Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Our Friend Who Leads Us Home

Anything in this world that you believe is good and valuable and worth striving for can hurt you, and will do so. ²Not because it has the power to hurt, but just because you have denied it is but an illusion, and made it real. ³And it is real to you. ⁴It is not nothing. ⁵And through its perceived reality has entered all the world of sick illusions. ⁶All belief in sin [separation], in power of attack, in hurt and harm, in sacrifice and death, has come to you. ⁷For no one can make one illusion real, and still escape the rest. ⁸For who can choose to keep the ones that he prefers, and find the safety that the truth alone can give? ⁹Who can believe illusions are the same, and still maintain that even one is best?

⁵Without [the Holy Spirit] you are friendless. ⁶Seek not another friend [ego] to take His place. ⁷There is no other friend. ⁸What God appointed has no substitute, for what illusion can replace the truth?

³Make no illusion friend, for if you do, it can but take the place of Him Whom God has called your Friend. ⁴And it is He Who is your only Friend in truth. ⁵He brings you gifts that are not of this world, and only He to Whom they have been given can make sure that you receive them. ⁶He will place them on your throne, when you make room for Him on His. (A Course in Miracles, T-26.VI.1;2:5-8;3:3-6. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

We have chosen a “friend” whose sole purpose is to alienate us from God. This pseudo friend offers us gifts of specialness that seem to elevate our status, comfort us or protect us from harm. Yet it offers nothing but illusions.

There is no greater status than to be God’s Son, eternally united with Him in the oneness of Love. Because only Love is real, nothing the ego offers is real. By accepting its offerings we are choosing nothing in place of everything.

In His Love for His Son, God appointed him a Friend Whose sole purpose is to reunite him with his Creator. This gift returns us to Heaven when we choose to follow our appointed Friend. Today we choose to walk with our Friend on a journey without distance to our Home in Love which we never left in truth.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Demonstrating the Power of Love

…God is our Companion as we walk the world a little while. ⁵And those who come to follow us will recognize the way because the light we carry stays behind, yet still remains with us as we walk on.

We see [the loving and lovable] in appearances of pain, and pain gives way to peace. ²We see it in the frantic, in the sad and the distressed, the lonely and afraid, who are restored to the tranquility and peace of mind in which they were created. ³And we see it in the dying and the dead as well, restoring them to life. ⁴All this we see because we saw [Love] first within ourselves.

No miracle can ever be denied to those who know that they are one with God. ²No 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. ³Their thoughts are timeless, and apart from distance as apart from time.

⁵Today we would experience ourselves at one with Him, so that the world may share our recognition of reality.

²Let me remember I am one with God, at one with all my brothers and my Self, in everlasting holiness and peace. A Course in Miracles, (W-124.2:4-5;5–6;7:5;12:2. See also ACIM Lesson 124 Insights.)

It is not God’s Will that we suffer pain, guilt, fear or loss of any kind. He has given His Son, our true Self, all of Himself — His Love, His peace and His joy. When we remember that we are one with our Creator, we will experience all of His attributes.

As we forgive our mistaken beliefs in being separate from our Creator, His Light brightens in our mind. We let It in as we accept the Holy Spirit’s help to see the presence of Love everywhere and in everyone.

Today we remind ourselves frequently that we are one with God. All that He Is, we are. As we accept this fact, we become His messengers of Love. By our demonstration we bring the healing power of Love to the world.

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

…we watch our thoughts, appealing silently to Him Who sees the elements of truth in them. ⁴Let Him evaluate each thought that comes to mind, remove the elements of dreams, and give them back again as clean ideas that do not contradict the Will of God.

Give Him your thoughts, and He will give them back as miracles which joyously proclaim the wholeness and the happiness God wills His Son, as proof of His eternal Love. ²And as each thought is thus transformed, it takes on healing power from the Mind which saw the truth in it, and failed to be deceived by what was falsely added. ³All the threads of fantasy are gone. ⁴And what remains is unified into a perfect Thought that offers its perfection everywhere.

²Your ministry begins as all your thoughts are purified. ³So are you taught to teach the Son of God the holy lesson of his sanctity. ⁴No one can fail to listen, when you hear the Voice for God give honor to God’s Son. ⁵And everyone will share the thoughts with you which He has retranslated in your mind. (A Course in Miracles, W-151.13:3–14:4;15:2-5. See also ACIM Lesson 151 Insights.)

We have trained our minds to give unquestioning allegiance to the ego’s scheme to make specialness and separation seem real. This allegiance has brought us the experience of pain and suffering, guilt and fear.

The Course provides a mind training program to show us the price of our allegiance to the ego. This helps us to question if we are getting what we really want. As we become willing to consider that there must be a better way, we are open to the lessons the Course offers that help us shift our allegiance to the Holy Spirit in our mind. This willingness is the key to our return Home.

Now is the time to give allegiance to the Holy Spirit and His lessons in Love. He will transform our mistaken perceptions into healing opportunities to let Love replace fear, innocence replace guilt, peace replace conflict and joy replace sadness. All this is already given us by our Creator. We need only follow the Guide Whose mission is to return us to full awareness of God’s gifts. It takes vigilance, but the reward is awakening to Heaven.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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We Welcome God’s Ceaseless Love

Now do we come to Him with but His Word upon our minds and hearts, and wait for Him to take the step to us that He has told us, through His Voice, He would not fail to take when we invited Him.

⁵Sit silently and wait upon your Father. ⁶He has willed to come to you when you have recognized it is your will He do so.

²We have found the way He chose for us, and made the choice to follow it as He would have us go. ³His Hand has held us up. ⁴His Thoughts have lit the darkness of our minds. ⁵His Love has called to us unceasingly since time began.

…we need only call to God, and all temptations disappear. ³Instead of words, we need but feel His Love. ⁴Instead of prayers, we need but call His Name. ⁵Instead of judging, we need but be still and let all things be healed. (A Course in Miracles, W-pII.in.4:1;5:5-6;8:2-5)

God’s Love flows to us unceasingly. If we don’t feel It, it is because we are giving our attention to the ego’s thoughts which refuse to accept His Love. But we can accept His Love simply by sitting quietly and letting our mind sink deeply into the peace within us. It is God’s peace. When we quiet our minds, we call upon God’s Love. We open the door to welcome It.

As we let ourselves welcome His Love, we feel His Hand supporting us and giving us His strength. The Light of His Love fills our mind so we can see clearly the presence of Love beyond the ego’s dark veil. We rest in peace because we rest in the certainty of God’s promise that we remain eternally united with Him.

Each time we call upon God’s Love, we feel His gentleness and kindness and express It in the world. We can never be alone. When we do not feel the comfort of His Love, we remember to call on Him to help us awaken to our true Self. His Voice answers with the clarity of true vision to show us that the Love we are is eternally united with the Love in all that Is.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Returning to the Source of Peace and Joy

I seek but what belongs to me in truth.

Today’s idea continues with the thought that joy and peace are not but idle dreams. ²They are your right, because of what you are. ³They come to you from God, Who cannot fail to give you what He wills. ⁴Yet must there be a place made ready to receive His gifts. ⁵[Peace and joy] are not welcomed gladly by a mind that has instead received the gifts it made where His belong, as substitutes for them.

Today we would remove all meaningless and self-made gifts which we have placed upon the holy altar where God’s gifts belong. ²His [peace and joy] are the gifts that are our own in truth. ³His are the gifts that we inherited before time was, and that will still be ours when time has passed into eternity. ⁴His are the gifts that are within us now, for they are timeless. ⁵And we need not wait to have them. ⁶They belong to us today.

So do we clear the way for Him today by simply recognizing that His Will is done already, and that joy and peace belong to us as His eternal gifts. …we bring to mind as often as we can:

⁴I seek but what belongs to me in truth.
⁵God’s gifts of joy and peace are all I want. (A Course in Miracles, W-104.1–2;5:1,3-5. See also ACIM Lesson 104 Insights.)

As long as we identify with the ego and its goal, unhappiness, conflict and depression are inevitable because the ego’s primary goal is to seek and not find. The continuing dissatisfaction we experience following the ego’s directions can only lead to frustration, guilt and anger.

But we have another Guide Whose mission is to lead us to the memory of the gifts we have already received from God. He is the Guide to peace and joy guaranteed to be successful because it is God’s Will.

In myriad ways the Course tells us to follow Holy Spirit’s lead because it will always lead us to the truth. It will always lead us to what we really want—peace and joy.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Awakening to Heaven’s Happiness and Peace

Heaven is the decision I must make.

Heaven is chosen consciously. ²The choice cannot be made until alternatives are accurately seen and understood. ³All that is veiled in shadows must be raised to understanding, to be judged again, this time with Heaven’s help. ⁴And all mistakes in judgment that the mind had made before are open to correction, as the truth dismisses them as causeless. ⁵Now are they without effects. ⁶They cannot be concealed, because their nothingness is recognized.

The conscious choice of Heaven is as sure as is the ending of the fear of hell, when [hell] is raised from its protective shield of unawareness, and is brought to light.

We make the choice for Heaven as we wake, and spend five minutes making sure that we have made the one decision that is sane. ²We recognize we make a conscious choice between what has existence and what has nothing but an appearance of the truth.

Before we close our eyes in sleep tonight, we reaffirm the choice that we have made each hour in between. ²And now we give the last five minutes of our waking day to the decision with which we awoke. ³As every hour passed, we have declared our choice again, in a brief quiet time devoted to maintaining sanity. ⁴And finally, we close the day with this, acknowledging we chose but what we want:

⁵Heaven is the decision I must make. ⁶I make it now, and will not change my mind, because it is the only thing I want. (A Course in Miracles, W-138.9:1–10:1;11:1-2;12. See also ACIM Lesson 138 Insights.)

We make the choice for Heaven when we choose to actively listen to the Holy Spirit. He will teach us to understand our mistaken choices in the world. With this understanding we will recognize that choosing separation in the world brings us nothing that we really want.

We will learn that we have chosen empty illusions with no meaning or value and freely let them go as valueless. Without interference by mistaken values, we awaken to the Heaven of God’s Love. Truth replaces illusions that were hidden beneath unconscious choices for the meaningless.

We make the decision for Heaven by actively listening to the Holy Spirit’s lessons in Love, moment by moment throughout the day, every day.

© 2022, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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A Resolution for a Happy Year

The body is a fence the Son of God imagines he has built, to separate parts of his Self from other parts.

The body is a dream. ²Like other dreams it sometimes seems to picture happiness, but can quite suddenly revert to fear, where every dream is born. ³For only love creates in truth, and truth can never fear. ⁴Made to be fearful, must the body serve the purpose given it. ⁵But we can change the purpose that the body will obey by changing what we think that it is for.

The body is the means by which God’s Son returns to sanity. ²Though it was made to fence him into hell without escape, yet has the goal of Heaven been exchanged for the pursuit of hell. ³The Son of God extends his hand to reach his brother, and to help him walk along the road with him. ⁴Now is the body holy. ⁵Now it serves to heal the mind that it was made to kill.

⁴Love is your safety. ⁵Fear does not exist. ⁶Identify with love, and you are safe. ⁷Identify with love, and you are home. ⁸Identify with love, and find your Self. (A Course in Miracles, W-pII.5.1:1;3-4;5:4-8. See also ACIM Lesson 261 Insights.)

This is a time that is traditionally used to make resolutions, goals to which we aspire. It is important to know what Guide we are using to choose our goals. If we are seeking goals to find safety in the world of form, we are choosing the ego. Form is the mechanism the ego uses to make illusions seem real. But goals in the world leave us feeling unsatisfied when they are achieved.

The only meaningful purpose in the world is to awaken to the reality of Love, our only Identity. We have thoroughly convinced ourselves that the forms in the dream are real. So we need the Holy Spirit’s help to learn to let go of the ego’s substitutes for Love. As we clear away our mistaken identification with a separate identity, the Light of Love shines through in our dream. We feel the safety and certainty of Love’s strength in us. We also see It in our brothers and join with It.

When we practice bringing everything that disturbs our peace to the Holy Spirit to receive His vision, we see what seemed to be a threat as a plea for Love. Our belief that we can be threatened is our own call for Love.

We welcome the Holy Spirit’s gift of God’s Love and discover we are safe. God’s joy fills our heart. Today we resolve to choose the Holy Spirit as our Guide moment by moment, day by day. This is how we make the year loving, happy and peaceful.

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