Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Bringing Love’s Blessing to the World

I can give up but what was never real.

I sacrifice illusions; nothing more. ²And as illusions go I find the gifts illusions tried to hide, awaiting me in shining welcome, and in readiness to give God’s ancient messages to me. ³His memory abides in every gift that I receive of Him. ⁴And every dream serves only to conceal the Self which is God’s only Son, the likeness of Himself, the Holy One Who still abides in Him forever, as He still abides in me.

Father, to You all sacrifice remains forever inconceivable. ²And so I cannot sacrifice except in dreams. ³As You created me, I can give up nothing You gave me. ⁴What You did not give has no reality. ⁵What loss can I anticipate except the loss of fear, and the return of love into my mind? (A Course in Miracles, W-322. See also ACIM Lesson 322 Insights.)

Because God is only Love, all His gifts are extensions of His Love. Love makes no demands; It only gives of Itself. Nothing else exists.

Yet the ego portrays God in its own image. It tells us that God demands sacrifice to His Will. But the ego demands we sacrifice our inheritance from our Creator and accept its illusions which hide the fact that we share God’s Will. We do not have to surrender to what we already are. In fact, the word “surrender” does not occur in A Course in Miracles. But to know the Love of God as ours, we do need to accept His gift.

Love gives of Itself eternally; that is its nature. We accept His gift of Love by giving It. We give It by seeing the Love in our brothers. We answer calls for Love with Love’s blessing as guided by our true Self, a.k.a. the Holy Spirit. While we still identify with the ego, we do not know how to extend Love. But our true Self knows. It extends Love without limit, for this one Self is joined with all our brothers as God’s one Son.

Today we choose to express our one Self by letting It guide our thoughts, words and actions. We let Love bring blessing to the world through us.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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How to Receive Forgiveness by Giving It

All that I give is given to myself.

Let us consider what you do believe, in place of this idea. ²It seems to you that other people are apart from you, and able to behave in ways which have no bearing on your thoughts, nor yours on theirs. ³Therefore, your attitudes have no effect on them, and their appeals for help are not in any way related to your own. ⁴You further think that they can sin without affecting your perception of yourself, while you can judge their sin, and yet remain apart from condemnation and at peace.

You do not understand forgiveness. …⁶[Your ‘forgiveness’] is not what God intended it to be for you.

Today we try to understand the truth that giver and receiver are the same.

In silence, close your eyes upon the world that does not understand forgiveness, and seek sanctuary in the quiet place where thoughts are changed and false beliefs laid by. ²Repeat today’s idea, and ask for help in understanding what it really means. ³Be willing to be taught. ⁴Be glad to hear the Voice of truth and healing speak to you, and you will understand the words He speaks, and recognize He speaks your words to you.

³All that I give is given to myself. ⁴The Help I need to learn that this is true is with me now. ⁵And I will trust in Him. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 126, W-126.2;6:1,6;8:1;10;11:3-5. See also ACIM Lesson 126 Insights.)

In the world, it is impossible to give anything away and also receive it. This is because the world is based on belief in separation. Nothing is truly shared. True forgiveness is the one illusion that heals belief in separation. We receive the forgiveness we give in the world as we receive the Love we extend in the Heaven of God’s Love.

Having divorced God by choosing the ego as our identity, we need Help to forgive our misperceptions of separation. We need to be willing to be taught true forgiveness by frequently stepping back from our involvement in the world, quieting our mind, and asking the Holy Spirit’s Help to teach us how to see with Christ’s vision and give the gift of joining in Love.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Seeing Our Completion with Brothers

³To everyone who lives will Christ yet come, for everyone must live and move in Him. ⁴His Being in His Father is secure, because Their Will is One. ⁵Their gratitude to all They have created has no end, for gratitude remains a part of love.

Thanks be to you, the holy Son of God. ²For as you were created, you contain all things within your Self. ³And you are still as God created you. ⁴Nor can you dim the light of your perfection. ⁵In your heart the Heart of God is laid. ⁶He holds you dear, because you are Himself. ⁷All gratitude belongs to you, because of what you are.

Give thanks as you receive it. ²Be you free of all ingratitude to anyone who makes your Self complete. ³And from this Self is no one left outside. ⁴Give thanks for all the countless channels which extend this Self. ⁵All that you do is given unto Him. ⁶All that you think can only be His Thoughts, sharing with Him the holy Thoughts of God. ⁷Earn now the gratitude you have denied yourself when you forgot the function God has given you. ⁸But never think that He has ever ceased to offer thanks to you. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 197, W-197.7:3–9:8. See also ACIM Lesson 197 Insights.)

Everyone in this world feels incomplete. This is because we have identified with the ego and its world of make believe where everything is different and separate. As we learn to accept Christ’s vision, which sees the Reality the body’s eyes cannot see, we recognize that we remain as God created us. Vision shows us we are complete. Everything God is, we are for He knows us as part of Himself. When we accept God’s gift of all of His Love, gratitude is inevitable, for there is no greater gift.

Today we choose Christ’s vision to see with the forgiving eyes of Love. We see our brother as one with our Self in God. It brings us joy to join in the eternal flow of Love within all of God’s Creation. Let us join with the Truth today and be glad.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Preparing for Mind Healing

The Holy Spirit can use all that you give to Him for your salvation. ²But He cannot use what you withhold, for He cannot take it from you without your willingness. ³For if He did, you would believe He wrested it from you against your will. ⁴And so you would not learn it _is_ your will to be without it. ⁵You need not give it to Him wholly willingly, for if you could you had no need of Him. ⁶But this He needs; that you prefer He take it than that you keep it for yourself alone, and recognize that what brings loss to no one you would not know. ⁷This much is necessary to add to the idea no one can lose for you to gain. ⁸And nothing more.

You who know not of justice still can ask, and learn the answer. ²Justice looks on all in the same way. ³It is not just that one should lack for what another has. ⁴For that is vengeance in whatever form it takes. ⁵Justice demands no sacrifice…

⁸It is impossible for you to share the Holy Spirit’s justice with a mind that can conceive of specialness at all.

⁷Without love is justice prejudiced and weak. ⁸And love without justice is impossible. …¹¹In justice, then, does love correct mistakes, but not in vengeance. ¹²For that would be unjust to innocence. (A Course in Miracles, T-25.VIII.1:1-8;4:1-5;5:8;11:7-8,11-12. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

In preparation for our recent move, we went through a process of letting go of things we had saved but did not perceive as worth moving. Similarly we need to look at our beliefs and evaluate whether we want to keep them. Is a belief helpful? Does it keep us safe or make us happy? Does it strengthen or weaken us? Does it trigger fear or guilt?

This evaluation process needs to be guided by the Holy Spirit. The ego is an inappropriate guide for it will defend beliefs that keep it in place. But the Holy Spirit will always lead us to see beyond the ego’s limited perspective with Christ’s vision. With His help we learn that ego-based beliefs do not serve us. The value we have given them diminishes.

When we reach the point of willingness that the Holy Spirit replace our limiting beliefs with awareness of Love’s presence in our mind, we are open to mind healing. Our mind is progressively healed as we are willing to receive Love’s blessing in place of the ego’s offerings of specialness. Our perceptions are increasingly guided by Love. We are restored to the peace and happiness that is eternally ours as God’s Son.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Healing Our Divided Mind

Take pity on yourself, so long enslaved. ²Rejoice whom God hath joined have come together and need no longer look on sin apart. …⁴Sin is a strictly individual perception, seen in the other yet believed by each to be within himself. ⁵And each one seems to make a different error, and one the other cannot understand.

Who has need for sin? ²Only the lonely and alone, who see their brothers different from themselves. ³It is this difference, seen but not real, that makes the need for sin, not real but seen, seem justified. ⁴And all this would be real if sin were so. ⁵For an unholy relationship is based on differences, where each one thinks the other has what he has not.

A holy relationship starts from a different premise. ²Each one has looked within and seen no lack. ³Accepting his completion, he would extend it by joining with another, whole as himself. ⁴He sees no difference between these selves, for differences are only of the body.

Think what a holy relationship can teach! ²Here is belief in differences undone. ³Here is the faith in differences shifted to sameness. ⁴And here is sight of differences transformed to vision. …⁶It must extend, as you extended when you and he joined. ⁷It must reach out beyond itself, as you reached out beyond the body, to let you and your brother be joined. ⁸And now the sameness that you saw extends and finally removes all sense of differences, so that the sameness that lies beneath them all becomes apparent. (A Course in Miracles, T-22.in.1:1-2,4-5;2:1-5;3:1-4;4:1-4,6-8. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Oneness and changelessness are boring to the ego. It treasures change and differences. If we do not like our present experience, change offers hope that it can improve. But it also offers fear that it could become worse. Differences depend on change, for they cannot be perceived except if oneness has been changed to separation.

The Holy Spirit sees another use for change. He can help us change our mind, change what we believe. The belief that we are a body is the basis for perceiving differences in the world. The Holy Spirit teaches that we are not a body and differences are unreal.

Only the oneness of Love is real. This lesson is taught through the holy relationship. As we learn to see there is no difference between our brother and ourself, we let go of the mistaken belief in our mind. Now we accept our unity with our brother. We are one Love, not different. Separation is not real.

We are blessed as we let the Holy Spirit use change to heal our divided mind. We welcome the Holy Spirit’s lessons today.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Choice for Heaven

Forget not that you came this far together, you and your brother. ²And it was surely not the ego that led you here. ³No obstacle to peace can be surmounted through [the ego’s] help. ⁴It does not open up its secrets, and bid you look on them and go beyond them. ⁵It would not have you see its weakness, and learn it has no power to keep you from the truth. ⁶The Guide Who brought you here remains with you, and when you raise your eyes you will be ready to look on terror with no fear at all. ⁷But first, lift up your eyes and look on your brother in innocence born of complete forgiveness of his illusions, and through the eyes of faith that sees them not.

No one can look upon the fear of God unterrified, unless he has accepted the Atonement and learned illusions are not real. ²No one can stand before this obstacle alone, for he could not have reached this far unless his brother walked beside him. ³And no one would dare to look on [the fear of God] without complete forgiveness of his brother in his heart.

⁴Before complete forgiveness you still stand unforgiving. ⁵You are afraid of God because you fear your brother. ⁶Those you do not forgive you fear. ⁷And no one reaches love with fear beside him.

²Think who your brother is, before you would condemn him. ³And offer thanks to God that he is holy, and has been given the gift of holiness for you. ⁴Join him in gladness, and remove all trace of guilt from his disturbed and tortured mind. ⁵Help him to lift the heavy burden of sin you laid upon him and he accepted as his own, and toss it lightly and with happy laughter away from him. (A Course in Miracles, T-19.IV-D.8:1–9:3;11:4-7;16:2-5. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

The difference between viewing the world under the ego’s spell and seeing it through forgiving eyes is the difference between hell and Heaven. One sees only cause for fear and guilt. The other sees on Love, for the ego’s denial of Love is forgiven. Love is recognized as the only reality.

With forgiveness we join with all in the oneness of Love. Nothing fearful is perceived and we happily join in the continuing extension of God’s gift of all His Love. When we experience Heaven’s peace is not a matter of time. It depends on our willingness to let the Holy Spirit help us forgive our misperceptions and accept His Vision. Let’s support each other with our willingness.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting the Will We Share with God

⁴The ego has never given you a sensible answer to anything. ⁵Simply on the grounds of your own experience with its teaching, should not this alone disqualify it as your future teacher? ⁶Yet the ego has done more harm to your learning than this alone. ⁷Learning is joyful if it leads you along your natural path, and facilitates the development of what you have. ⁸When you are taught against your nature, however, you will lose by your learning because your learning will imprison you. ⁹Your will is in your nature, and therefore cannot go against it.

“The ego cannot teach you anything as long as your will is free, because you will not listen to it. ²It is not your will to be imprisoned because your will is free. ³That is why the ego is the denial of free will. ⁴It is never God Who coerces you, because He shares His Will with you. ⁵His Voice teaches only in accordance with His Will, but that is not the Holy Spirit’s lesson because that is what you _are._ ⁶The lesson is that your will and God’s cannot be out of accord because they are one. ⁷This is the undoing of everything the ego tries to teach. ⁸It is not, then, only the direction of the curriculum that must be unconflicted, but also the content.

“The ego tries to teach that you want to oppose God’s Will. ²This unnatural lesson cannot be learned, and the attempt to learn it is a violation of your own freedom, making you afraid of your will because it is free. ³The Holy Spirit opposes any imprisoning of the will of a Son of God, knowing that the Will of the Son is the Father’s. ⁴The Holy Spirit leads you steadily along the path of freedom, teaching you how to disregard or look beyond everything that would hold you back. (A Course in Miracles, T-8.II.2:4–4:4. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

By definition the ego is insane because it denies reality. Insanity cannot make sense. When we identify with the ego, our perceptions reflect the ego’s insanity. A mind dedicated to the denial of reality is insane. From within the insane thought system there seems to be no way out. Intervention is necessary from a Counselor Who recognizes our perceptions but does not believe them. We have this Counselor, the Holy Spirit, 24/7 in our mind. We must be willing to accept the Holy Spirit’s council if we would be free of the ego’s imprisonment in its insanity.

The Holy Spirit guides us gently and lovingly to reconsider our interpretations of our perceptions. The Course offers us many ways to open to His council. E.g. affirm I do not know what anything means; I will step back and let Him lead the way; above all else I want to see differently; I am not a body, I am free, I am still as God created me.

The Workbook lessons are a masterful curriculum to lead us out of our insanity by teaching us what we have believed is not true and showing us the truth to replace our mistaken beliefs. The core message of this curriculum is that God’s Will and ours are one and the same. As we accept this fact, the ego’s influence diminishes in our mind. Love increasingly guides our interpretations, actions and words. Simultaneously we experience greater joy and peace, for we are awakening to our true Nature. Today let us join in the dedication to accepting our true Will along with every brother, for we would be free.

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