Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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The Reward of Forgiveness

[God’s plan for your salvation] is not of you, nor need you be concerned with anything except the part that has been given you to learn. ²For He Who knows the rest will see to it without your help. ³But think not that He does not need your part to help Him with the rest. ⁴For in your part lies all of it, without which is no part complete, nor is the whole completed without your part. ⁵The ark of peace is entered two by two,…

You may wonder how you can be at peace when, while you are in time, there is so much that must be done before the way to peace is open. ²Perhaps this seems impossible to you. ³But ask yourself if it is possible that God would have a plan for your salvation that does not work. ⁴Once you accept His plan as the one function that you would fulfill, there will be nothing else the Holy Spirit will not arrange for you without your effort. ⁵He will go before you making straight your path, and leaving in your way no stones to trip on, and no obstacles to bar your way. ⁶Nothing you need will be denied you. ⁷Not one seeming difficulty but will melt away before you reach it. ⁸You need take thought for nothing, careless of everything except the only purpose that you would fulfill. ⁹As that was given you, so will its fulfillment be. ¹⁰God’s guarantee will hold against all obstacles, for it rests on certainty and not contingency. ¹¹It rests on you. ¹²And what can be more certain than a Son of God? (A Course in Miracles, T-20.IV.6:1-5;8. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The Course says repeatedly, in many ways, that our only meaningful function in this world is to forgive. It is the means by which we free ourselves from the ego’s tyranny of denying Love, our inheritance. Forgiveness peals away the scales of fear and guilt so that Christ’s vision can show us the innocence of Love in every brother and ourselves. Through forgiveness we recognize our brother as part of us. We would no more want to disown our brother than to disown our Self. Yet that is what the ego does.

The reward for forgiving our brother and ourselves is our awakening to the certainty of our place in the Heart of God. We remember we are eternally safe. We welcome the Holy Spirit’s guidance knowing He leads us straight Home to Love where we rest in perfect peace and overflow with the joy of Loving.

Today we welcome the Holy Spirit’s help to see our brothers sinless and learn of our own innocence.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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A Lesson in the Value of Following

I merely follow, for I would not lead.

Father, You are the One Who gave the plan for my salvation to me. ²You have set the way I am to go, the role to take, and every step in my appointed path. ³I cannot lose the way. ⁴I can but choose to wander off a while, and then return. ⁵Your loving Voice will always call me back, and guide my feet aright. ⁶My brothers all can follow in the way I lead them. ⁷Yet I merely follow in the way to You, as You direct me and would have me go.

So let us follow One Who knows the way. ²We need not tarry, and we cannot stray except an instant from His loving Hand. ³We walk together, for we follow Him. ⁴And it is He Who makes the ending sure, and guarantees a safe returning home. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 324. See also ACIM Lesson 324 Insights.)

Today I had an experience that demonstrates the importance of stepping back and letting Holy Spirit lead the way. Yesterday we were at our new house, not yet moved in. I misplaced my computer last night. This morning when I came to the house, my computer was not where I expected to find it.

I shifted into my old habit of trying to figure out where I might have left it. I searched in every place I could think of without success. This is typical of what happens when we follow the ego’s directions. The ego always wants us to search and not find.

Finally I was willing to step back and let Holy Spirit lead. Mary and I joined together to go to Spirit and open to His lead. After that dedication, I was reminded of an app I could use on my phone to locate the computer. It showed that it was in the house somewhere. This helped calm the fear that somehow it had gotten into someone else’s hands. Mary was then inspired to look in a place where I had not looked before, though I had looked past it several times. There was the computer at the foot of the stairs near the front door.

In our joining, with willingness to be led, our perceived problem was resolved. This is yet another demonstration reminding me to follow Holy Spirit at all times. If I had stepped back at the beginning instead of relying on my own limited thinking, I would have saved time and would have been free of the anxiety that came with searching while believing I was alone.

We are never alone. The Holy Spirit is with us and available 24/7. We must simply get out of our own way and choose to follow His lead. With that willingness, our life experience is more peaceful, happy and loving. Each time we remember to follow reinforces the lesson that the Holy Spirit is the only Guide Who can lead us back Home to God.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Joy of Joining in God’s Love

…God’s teachers are wholly gentle. ²They need the strength of gentleness, for it is in this that the function of salvation becomes easy.

Joy is the inevitable result of gentleness [lack of judgment]. ²Gentleness means that fear is now impossible, and what could come to interfere with joy? ³The open hands of gentleness are always filled. ⁴The gentle have no pain. ⁵They cannot suffer. ⁶Why would they not be joyous? ⁷They are sure they are beloved and must be safe. ⁸Joy goes with gentleness as surely as grief attends attack. ⁹God’s teachers trust in Him. ¹⁰And they are sure His Teacher goes before them, making sure no harm can come to them. ¹¹They hold His gifts and follow in His way, because God’s Voice directs them in all things. ¹²Joy is their song of thanks. ¹³And Christ looks down on them in thanks as well. ¹⁴His need of them [who follow in His way] is just as great as theirs of Him. ¹⁵How joyous it is to share the purpose of salvation! (A Course in Miracles, M-4.IV.2:1-2;V)

If we want to live a life of joy, there is only one thing we must do. We must follow the Holy Spirit in everything we do, say and think. This seems difficult to do only because of our divided allegiance. Part of our mind still believes the ego offers something we want, some form of specialness that will make us happy. But if we are willing to follow the Holy Spirit, His lessons will show us that the ego offers nothing we want. All we really need is God’s Love; there is nothing else except in fantasy.

Through the practice of following Holy Spirit, the appeal of fantasies fades and the joy of joining in God’s Love lightens our mind. Our gratitude strengthens our willingness to follow Him and decide nothing on our own.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Choosing the Path to Sanity and Love

³Learn now, without despair, there is no hope of answer in the world. ⁴But do not judge the lesson that is but begun with this. …⁸For from this lowest point will learning lead to heights of happiness, in which you see the purpose of the lesson shining clear, and perfectly within your learning grasp.

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.

³This 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.

Forgive yourself your madness, and forget all senseless journeys and all goal-less aims. ²They have no meaning. ³You can not escape from what you are. ⁴For God is merciful, and did not let His Son abandon Him. ⁵For what He is be thankful, for in that is your escape from madness and from death. ⁶Nowhere but where He is can you be found. ⁷There is no path that does not lead to Him. (A Course in Miracles, T-31.IV.4:3-4,8-5:1;6:1;8:3;11. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Our only choice is between nothing, which is all the ego offers or everything, which God offers. Love is everything because only Love is real.

We only seem to live in a loveless world because we have chosen specialness and separation which cannot abide in the reality of Love’s oneness. We can choose differently. But we will not choose differently if we believe what the ego offers something we want. So the lessons we must learn to find our way back to Love must teach us that the ego offers nothing we truly want.

At best it offers empty images that glitter and shine to appeal to our mistaken desires for specialness. But God’s Will for His Son is perfect happiness. We need not settle for less. As we learn that the ego’s offerings really give us nothing, we become eager to learn the Holy Spirit’s lessons. Sadness, fear and guilt fade away to be replaced by happiness, peace and eternal Love as we learn the lessons God would have us learn.

Today we happily welcome the Holy Spirit’s reinterpretations of our perceptions, for we would return to sanity and Love.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Subscribing to the Love We Are

Love created me like itself.

Today’s idea is a complete and accurate statement of what you are. ²This is why you are the light of the world. ³This is why God appointed you as the world’s savior. ⁴This is why the Son of God looks to you for his salvation. ⁵He is saved by what you are.

“…think about your reality and its wholly unchanged and unchangeable nature.…

³Holiness created me holy.
⁴Kindness created me kind.
⁵Helpfulness created me helpful.
⁶Perfection created me perfect.

⁷Any attribute which is in accord with God as He defines Himself is appropriate for use. ⁸We are trying today to undo your definition of God and replace it with His Own. ⁹We are also trying to emphasize that you are part of His definition of Himself.

²You need to hear the truth about yourself as frequently as possible, because your mind is so preoccupied with false self-images. ³…remind yourself that love created you like itself. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 67, W-67.1:1-5;2:1,3-9;5:2-3. See also ACIM Lesson 67 Insights.)

Because Love created us like Itself, we are under no laws but God’s. The attributes of Love are our innate attributes. Because the body is a false image, the attributes and laws of God do not apply to the body. They apply to our true Self, which is formless Love.

We have subscribed to the ego’s malware which substitutes a image of our identity. The Course is gently and lovingly guiding us to unsubscribe. We don’t really want the messages the ego sends us. We want to remember our true Self, which is innately kind, happy, loving and peaceful. This exercise helps us let go of our subscription to a false image.

The only subscription we need was given us in our creation by God. God is our true operating system. It runs on Love and nothing else. It is impervious to the ego’s corrupting thoughts. As we practice reminding ourselves of our true attributes, the ego’s malware is neutralized and dispelled. We return to being the Love we were created to be.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Remembering We Are Home in God

Today I let Christ’s vision look upon all things for me and judge them not, but give each one a miracle of love instead.

So would I liberate all things I see, and give to them the freedom that I seek. ²For thus do I obey the law of love, and give what I would find and make my own. ³It will be given me, because I have chosen it as the gift I want to give. ⁴Father, Your gifts are mine. ⁵Each one that I accept gives me a miracle to give. ⁶And giving as I would receive, I learn Your healing miracles belong to me.

Our Father knows our needs. ²He gives us grace to meet them all. ³And so we trust in Him to send us miracles to bless the world, and heal our minds as we return to Him. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 349, W-349. See also ACIM Lesson 349 Insights.)

When we look upon the world with Christ’s vision, we see Love in everyone and in all things. The body’s eyes cannot show us this, for they were made to see only the illusions produced by the ego thought system. The body’s eyes show us nothing that is real. They seem real only because we believe the ego is our identity.

But as we give our attention to Christ’s vision, we see the reality of Love shine through the smokescreen of the ego’s illusions. We increasingly recognize illusions for what they are and welcome the Love that we share with everyone. God has given us the means to awaken from the ego’s dream.

Today we practice stepping back from the images of the world to let Christ’s vision show us the presence of Love in each now moment. With this practice we experience the Love that is ever present in the world. Love guides our thoughts, words and deeds. We feel the strength of Love surrounding us and extending through us to all. Our Home in Love seems increasingly real to us while the world diminishes in its importance. We know we are safe, we are loved, we are at Home in God.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Reclaiming Our Identity in God

My mind is part of God’s. I am very holy.

Today’s idea does not describe the way you see yourself now. ²It does, however, describe what vision will show you. ³It is difficult for anyone who thinks he is in this world to believe this of himself. ⁴Yet the reason he thinks he is in this world is because he does not believe it.

You will believe that you are part of where you think you are. ²That is because you surround yourself with the environment you want. ³And you want it to protect the image of yourself that you have made. ⁴The image is part of this environment. ⁵What you see while you believe you are in it is seen through the eyes of the image. ⁶This is not vision. ⁷Images cannot see.

The idea for today presents a very different view of yourself. ²By establishing your Source it establishes your Identity, and it describes you as you must really be in truth. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 35, W-35.1:1–3:2. See also ACIM Lesson 35 Insights.)

It is difficult for us to accept that our mind is part of God’s and we are very holy because we believe we are an image disconnected from God. This image is neither holy nor unholy because it is an illusion. An illusion is neither bad nor good, it is nothing.

In order to accept the truth of what we are, we have to let go of our belief in a false image of our identity. This is threatening to our seeming existence. If we believe our identity is a body, the loss of the body is the loss of our identity. This is why death is frightening.

In the ego’s dream of separation. It seems that without a body, we do not exist. This is typical of the ego’s distortions. In reality, the body does not exist at all. Our true Identity is held perfectly secure in the Mind of God, changeless and unchangeable. We cannot lose the Identity God created as His Son. This Identity shares God’s holiness.

Today’s lesson is a step toward recognizing the Self that is our true Identity. Our Identity is eternally at peace, joyful and loving as God is. We welcome it now.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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