Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Changing the Purpose of the Dream

This space you see as setting off all things from one another is the means by which the world’s perception is achieved. ²You see something where nothing is, and see as well nothing where there is unity; a space between all things, between all things and you. ³Thus do you think that you have given life in separation. ⁴By this split you think you are established as a unity which functions with an independent will.

Such is the teaching of the world. ²It is a phase of learning everyone who comes must go through. ³But the sooner he perceives on what it rests, how questionable are its premises, how doubtful its results, the sooner does he question [the world’s] effects. ⁴Learning that stops with what the world would teach stops short of meaning. ⁵In its proper place, it serves but as a starting point from which another kind of learning can begin, a new perception can be gained, and all the arbitrary names the world bestows can be withdrawn as they are raised to doubt.

Use all the little names and symbols which delineate the world of darkness. ²Yet accept them not as your reality. ³The Holy Spirit uses all of them, but He does not forget creation has one Name, one meaning, and a single Source which unifies all things within Itself. ⁴Use all the names the world bestows on them but for convenience, yet do not forget they share the Name of God along with you. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 184, W-184.2;7;11. See also ACIM Lesson 184 Insights.)

The “life” we experience is a game of make believe we play in our mind. We imagine myriad forms and give them names to convince ourselves they are real. Then we set up a system of learning to teach us how to use these make-believe forms to function in this make-believe world. We so thoroughly reinforce these lessons in make-believe, we forget we made up all these forms. In this forgetting, we do not perceive that we are responsible for this world seeming to exist.

The Course is teaching us how to undo these heavily reinforced lessons of the ego. Because this world is so alien to the truth of our oneness with all that is, it seems difficult to comprehend the world is all made up. We are not asked to completely dismiss the illusionary world in one fell swoop. But we are called upon to work with the Holy Spirit to use the forms of the world for Its purpose.

The purpose of the forms is changed from reinforcing division to helping us teach ourselves and our brothers that only the unity of Love is real. Books become means to learn a new way of perceiving. Words become means to teach Love instead of hate. Print and electronic media become means to unify rather than divide.

As teachers of God, we are called to join the Holy Spirit’s purpose with our thoughts and actions. As we do this, we awaken from the dream that played a game of separation. We remember Love is our Identity.

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Willingness to Let Illusions Go

The Holy Spirit’s function is to take the broken picture of the Son of God and put the pieces into place again. ²This holy picture, healed entirely, does He hold out to every separate piece that thinks it is a picture in itself. ³To each He offers his Identity, which the whole picture represents, instead of just a little, broken bit that he insisted was himself.

I thank You, Father, knowing You will come to close each little gap that lies between the broken pieces of Your holy Son. ²Your Holiness, complete and perfect, lies in every one of them. ³And they are joined because what is in one is in them all. ⁴How holy is the smallest grain of sand, when it is recognized as being part of the completed picture of God’s Son! ⁵The forms the broken pieces seem to take mean nothing. ⁶For the whole is in each one. ⁷And every aspect of the Son of God is just the same as every other part.

⁸Your willingness to let illusions go is all the Healer of God’s Son requires. ⁹He will place the miracle of healing where the seeds of sickness were. ¹⁰And there will be no loss, but only gain. (A Course in Miracles, T-28.IV.8:1-3;9;10:8-10. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Dreams have no effect on Reality. While we are engaged in dreams, we do not know what Reality is. But our belief in the dream makes it seem real. As long as we insist in believing its reality, we defend it at all costs, even to a dream of death.

To awaken from the dream, we must be willing not to defend it. The Course gently and consistently leads us to realize the dream is giving us nothing of value. It does not give us lasting peace. We may experience periods of happiness, but they do not last. Fear and guilt break through the pleasing images to show the dark underside of the quest for specialness. Beneath the superficial images lies the despair that comes with denial of Love.

As we learn that we do not want the dream, we become willing to let it go. This willingness is all the Holy Spirit needs to lead us to the joy and peace of our true Nature. Now we are willing to awaken from the dream, to set aside its childish games. As we accept the Holy Spirit’s help, our awareness of the Love we are is restored to our Holy Mind. In joy we unite with the Love in our brothers and together we return to our Home in the Love of God.

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We Never Left the Heart of God

I am one Self, united with my Creator.

²Serenity and perfect peace are mine, because I am one Self, completely whole, at one with all creation and with God.

Salvation comes from my one Self.

²From my one Self, Whose knowledge still remains within my mind, I see God’s perfect plan for my salvation perfectly fulfilled. (A Course in Miracles, W-113.1–2. See also ACIM Lesson 113 Insights.)

Reality and illusions cannot intersect. Illusions can conflict with each other, but they have no effect on Reality. When we remember that we are Love and nothing else, we remember our one Self, united with all Love. There is no conflict in Love’s oneness. This is our security and safety. Accepting this fact is our salvation from a dream of conflict and differences.

We have not lost our unity in Love. But we cannot experience It while we dream of differences and identify with an image of separation as our self. Today we affirm our Reality as we remind ourselves that we are one Self, united in Love’s oneness. We have never left our Home in the Heart of God.

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Fear Condemns and Love Forgives

God is the Love in which I forgive.

³Forgiveness is the great need of this world, but that is because it is a world of illusions. ⁴Those who forgive are thus releasing themselves from illusions, while those who withhold forgiveness are binding themselves to them. ⁵As you condemn only yourself, so do you forgive only yourself.

Yet although God does not forgive, His Love is nevertheless the basis of forgiveness. ²Fear condemns and love forgives. ³Forgiveness thus undoes what fear has produced, returning the mind to the awareness of God. ⁴For this reason, forgiveness can truly be called salvation. ⁵It is the means by which illusions disappear.

⁴God is the Love in which I forgive you, [name].

³God is the Love in which I forgive myself.

⁵God is the Love with which I love myself.
⁶God is the Love in which I am blessed.

³I cannot be guilty because I am a Son of God.
⁴I have already been forgiven.
⁵No fear is possible in a mind beloved of God.
⁶There is no need to attack because love has forgiven me. (A Course in Miracles, W-46.1:3–2:5;4:4;5:3,5-6;6:3-6. See also ACIM Lesson 46 Insights.)

Today we can remember God. Forgiveness clears away the veil which we have interposed between our separated mind and the Mind of God. His Love has been and always will be with us and in us. Only our judgment stands between our mind and the Mind of God.

God does not condemn. But we condemn ourselves when we believe we are limited to a body and believe our brothers are bodies. Love cannot be limited to any form. Today let us resolve to let the Holy Spirit help us look past forms to the presence of Love everywhere. This is how we remember God and our true Self.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Reclaiming the Security if God’s Love

God is my refuge and security.

I will identify with what I think is refuge and security. ²I will behold myself where I perceive my strength, and think I live within the citadel where I am safe and cannot be attacked. ³Let me today seek not security in danger, nor attempt to find my peace in murderous attack. ⁴I live in God. ⁵In Him I find my refuge and my strength. ⁶In Him is my Identity. ⁷In Him is everlasting peace. ⁸And only there will I remember Who I really am.

Let me not seek for idols. ²I would come, my Father, home to You today. ³I choose to be as You created me, and find the Son whom You created as my Self. (A Course in Miracles, W-261. See also ACIM Lesson 261 Insights.)

In this dream world our identity is defined by a body, personality and beliefs. None of these are permanent and therefore not of God. God does not change and His Creations are changeless and formless like Himself. Our mistaken identification with a separate identity is an idol which has no meaning and substance in truth. It is a substitute for the Identity that God created as our one Self.

Being unreal, this substitute needs constant defense to protect it from change. Yet because its foundation is not true, this idol is constantly vulnerable. It is time to let it go, for this false identity keeps us in fear and guilt. This is not God’s Will for His Son.

Our refuge can only be found in the security of God’s changeless Love. This is our Home, our Life, our Being. We can reclaim this Identity we threw away by following the Holy Spirit’s guidance in our thoughts and actions. He will always lead us in the way of Love. He leads us to the security of the Home God wills for us where we rest in the certainty of His peace.

© 2021, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Call of Love to Love

I am surrounded by the Love of God.

Father, You stand before me and behind, beside me, in the place I see myself, and everywhere I go. ²You are in all the things I look upon, the sounds I hear, and every hand that reaches for my own. ³In You time disappears, and place becomes a meaningless belief. ⁴For what surrounds Your Son and keeps him safe is Love itself. ⁵There is no source but this, and nothing is that does not share its holiness; that stands beyond Your one creation, or without the Love which holds all things within itself. ⁶Father, Your Son is like Yourself. ⁷We come to You in Your Own Name today, to be at peace within Your everlasting Love.

My brothers, join with me in this today. ²This is salvation’s prayer. ³Must we not join in what will save the world, along with us? (, W-264. See also ACIM Lesson 264 Insights.)

The changelessness of God’s Love makes It invincible. This is the Home God keeps for us to protect us from mistaken beliefs and attempts to change what cannot be changed. We can rest in peace in the certainty of God’s sure protection. Only illusions of differences bring uncertainty and only to the mind that believes differences are possible and real.

God calls to us through the Holy Spirit to let go of these mistaken beliefs, not because it affects Him at all. But in His Love for His Son, God gave the Holy Spirit to awaken him from his dream of pain, guilt, fear and anger. God’s only desire is that we remain one with Him as He created us, and so it is.

Today let us answer to His Call by accepting the Holy Spirit’s help to forgive our mistaken beliefs. It is a Call to peace and happiness. It is the Call of Love to Love.

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

I am the light of the world.

²How holy am I, who have been given the function of lighting up the world! ³Let me be still before my holiness. ⁴In its calm light let all my conflicts disappear. ⁵In its peace let me remember Who I am.

Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world.

²It is through accepting my function that I will see the light in me. ³And in this light will my function stand clear and perfectly unambiguous before my sight. ⁴My acceptance does not depend on my recognizing what my function is, for I do not yet understand forgiveness. ⁵Yet I will trust that, in the light, I will see [my function] as it is. (A Course in Miracles, W-81.1;3. See also ACIM Lesson 81 Insights.)

The Light of Love is in everyone and everywhere. While we believe separation is real, we cannot see this Light. We have taught ourselves to trust what the body’s eyes show us. But the ego made them unable to see Love’s Light because it denies Love.

Denial has no effect on the reality of Love and the Light it radiates without limit. We become the Light of the world when we forgive our wish to be separate and special. We cannot ask the ego to teach us how to forgive. The ego knows forgiveness would dispel it.

But we have a Teacher we can trust to show us how to forgive, to see past the images of the dream. With His help we become aware of Love’s presence. As we welcome Love, It guides our thoughts and deeds. We become a Light in the world where the Light has been denied.

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