Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Dispelling Our Barriers to Love

²The purpose of the world you see is to obscure your function of forgiveness, and provide you with a justification for forgetting it.

Nothing the body’s eyes seem to see can be anything but a form of temptation, since this was the purpose of the body itself. ²Yet we have learned that the Holy Spirit has another use for all the illusions you have made, and therefore He sees another purpose in them. ³To the Holy Spirit, the world is a place where you learn to forgive yourself what you think of as your sins. ⁴In this perception, the physical appearance of temptation becomes the spiritual recognition of salvation.

…your function here is to be the light of the world, a function given you by God. …³The world’s salvation awaits your forgiveness, because through it does the Son of God escape from all illusions, and thus from all temptation. ⁴The Son of God is you.

²Let me not forget my function.
³Let me not try to substitute mine for God’s.
⁴Let me forgive and be happy. (A Course in Miracles, W-64.1:2;2;3:1,3-4;6:2-4. See also ACIM Lesson 64 Insights.)

The wish for specialness is the wish for misery. This wish is a demand to be separate from the Source of happiness and peace. Because God could not offer specialness and remain the Love He is, the ego made substitutes that it tells us will make us happy. But there is no substitute for the Love of God that will make us happy.

In every moment we choose between searching for appearances that we believe will make us happy or accepting God’s Love. Happiness is an attribute of Love. We do not need to seek for Love because Love is What we are. But we do need to seek for the false images that we accept as substitutes for His Love. When these false images are recognized as false and meaningless, we let them go. We realize they are incapable of bringing us true happiness. With this recognition, we forgive ourselves. We let go of our barriers to the awareness of Love’s presence.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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To Be Happy, Be Loving

My only function is the one God gave me.

²I have no function but the one God gave me. ³This recognition releases me from all conflict, because it means I cannot have conflicting goals. ⁴With one purpose only, I am always certain what to do, what to say and what to think. ⁵All doubt must disappear as I acknowledge that my only function is the one God gave me.

My happiness and my function are one.

²All things that come from God are one. ³They come from Oneness, and must be received as one. ⁴Fulfilling my function is my happiness because both come from the same Source. ⁵And I must learn to recognize what makes me happy, if I would find happiness. (A Course in Miracles, W-83.1,3. See also ACIM Lesson 83 Insights.)

If we are fulfilling our function, we are happy. If we are not happy, we are not fulfilling our function. We were created by Love as Love. Love’s only function is to extend Itself. So to be happy, be loving.

Fear, anger and guilt drain our energy. There is one answer to all these maladies—be loving. This means be our true Self. When we align with the ego, we are denying our true Self and feel lack of Love because of this denial. Our true Self never lacks Love because It is Love.

Every day we give ourselves the opportunity to heal the self-inflicted disease of selfishness—the wish for specialness. Seeking specialness is the wish to claim something for ourself alone. This is a proclamation that we are alone. This could never be true because we were created forever united with our Creator in Love.

Today we let go of judgments and accept our opportunities to extend Love. We let the Love we are flow freely and experience Love’s joy.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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See Every Brother as Holy as God

The Word of God is given me to speak.

What is the Word of God? ²“My Son is pure and holy as Myself.” ³And thus did God become the Father of the Son He loves, for thus was he created. ⁴This the Word His Son did not create with Him, because in this His Son was born. ⁵Let us accept His Fatherhood, and all is given us. ⁶Deny we were created in His Love and we deny our Self, to be unsure of Who we are, of Who our Father is, and for what purpose we have come. ⁷And yet, we need but to acknowledge Him Who gave His Word to us in our creation, to remember Him and so recall our Self.

Father, Your Word is mine. ²And it is this that I would speak to all my brothers, who are given me to cherish as my own, as I am loved and blessed and saved by You. (A Course in Miracles, W-276. See also ACIM Lesson 276 Insights.)

Our sole purpose in the world is to extend God’s Love. Love is our only true motivation, for It comes from our Source. The ego denies of Love which ithrough the mechanism of judgment. The instant we see anyone as less than pure Love is the moment that calls for forgiveness. We cannot be true to our purpose when judgment enters our mind.

Today we call upon the Holy Spirit to help us see the purity and holiness of every brother. As we see them, we see ourselves. As we see them holy, we accept our own holiness as Love created us. This practice is the journey of awakening and remembering the Word of God that created us holy and pure.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Finding Peace in the Changelessness of Love

Today I claim the gifts forgiveness gives.

I will not wait another day to find the treasures that my Father offers me. ²Illusions are all vain, and dreams are gone even while they are woven out of thoughts that rest on false perceptions. ³Let me not accept such meager gifts again today. ⁴God’s Voice is offering the peace of God to all who hear and choose to follow Him. ⁵This is my choice today. ⁶And so I go to find the treasures God has given me.

I seek but the eternal. ²For Your Son can be content with nothing less than this. ³What, then, can be his solace but what You are offering to his bewildered mind and frightened heart, to give him certainty and bring him peace? ⁴Today I would behold my brother sinless. ⁵This Your Will for me, for so will I behold my sinlessness. (A Course in Miracles, W-334. See also ACIM Lesson 334 Insights.)

Judgment is the ego’s key tool for making the world of separation seem real. But we pay a high price for our habit of judging. With judgment comes fear and guilt. These are the triggers that foster more judgment of others and ourselves. This process is a self-maintaining loop that can be broken only with forgiveness. For this we need God’s Voice to help us see the eternal presence of Love’s innocence beyond the images maintained by fear and guilt.

Today we welcome the Holy Spirit’s help to see past the form our brothers seem to be to the innocence of the Love that they are. God created His Son, the Self we share with every brother, as an extension of His Love. This is our Reality. It has no form, but it carries the Light of Love throughout God’s Universe. As we let go of our judgments of our brothers, we discover the Love we are and find peace in Its changelessness.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Walking to God with Our Brothers

Let me forget my brother’s past today.

This is the thought that leads the way to You, and brings me to my goal. ²I cannot come to You without my brother. ³And to know my Source, I first must recognize what You created one with me. ⁴My brother’s is the hand that leads me on the way to You. ⁵His sins are in the past along with mine, and I am saved because the past is gone. ⁶Let me not cherish it within my heart, or I will lose the way to walk to You. ⁷My brother is my savior. ⁸Let me not attack the savior You have given me. ⁹But let me honor him who bears Your Name, and so remember that It is my own.

Forgive me, then, today. ²And you will know you have forgiven me if you behold your brother in the light of holiness. ³He cannot be less holy than can I, and you can not be holier than he. (A Course in Miracles, W-288. See also ACIM Lesson 288 Insights.)

When we accept our Self which God created as His Son, we will not see our brothers as separate from us. We, along with all our brothers, are one Self, united in the Love in God. This is why no one can reach Heaven while they believe they are alone.

The concept of alone is an ego construct, which it maintains in order to perceive specialness. By definition to be special is to be different. Forgiveness is the means to undo the wish for specialness. It opens our mind to recognize the Love we share with every brother within God’s Love. The recognition that we are one Self awakens us to awareness of our Home in Love.

As we learn to use our perception of a brother as an opportunity to let Christ’s vision reveal his innocence, we free ourselves from the ego thought system. We recognize that we are not alone. The acceptance of our brothers as one with us brings us joy. We walk to God, holding our brother’s hand in the unity of Love.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Forgiveness Frees Us to Be Happy

Happiness is an attribute of love. ²It cannot be apart from it. ³Nor can it be experienced where love is not. ⁴Love has no limits, being everywhere. ⁵And therefore joy is everywhere as well. ⁶Yet can the mind deny that this is so, believing there are gaps in love where sin can enter, bringing pain instead of joy. ⁷This strange belief would limit happiness by redefining love as limited, and introducing opposition in what has no limit and no opposite.

Fear is associated then with love, and its results become the heritage of minds that think what they have made is real. ²These images, with no reality in truth, bear witness to the fear of God, forgetting being Love, He must be joy. ³This basic error we will try again to bring to truth today, and teach ourselves:

⁴God, being Love, is also happiness.
⁵To fear Him is to be afraid of joy.

…happiness belongs to you, because of what He is.

Allow this one correction to be placed within your mind each waking hour today. ²Then welcome all the happiness it brings as truth replaces fear, and joy becomes what you expect to take the place of pain. ³God, being Love, it will be given you. (A Course in Miracles, W-103.1:1–2:5,7;3:1-3. See also ACIM Lesson 103 Insights.)

The barrier that stands between us and the experience of God’s joy is the belief that separation is possible and real. It is the denial of the oneness of God’s Love. This core belief takes many forms in this world, centered on the body. We believe the body can be hurt and even dies. We believe that we have a separate identity that continues even beyond the “life” of the body.

These beliefs prevent us from knowing the supreme happiness, perfect peace and limitless Love that God gave us when He created His Son one with Him. This is why forgiveness is the key to happiness. When we forgive the belief that separation is real, we open our hearts to God’s joy. No longer are we wary of potential threats to our existence. We feel no need to defend; no need to judge what is good or bad, helpful or harmful. Forgiveness frees us from the wearing past of judging what will keep us safe.

As we frequently remind ourselves that God is happiness and we are His Son, forgiveness becomes a higher priority. We are less willing to tolerate fear. We know better. We know the happiness that comes when we forgive and welcome God’s Love.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Seeing Our True Self in Every Brother

I need but call and You will answer me.

I am not asked to take salvation on the basis of an unsupported faith. ²For God has promised He will hear my call, and answer me Himself. ³Let me but learn from my experience that this is true, and faith in Him must surely come to me. ⁴This is the faith that will endure, and take me farther and still farther on the road that leads to Him. ⁵For thus I will be sure that He has not abandoned me and loves me still, awaiting but my call to give me all the help I need to come to Him.

Father, I thank You that Your promises will never fail in my experience, if I but test them out. ²Let me attempt therefore to try them, and to judge them not. ³Your Word is one with You. ⁴You give the means whereby conviction comes, and surety of Your abiding Love is gained at last. (A Course in Miracles, W-327. See also ACIM Lesson 327 Insights.)

In our Creation, God promised that we would be forever united one with Him and share all His attributes. His peace, His Love and His joy are ours, for God holds nothing back. Being limitless, He cannot conceive of limitation.

But we have chosen to identify with the ego, the “god” of limitation. The only way to seem to achieve specialness is to limit everything perceived to some form that separates and makes different. This is the world we experience while we believe we are a body and accept the ego’s beliefs about reality. This misidentification makes us unaware of the limitless Self God created as His Son.

But we can choose differently. We may have hidden our true Identity beneath layers of beliefs that support the quest for specialness, but we cannot obliterate Reality. We can hide from It but we cannot change It. It is time to come out of hiding. Beneath all the striving in the world is our deep and abiding desire to be Love, to remember our true Self.

We call upon God’s Voice to help us see the truth beyond the ego’s false images. We truly desire to see the Love that is the truth in our brothers, for they but reflect the truth of What we are.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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