Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Choosing to Value What Brings Us Peace

I loose the world from all I thought it was.

What keeps the world in chains but your beliefs? And what can save the world except your Self? Belief is powerful indeed. The thoughts you hold are mighty, and illusions are as strong in their effects as is the truth.

Yet is salvation easily achieved, for anyone is free to change his mind, and all his thoughts change with it. Now the source of thought has shifted, for to change your mind means you have changed the source of all ideas you think or ever thought or yet will think. You free the past from what you thought before. You free the future from all ancient thoughts of seeking what you do not want to find.

The present now remains the only time. Here in the present is the world set free. For as you let the past be lifted and release the future from your ancient fears, you find escape and give it to the world.

There is no world apart from what you wish, and herein lies your ultimate release. Change but your mind on what you want to see, and all the world must change accordingly. Ideas leave not their source. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 132, W-pI.132.1:1-4;2:1-3:3;5:1-3. See also ACIM Lesson 132 Insights.)

In every moment we choose between the ego and the Holy Spirit as the guide for our thoughts. When we value the ego as our source, our thoughts bring us a world of fear and guilt, lack and loss. When we choose the Holy Spirit as our Source, our thoughts bring us the real world of true forgiveness. Thus the change of mind that needs to happen for us to see a forgiven world is to value the Holy Spirit’s lead and give no value to the ego. This is the change of mind that the Course is teaching us to make.

Because of our investment in the ego as our identity, the change of mind we need occurs gently under the Holy Spirit’s guidance. As we remember that of our little self we know nothing and choose the Holy Spirit’s meaning for what we perceive, our mind is healed of an unforgiveness. We withdraw some of the value we have given the ego. This is a step forward on our journey Home to the oneness of Love. This needs to be a daily, hourly and even moment-by-moment practice to break the trance of the ego’s false images.

Each time we accept the Holy Spirit’s interpretation, more healing happens beyond the apparent specific issue forgiven. We learn to generalize forgiveness because the underlying foundation of the specific situation forgiven applies to far more unforgiveness in our mind. Over time we find things that used to bother us no longer disturb our peace. What used to trigger a disturbance in our mind no longer comes up. Peace instead of conflict increasingly becomes our state of mind. We are letting what we thought about the world go and finding the peace that was there all along.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting Our Presence in God

God goes with me wherever I go.

Today’s idea will eventually overcome completely the sense of loneliness and abandonment all the separated ones experience. Depression is an inevitable consequence of separation. So are anxiety, worry, a deep sense of helplessness, misery, suffering and intense fear of loss.

Deep within you is everything that is perfect, ready to radiate through you and out into the world.

You can never be deprived of your perfect holiness because its Source goes with you wherever you go. You can never suffer because the Source of all joy goes with you wherever you go. You can never be alone because the Source of all life goes with you wherever you go. Nothing can destroy your peace of mind because God goes with you wherever you go.

You can indeed afford to laugh at fear thoughts, remembering that God goes with you wherever you go. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 41, W-pI.41.1;3:1;4;10. See also ACIM Lesson 41 Insights.)

The world we experience is wrought with sadness, loneliness, fear, loss, sickness and death. It is the opposite of the Home of our true Self. We do not experience this Home because we have convinced ourselves that the ego’s lies are true. We really believe our existence is confined to a body, destined to sicken and die. No wonder this world is depressing.

We can experience this world differently if we let the Holy Spirit teach us to see beyond the false images perpetrated by the ego. The Holy Spirit is in us always. We need only welcome His lead. We do this by questioning the meaning of everything we perceive. Of our self alone, we do not know what anything means.

The willingness to question opens our mind to the loving guidance of the Holy Spirit. He will teach us of the strength of our true Self, the companionship of our unity with every brother in Love, the peace that is God’s gift to us. As we accept our true Self as our Identity, fear is dispelled and Love is accepted as our one Reality. We can laugh at the insanity of fear thoughts.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Following the Guide to Peace of Mind

Peace of mind is clearly an inter­nal matter. It must begin with your own thoughts, and then extend outward. It is from your peace of mind that a peaceful perception of the world arises.

…when­ever you feel your peace of mind is threatened in any way …the exercise should take this form:

I could see peace in this situation instead of what I now see in it.

It will help you if you tell yourself specifically:

I can replace my feelings of depression, anxiety or worry [or my thoughts about this situation, personality or event] with peace. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 34, W-pI.34.1:2-4;5:1,3-4;6:3-4. See also ACIM Lesson 34 Insights.)

As part of its agenda, the ego wants us to believe that peace depends on anything but the beliefs we hold in our mind. It leads us to seek for peace in the world where it cannot be found. This is key to its strategy to maintain the seeming reality of separation. As long as we follow the ego’s direction, peace and the experience of God’s Love will illude us.

We have another Guide Whose agenda is to lead us Home to the peace within that is our true Self, eternally united with God. The Holy Spirit is not deceived by the ego’s misdirections, its sleight of hand. He is ever ready to guide us Home. We only need to be willing to follow His lead. Willingness comes with an open mind that has not decided on its own what anything means. This openness welcomes the Holy Spirit’s interpretation of our perceptions, which show us the presence of peace and Love beyond all the world’s appearances.

Today we will remind ourselves that we do not know what anything means. We ask for the Holy Spirit’s vision and reinterpretation of our perceptions, for we would find our peace of mind.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Finding Peace of Mind

God is my refuge and security.

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

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

What do we believe is our identity? If we believe the body is our identity, we will seek to shelter the body. If we believe we are the Son of God, we will be certain of our safety in Him. There is no need to seek to shelter the Son of God, for he is eternally sheltered within His Love.

The Course is leading us on a gentle path of awakening from belief in a separate identity to an acceptance of our true Identity as God’s Love. As we let go of our insistence on separation, our fear subsides and our level of peace increases.

While the body seems to be our Home, it is important to let the Holy Spirit guide us on how to protect it. He will teach us what to do, where to go, what to say and think in a way that softens our investment in separation and helps us see past it to our safety in the changelessness of Love.

The Holy Spirit’s function is to lead us out of fear and into Love. We are not asked to deny our belief in the body as our identity. But we are encouraged to choose the Holy Spirit as our Guide rather than the ego, whose objective is always to foster guilt and increase fear.

Today we choose the Holy Spirit as our Guide, for we know He will guide us to peace of mind.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Answer for All Our Needs

Today our theme is our defenselessness. We clothe ourselves in it, as we prepare to meet the day. We rise up strong in Christ, and let our weakness disappear, as we remember that His strength abides in us. We will remind ourselves that He remains beside us through the day, and never leaves our weakness unsup­ported by His strength. We call upon His strength each time we feel the threat of our defenses undermine our certainty of pur­pose. We will pause a moment, as He tells us, “I am here.”

The ministers of God can never fail, because the love and strength and peace that shine from them to all their brothers come from Him. These are His gifts to you. Defenselessness is all you need to give Him in return. You lay aside but what was never real, to look on Christ and see His sinlessness. (W-pI.153.19;20:4-7)

All the ego’s defenses are ultimately defenses against God. When we believe we are separate, defensiveness is inevitable; we believe it is possible to harm our little self identity and so we must defend against perceived attacks. What the ego teaches is our identity is actually a defense against God. Our defensiveness keeps the seeming reality of separation in our mind. It blocks our awareness of our true Self that remains one with God.

This is why defenselessness is essential to healing our mind and accepting God’s Love. Thinking we know what our perceptions mean closes our mind to the Holy Spirit’s healing interpretation. Our own interpretations are always based on the assumption of weakness, and lack of Love.

Willingness to consider that we do not really know what anything means opens our mind to receive the Holy Spirit’s reinterpretation. He brings the certainty of changeless Love to shine away the false images of the ego. As we let go of defending our little self and choose our true Self’s perception, we become ministers of God. We become channels of God’s Love to a sickened world that is hungry for the Love that answers all our needs.

Today we come before our true Self with wholly empty hands and no preconceptions to receive and give the blessing of God’s Love.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Blessing of Following Holy Spirit’s Directives

If you will accept the fact that I am with you, you are denying the world and accepting God. My will is His, and your decision to hear me is the decision to hear His Voice and abide in His Will. As God sent me to you so will I send you to others. And I will go to them with you, so we can teach them peace and union.

If you want to have [peace] of me, you must give it. Healing does not come from anyone else. You must accept guidance from within. The guidance must be what you want, or it will be meaningless to you. That is why healing is a collaborative venture. I can tell you what to do, but you must collaborate by believing that I know what you should do. Only then will your mind choose to follow me.

The decision to unite must be unequivocal, or the mind itself is divided and not whole. …All things are possible through our joint decision…” (A Course in Miracles, T-8.IV.3:8-11;4:4-10;5:6,11. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

Jesus, the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, is always with us because we are united in the oneness of God’s Love. We cannot be separated in truth. Only the ego’s illusions manifested in the world seem to separate us. We can leave these thoughts of separation behind by choosing to accept His Presence in our mind.

By joining with Him, we deny the ego’s denial of Love. We accept the truth of What we are — Love and nothing else. While we try to follow the ego’s directives as well as the Holy Spirit’s, we dwell in uncertainty. But when we fully accept the Holy Spirit—our true Self—wholeheartedly, we become bringers of peace to the world.

The choice to accept Love’s oneness is the choice to give Love and peace to the world. The practice of choosing to follow the Holy Spirit’s directives heals our mind of mistaken beliefs and reminds us of our unity with every brother and God.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Re-experiencing the Peace of God

Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes. The light is in them now. Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all. Light is not of the world, yet you who bear the light in you are alien here as well. The light came with you from your native home, and stayed with you because it is your own. It is the only thing you bring with you from Him Who is your Source. It shines in you because it lights your home, and leads you back to where it came from and you are at home.

The peace of God is shining in you now, and from your heart extends around the world. It pauses to caress each living thing, and leaves a blessing with it that remains forever and forever.

The peace of God can never be contained. Who recognizes it within himself must give it. And the means for giving it are in his understanding. He forgives because he recognized the truth in him. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 188, W-pI.188.1;3:1-2;5:1-4. See also ACIM Lesson 188 Insights.)

God created His Son as an extension of Himself. The Son has all the attributes of God — His joy, His peace and Love. Our true Self is God’s Son. By aligning with the ego, we have hidden our true Self beneath an illusion of a shell that separates us from God and every brother.

This Self remains unaffected by the shell that seems to hide It. It’s Light remains and is always available to us. We need only step back from our allegiance to the ego and look within in our mind to reconnect with the Self God created one with Him. Here we re-experience the peace of God that has always been there. As we identify with our Self, the Light we are shines through the ego’s shell and brings Love’s blessing to the world.

The unity of Love is shared with all and reflects the Light back to us. We are enlightened along with all the world as we remember we remain as God created us in His peace, joy and Love.

© 2020, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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