, and thus is ready to accept a state completely different from experience with which it is familiarly at home. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 169, W-pI.169.2:1-2;3:4-6. See also ACIM Lesson 169 Insights.)

Our experience as a body in a world of form is not our natural state. It is the projection of an aspect of our mind that want separation to be real. This aspect projects images of separation and believes it is real, though it is based entirely on belief in an idea that could never be true. As long as we are attached to this false idea and want it to be true, we are trapped in a dream that keeps the Love of God out of our awareness.

By God’s grace we have the Means to let go of belief in what could never be true. The Holy Spirit is ever present in our minds, ready to show us the truth that lies beyond the false images. But we need to be willing to ask for His help and accept His loving correction. This is how we forgive. This is how we let go of the dream. This is how we remove the barriers to Love and return to our natural state in Love’s Oneness.

Today we would remember that we do not know what anything means and we are willing to receive Christ’s vision of truth.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Seeing the World Anew

Everyone here has entered darkness, yet no one has entered it alone. Nor need he stay more than an instant. For he has come with Heaven’s Help within him, ready to lead him out of darkness into light at any time. The time he chooses can be any time, for help is there, awaiting but his choice. And when he chooses to avail himself of what is given him, then will he see each situation that he thought before was means to justify his anger, turned to an event which justifies his love. He will hear plainly that the calls to war he heard before are really calls to peace. He will perceive that where he gave attack is but another altar where he can, with equal ease and far more happiness, bestow forgiveness. And he will reinterpret all temptation [to see separation] as just another chance to bring him joy.

How can a misperception be a sin? Let all your brother’s errors be to you nothing except a chance for you to see the workings of the Helper given you to see the world He made instead of yours. (A Course in Miracles, T-25.III.6:1-7:2. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

It is time to see the world anew. It is time to stop interpreting anything based upon our past learning. All that we have taught ourselves is false. Yet we have a Teacher within Whose function is to teach us what is true. But we must be willing to be taught.

Any moment that we are not supremely happy and at peace is an indication that we are misperceiving. We need to ask our inner Teacher to correct our misperception. If we are willing, we will see past our brother’s behavior; we will see past appearances to the truth that only Love is real. Every seeming disturbance is a call to be reminded that only Love is there. If we are willing to receive the Answer to that call, our natural response will be to forgive and extend Love.

That means that if we are willing, the Holy Spirit will show us that a racist attitude is a call for love coming from belief in lack of Love. Likewise, anger, guilt, shame, pain, depression, etc., are all calls for Love. As we let the Holy Spirit correct our misperceptions, which come from belief in separation, we return to God’s joy and peace.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Being a Truly Helpful Activist

‘I rest in God.’ Completely undismayed, this thought will carry you through storms and strife, past misery and pain, past loss and death, and onward to the certainty of God. There is no suffering it cannot heal. There is no problem that it cannot solve. And no appearance but will turn to truth before the eyes of you who rest in God.

This is the day of peace. You rest in God, and while the world is torn by winds of hate your rest remains completely undisturbed. Yours is the rest of truth. Appearances cannot intrude on you. You call to all to join you in your rest, and they will hear and come to you because you rest in God. They will not hear another voice than yours because you gave your voice to God, and now you rest in Him and let Him speak through you. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 109, W-pI.109.3-4. See also ACIM Lesson 109 Insights.)

We have a responsibility to bring peace to the world. God has a plan for each of us to bring us back Home where we rest in God. His plan is not imposed upon us, but freely given. Our responsibility is to accept His plan.

The first step in accepting God’s plan is to take a step back from our involvement in the busyness of the world. Relax… Take a deep breath and let it out easily… Welcome the peace that lies within… peace is our natural state, given us in our Creation… Rest in this peace, rest in God…

As we are able to welcome and accept this peace, we are open to receive God’s plan, to receive inspiration for how to be truly helpful. With this inspiration, we will bring peace to the world in the present moment and situation. This is our part in God’s plan to bring peace to the world. The form it takes in the world will vary according to the present need. It may be simply being quiet and holding the awareness of peace. It may be doing something in the world or saying something to someone. It may be holding awareness of the truth in a brother we think of. Our responsibility is simply to receive and act on the inspiration from the wisdom within. This is how we become a truly helpful activist for God’s plan for the salvation of the world.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Welcoming Holy Spirit’s Guidance

This is not a course in the play of ideas, but in their practical application. Nothing could be more specific than to be told that if you ask you will receive. The Holy Spirit will answer every specific problem, as long as you believe that problems are specific. His answer is both many and one, as long as you believe that the One is many. You may be of afraid of His specificity, for fear of what you think it will demand of you. Yet only by asking will you learn that nothing of God demands anything of you. God gives; He does not take. When you refuse to ask, it is because you believe that asking is taking rather than sharing.

The Holy Spirit will give you only what is yours, and will take nothing in return. For what is yours is everything, and you share it with God. That is its reality. (A Course in Miracles, T-11.VIII.5:3-6:3. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

The Course makes it very clear that the Holy Spirit will guide us very specifically in all things. We don’t seem to be able to receive this Guidance only because we are afraid of the answer. It is helpful to remember that at the core of the ego thought system is the belief in sacrifice, scarcity and loss. The ego is the idea of separating (sacrificing) from the Source of all that is Real in order to build a kingdom of its own. Since only Love is real, the ego’s kingdom is loveless. It’s not a happy state of mind.

We are afraid of the Holy Spirit’s guidance because we are afraid we would have to sacrifice the loveless kingdom we have made. So we need to be taught to recognize that the kingdom we have made has no value and is not real. It is nothing. As we learn this, the guidance of the Holy Spirit is welcomed. When we accept the Holy Spirit’s guidance we are exchanging nothing for everything. It could be said that nothing is taken from us and everything is given us.

The early lesson that tells us we do not know what anything means helps open our minds to learn where real meaning lies. It opens our minds to the Holy Spirit’s lesson that only Love is real. The specific guidance the Holy Spirit gives always has the underlying lesson that only Love is real and always answers every call for Love with Love. In our hearts this is all we really want.

Today we open our hearts and minds to the Holy Spirit’s guidance, moment by moment.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Forgiveness Is the Key to Freedom

Forgiveness gently looks upon all things unknown in Heaven, sees them disappear, and leaves the world a clean and unmarked slate on which the Word of God can now replace the senseless symbols written there before. Forgiveness is the means by which the fear of death is overcome, because it holds no fierce attraction now and guilt is gone. Forgiveness lets the body be perceived as what it is; a simple teaching aid, to be laid by when learning is complete, but hardly changing him who learns at all.

Only forgiveness can relieve the mind of thinking that the body is its home. Only forgiveness can restore the peace that God intended for His holy Son. Only forgiveness can persuade the Son to look again upon his holiness.

With anger gone, you will indeed perceive that, for Christ’s vision and the gift of sight, no sacrifice was asked, and only pain was lifted from a sick and tortured mind. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 192, W-pI.192.4;5:5-6:1. See also ACIM Lesson 192 Insights.)

Holding a grievance imprisons us in an unhappy world. It is based on the belief in being separate from the rest of the world. This belief is manifested in the image of a body and believing that body is our identity. A grievance is a thought that if something external would be different, we could be happy and safe.

Because we have no control of what is believed to be external, grievances carry with them a sense of hopelessness. We may try to control the external circumstances, yet we can never succeed to the point where we feel wholly safe and truly happy. Perhaps for a moment we may like our circumstance, but there is an underlying fear that it could change in an instant.

Forgiveness is the means by which we free ourselves from the pain of grievances. When we are able to accept Christ’s vision, which sees only the reality of Love, we are able to see past the dream of being separate and alone. We are able to see our brother as our one Self. This vision cannot come from the part of the mind that believes it is separate. We must be willing to accept the Light offered us by the Holy Spirit, which will show us that only Love is real.

We dedicate today to welcoming Christ’s vision so that we can forgive and return to the awareness of Love’s presence.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this copyright notice and website address are included.

Tell a friend about this article.

Printable Page

Page 434 of 848 pages ‹ First  < 432 433 434 435 436 >  Last ›

<< Back to main page of Daily Inspiration.

Has this page been helpful to you?
Your contribution to support this site is greatly appreciated. To make a tax deductible contribution with a credit/debit card, click here.
Click here to donate from your PayPal account.
Or send a check to Pathways of Light, 12530 Lions Chase Court, Huntley, IL 60142.