Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Forgiving Specialness to Remember Heaven

[Your brother] is your savior from your specialness. He is in need of your acceptance of himself as part of you, as you for his. [Both you and your brother] are alike to God as God is to Himself. [God] is not special, for He would not keep one part of what He is unto Himself, not given to His Son but kept for Him alone. And it is this you fear, for if [God] is not special, then He willed His Son to be like Him, and your brother is like you. Not special, but possessed of everything, including you. Give [your brother] but what he has, remembering God gave Himself to you and your brother in equal love, that both might share the universe with Him Who chose that love could never be divided, and kept separate from what it is and must forever be. (A Course in Miracles, T-24.II.10. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

While we believe that our identity is defined by what makes us unique and different from everyone, we will fear God’s Love, which is the same everywhere, always. Maintaining a separate identity requires that we distinguish ourselves from everything else. Anything that seems to threaten our distinction is perceived as an attack that must be defended against. The constant need to compare ourselves is tiring, for every comparison brings attention to our need to defend. The ego cannot tolerate oneness.

This need to perceive differences blinds us to the Love in our brother that is the same Love in us. It blinds us to the Love of God that is everywhere to be seen. Christ’s vision would show us the gift of Love our brother has to offer us. Christ’s vision comes as we forgive the need for specialness. It removes the blindfold that defends against the truth that we remain the same Love that God is. It allows us to welcome the gift of Love our brothers offer us and experience God’s joy as our own, together with our brothers.

Today we welcome the Holy Spirit’s help to see through the eyes of forgiveness, that we may remember Heaven.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Present Trust Welcomes God’s Plan

The mind engaged in planning for itself is occupied in setting up control of future happenings. It does not think that it will be provided for, unless it makes its own provisions. Time becomes a future emphasis, to be controlled by learning and experience obtained from past events and previous beliefs. It overlooks the present, for it rests on the idea the past has taught enough to let the mind direct its future course.

The mind that plans is thus refusing to allow for change. What it has learned before becomes the basis for its future goals. Its past experience directs its choice of what will happen.

Your present trust in Him is the defense that promises a future undisturbed, without a trace of sorrow, and with joy that constantly increases, as this life becomes a holy instant, set in time, but heeding only immortality. Let no defenses but your present trust direct the future, and this life becomes a meaningful encounter with the truth that only your defenses would conceal.

Without defenses, you become a light which Heaven gratefully acknowledges to be its own. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 135, W-pI.135.15:1-16:3;19:1-20:1. See also ACIM Lesson 135 Insights.)

While we identify with the body it seems necessary that we plan for the future so we can pay our bills and have enough to eat, at the very least. It seems difficult to trust that the Holy Spirit understands our needs. But the Course is encouraging us to trust that the Holy Spirit always has our back. He knows what we really need and will help us in abundance.

The Holy Spirit knows what will be truly helpful, not only to our needs, but to an all inclusive view that not only solves our problems but serves the healing of everyone. Certainly on our own we cannot claim this scope of awareness. In addition, we often do not realize that what we believe is the problem is a self-deception based on a false belief.

The Holy Spirit is not deceived. If we want to experience the limitless joy that God has given us, we must step back from planning on our own. The Holy Spirit has a plan for us that will lead us to God’s joy. We need only be willing to welcome His plan with present trust.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Bringing Healing to Ourselves and the World

[The body] can be seen as not your home, but merely as an aid to help you reach the home where God abides.

With this as purpose is the body healed. It is not used to witness to the dream of separation and disease.

Your home is built upon your brother’s health, upon his happiness, his sinlessness, and everything his Father promised him. …It is an ark of safety, resting on God’s promise that His Son is safe forever in Himself. What gap can interpose itself between the safety of this shelter and its Source? From here the body can be seen as what it is, and neither less nor more in worth than the extent to which it can be used to liberate God’s Son unto his home. And with this holy purpose is [the body] made a home of holiness a little while, because it shares your Father’s Will with you. (A Course in Miracles, T-28.VII.3:6-4:2;7:1,5-8. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

The Course tells us to ask of everything, “What is this for?” What we decide anything is for determines whether it is used to maintain the illusion of separation or it is used on behalf of recognizing our oneness with our Source and all that is. If the body is used to maintain belief in separation, it will be sick because the mind that believes in separation is sick. But a sick mind is nothing more than a belief in a false idea. Beliefs can be changed, so a sick mind can be healed.

As we learn to recognize the perceptions based on belief in separation, we can take those perceptions to the Holy Spirit in our minds. He will show us what is false and what is true. No one believes in something accepted to be untrue.

The Holy Spirit’s lessons that teach us to recognize what is untrue help us let go of false beliefs. The practice of asking Holy Spirit of everything, “Help me see this as You see it,” helps us learn to see the Holy Spirit’s purpose which always unifies. It is a way we can use the body as a means to bring unity to the world and awaken to our Home in God. By this practice we teach the world by our demonstration that in truth, we are one, united together in our Source. We bring healing to ourselves and to the world.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Forgiveness Is the Means to Awaken

Illusions about yourself and the world are one. That is why all forgiveness is a gift to yourself. Your goal is to find out who you are, having denied your Identity by attacking creation and its Creator. Now you are learning how to remember the truth. For this attack must be replaced by forgiveness, so that thoughts of life may replace thoughts of death.

Remember that in every attack you call upon your own weakness, while each time you forgive you call upon the strength of Christ in you. Do you not then begin to understand what forgiveness will do for you? It will remove all sense of weakness, strain and fatigue from your mind. It will take away all fear and guilt and pain. It will restore the invulnerability and power God gave His Son to your awareness. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 62, W-pI.62.2-3. See also ACIM Lesson 62 Insights.)

We attack Creation when we believe we are a body. The body is an image of separation and thus denies the oneness of Creation. Believing our brothers are bodies is another form of attack on Creation. Forgiveness means letting go of identifying with a separate identity and accepting our oneness with all Creation. This acceptance will also automatically include every brother, for without the belief in our separate identity, the Identity of our brothers is automatically recognized as one with us.

Forgiveness is the way we let go of the mistaken false identity to make way for the Light of our true Identity to dawn upon our minds. The practice of forgiveness may be applied to situations or events in the world or a brother’s behavior or it may be applied to ourselves. The effect of forgiveness is the same, whether it appears to be applied to an external image or to ourselves because they are the same illusion.

We need to learn how to forgive from the inner Teacher, Who recognizes our perceptions but does not believe them. Our inner Teacher will help us recognize our mistaken beliefs and show us that they are meaningless. He will bring us Christ’s vision which shows us the truth of our oneness in Creation. We cannot forgive on our own but we can forgive if we accept the help of our inner Teacher. Today we practice bringing our perceptions to the Holy Spirit and accept His help to let them go.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Opening to God’s Joy

Let me remember I am one with God.

No miracle can ever be denied to those who know that they are one with God. No thought of theirs but has the power to heal all forms of suffering in anyone, in times gone by and times as yet to come, as easily as in the ones who walk beside them now. Their thoughts are timeless, and apart from distance as apart from time.

We join in this awareness as we say that we are one with God. For in these words we say as well that we are saved and healed; that we can save and heal accordingly. We have accepted, and we now would give. For we would keep the gifts our Father gave. Today we would experience ourselves at one with Him, so that the world may share our recognition of reality. In our experience the world is freed. As we deny our separation from our Father, [the world] is healed along with us. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 124, W-pI.124.Title;6-7. See also ACIM Lesson 124 Insights.)

Our experience as a body living in the world is a projection of the belief that we are separate from God. This belief is simply a denial of what is true. So this projection is just an illusion that could never be true.

The way out of the hell of belief in being separate from our Home in Heaven is to accept that we are one with God. As we let go of our denial of our oneness with God, we are healed of guilt and fear. The peace of God and all His joy and limitless Love return to our awareness when we let go of our denial.

The presence of God is always with us. We can claim it now. It only seems difficult to do this because we have chosen the ego as our identity. But we can choose again. And we have the Holy Spirit present in our mind to teach us how to recognize the false identity as not real and with no substance that can block our real Identity from our awareness. With the Holy Spirit’s help we can release our mistaken belief in a false identity and accept the reality that we are one with God. And our joy will be complete.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Choosing the Path to Love

Learn now, without despair, there is no hope of answer in the world.

Who would be willing to be turned away from all the roadways of the world, unless he understood their real futility?

The learning that the world can offer but one choice, no matter what its form may be, is the beginning of acceptance that there is a real alternative instead.

There is a choice that you have power to make when you have seen the real alternatives. …This course attempts to teach no more than that the power of decision cannot lie in choosing different forms of what is still the same illusion and the same mistake.

There is no road that leads away from Him. A journey from yourself does not exist.

Forgive yourself your madness, and forget all senseless journeys and all goal-less aims. They have no meaning. You can not escape from what you are. For God is merciful, and did not let His Son abandon Him. For what He is be thankful, for in that is your escape from madness and from death. Nowhere but where He is can you be found. There is no path that does not lead to Him. (A Course in Miracles, T-31.IV.4:3;5:1;6:1;8:1,3;10:4-5;11. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

The ego offers countless paths that seem to offer hope of a semblance of happiness, peace and completion. But in keeping with its motto, seek and do not find, the ego’s paths never succeed in bringing the hoped for result. We must all come to the point of accepting that all the ego’s paths are empty illusions, leading nowhere.

The only real path leads to the Love and peace of God. This is the only choice we can make. It is the choice between reality and illusion. Willingness to make the choice for God comes with the recognition that the ego offers no real alternative.

We choose the path to Love by choosing to accept the Holy Spirit’s loving lessons which show us that what we valued in the world is nothing but an empty belief. The Holy Spirit is our Guide and Helper in bringing us the change of mind that welcomes the Truth that we are God’s Son, at one with Him. We are eternally at Home in the peace and Love of God.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Healing Through Letting Go of the Past

The ego has a strange notion of time, and it is with this notion that your questioning might well begin. The ego invests heavily in the past, and in the end believes that the past is the only aspect of time that is meaningful. Remember that its emphasis on guilt enables it to ensure its continuity by making the future like the past, and thus avoiding the present. By the notion of paying for the past in the future, the past becomes the determiner of the future, making them continuous without an intervening present. For the ego regards the present only as a brief transition to the future, in which it brings the past to the future by interpreting the present in past terms.

“Now” has no meaning to the ego. The present merely reminds it of past hurts, and it reacts to the present as if it were the past. The ego cannot tolerate release from the past, and although the past is over, the ego tries to preserve its image by responding as if [the past] were present. It dictates your reactions to those you meet in the present from a past reference point, obscuring their present reality. In effect, if you follow the ego’s dictates you will react to your brother as though he were someone else, and this will surely prevent you from recognizing him as he is. And you will receive messages from him out of your own past because, by making it real in the present, you are forbidding yourself to let [the past] go. You thus deny yourself the message of release that every brother offers you now.

The shadowy figures from the past are precisely what you must escape. They are not real, and have no hold over you unless you bring them with you. They carry the spots of pain in your mind, directing you to attack in the present in retaliation for a past that is no more. And this decision is one of future pain. Unless you learn that past pain is an illusion, you are choosing a future of illusions and losing the many opportunities you could find for release in the present. The ego would preserve your nightmares, and prevent you from awakening and understanding they are past. Would you recognize a holy encounter if you are merely perceiving it as a meeting with your own past? For you would be meeting no one, and the sharing of salvation, which makes the encounter holy, would be excluded from your sight. The Holy Spirit teaches that you always meet yourself, and the encounter is holy because you are. The ego teaches that you always encounter your past, and because your dreams were not holy, the future cannot be, and the present is without meaning. (A Course in Miracles, T-13.IV.4-6. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

To see the Truth in our brothers and ourselves, we must let go of the past. The Truth is now and always. The past is over. The ego’s plan to overlay the past on the present is its mechanism to blind us to the Truth.

Forgiveness is the Holy Spirit’s teaching aid to help us let go of the past and welcome the holy present. Forgiveness takes the blindfold off so that we see our brother truly and learn from him of the truth in ourselves. This opportunity is presented to us every moment of every day. We dedicate today to taking the opportunities offered to learn the truth that we are Love and nothing else.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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