Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Accepting Holy Spirit’s Helping Hand

My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world. Since the thoughts of which I am aware do not mean anything, the world that pictures them can have no meaning. What is producing this world is insane, and so is what it produces. Reality is not insane, and I have real thoughts as well as insane ones. I can therefore see a real world, if I look to my real thoughts as my guide for seeing.

My thoughts are images that I have made. Whatever I see reflects my thoughts. It is my thoughts that tell me where I am and what I am. The fact that I see a world in which there is suffering and loss and death shows me that I am seeing only the representation of my insane thoughts, and am not allowing my real thoughts to cast their beneficent light on what I see. Yet God’s way is sure. The images I have made cannot prevail against Him because it is not my will that they do so. My will is His, and I will place no other gods before Him. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 53, W-pI.53.1;5. See also ACIM Lesson 53 Insights.)

Our real thoughts are the thoughts we share with God/Love. Our perceptions of loss and harm come from the insane images of the ego belief in separation. This is an important signal that lets us know our thinking is insane — based on illusions, not reality. The Holy Spirit in our mind is always offering us His Helping Hand from the firm ground of Love’s Reality to lift us out of the ego’s quicksand of illusions. We are not left to sink into the ego’s oblivion of separation from God.

It is time to accept the Helping Hand. The moment we recognize the signal of insane thinking we need to step back and turn our attention to the Holy Spirit in our mind. With the strength of God’s Reality, we are lifted out of insanity into our Home in changeless Love.

The Holy Spirit’s vision in our mind will show us the rock-solid certainty of Love beyond the chaotic, unreliable\ images of the ego world. As we let His vision transform our perception, we step onto the solid ground of changeless Love. Today we choose to accept the Holy Spirit’s Helping Hand.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Way to Love’s Wholeness

The bridge that leads to union in yourself must lead to knowledge, for it was built with God beside you, and will lead you straight to Him where your completion rests, wholly compatible with His. Every illusion you accept into your mind by judging it to be attainable removes your own sense of completion, and thus denies the Wholeness of your Father. Every fantasy, be it of love or hate, deprives you of knowledge for fantasies are the veil behind which truth is hidden. To lift the veil that seems so dark and heavy, it is only needful to value truth beyond all fantasy, and to be entirely unwilling to settle for illusion in place of truth.

Waken from time, and answer fearlessly the Call of Him Who gave eternity to you in your creation. On this side of the bridge to timelessness you understand nothing. But as you step lightly across it, upheld by timelessness, you are directed straight to the Heart of God. At its center, and only there, you are safe forever, because you are complete forever. There is no veil the Love of God in us together cannot lift. The way to truth is open. Follow it with me. (A Course in Miracles, T-16.IV.10;13:5-11. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

The wish to be special, to have a unique identity separate from God, is the veil that hides the truth of our wholeness from our awareness. The way to awareness of the truth in us is to forgive or let go of the wish for specialness.

The ego and all of its manifestations in the world are the effect of the wish for specialness. As we forgive this insane wish, the ego is undone. The veil that hides our wholeness in God’s Love is lifted. The way to the truth of what we are is to choose the Guide Who’s sole purpose is to show us the reality of Love and the unreality of fantasies of separation.

We dedicate today to choosing Holy Spirit as our Guide, as our Interpreter of everything we perceive. We accept His direction in all things today, moment by moment. This is how we reach the bridge that Holy Spirit will carry us across to know our oneness in the Love of God.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Our Holy Relationship Includes Everyone

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. Each one has looked within and seen no lack. Accepting his completion, he would extend it by joining with another, whole as himself. He sees no difference between these selves, for differences are only of the body.

Think what a holy relationship can teach! Here is belief in differences undone. Here is the faith in differences shifted to sameness. And here is sight of differences transformed to vision. Reason now can lead you and your brother to the logical conclusion of your union. [Your union] must extend, as you extended when you and he joined. It must reach out beyond itself, as you reached out beyond the body, to let you and your brother be joined. And 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. Here is the golden circle where you recognize the Son of God. For what is born into a holy relationship can never end. (A Course in Miracles, T-22.in.2:5;3:1-4;4. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

Love created us complete, wholly like Itself. Because Love lacks nothing, it has no needs and makes no demands. The holy relationship comes with the recognition of the complete Love within and sees that same Love in another. From the point of knowing completion, Love sees Itself everywhere, joining with all in the unity of Love. This is our natural state.

The ego is the denial of Love and therefore believes it lacks Love. This sense of lack drives its continuous search to find Love, to find completion. But the ego’s world of illusions cannot provide what the ego seeks. The way to find completion is to forgive; to let go of the belief in separation (lack of Love) as reality.

To see the truth of the complete Love within, we have to forgive all the mistaken beliefs that tell us we are incomplete. As we learn that we in fact need nothing for we already have all that is real, we no longer seek for completion in others. Instead we join with the completion in others, the Love that they are. Through forgiveness, our experience of the world shifts from fear and guilt to a joyful extension of Love without end. Our holy relationship includes everyone, for Love makes no exceptions.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Being Free to Be Our True Self

Salvation requires the acceptance of but one thought;—you are as God created you, not what you made of yourself. Whatever evil you may think you did, you are as God created you. Whatever mistakes you made, the truth about you is unchanged. Creation is eternal and unalterable. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. You are and will forever be exactly as you were created. Light and joy and peace abide in you because God put them there.

You are what God created or what you made. One Self is true; the other is not there. Try to experience the unity of your one Self. Try to appreciate Its Holiness and the love from which It was created. Try not to interfere with the Self which God created as you, by hiding Its majesty behind the tiny idols of evil and sinfulness you have made to replace It. Let It come into Its Own. Here you are; This is You. And light and joy and peace abide in you because this is so. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 93, W-pI.93.7;9. See also ACIM Lesson 93 Insights.)

God is Love and nothing else. Likewise, the Self He created is Love and nothing else. Love cannot harm, so it is wholly innocent. Out true Self shares these attributes. This is why our innocence is guaranteed by God.

The ego thought system of separation denies Love and therefore believes guilt and sin are real. We have taught ourselves to believe that we are the ego’s image of our self. It seems that, if we were to accept our innocence, we would lose our identity as the self-image made by the the ego thought system. The ego perceives this as death because it would mean the end of the ego’s image of the little self. This is true. But this is not loss. It is salvation. It clears away the illusion of separation that hides the Self God created from our awareness.

It is time to forgive or let go of the ego’s images of separation, guilt and sin. Our salvation lies in letting go of the false and accepting the truth that we remain as God created us. We are Love and nothing else. It is this acceptance that frees us and saves the world.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Finding God’s Strength Within

How does one overcome illusions? Surely not by force or anger, nor by opposing them in any way. Merely by letting reason tell you that they contradict reality. They go against what must be true. The opposition comes from [illusions], and not reality. Reality opposes nothing. What merely is needs no defense, and offers none. Only illusions need defense because of weakness. And how can it be difficult to walk the way of truth when only weakness interferes? You are the strong one in this seeming conflict. And you need no defense. Everything that needs defense you do not want, for anything that needs defense will weaken you.

Forget not, when you feel the need arise to be defensive about anything, you have identified yourself with an illusion. And therefore feel that you are weak because you are alone. This is the cost of all illusions. Not one [illusion] but rests on the belief that you are separate. Not one that does not seem to stand, heavy and solid and immovable, between you and your brother. And not one that truth cannot pass over lightly, and so easily that you must be convinced, in spite of what you thought it was, that it is nothing. If you forgive your brother, this must happen. For it is your unwillingness to overlook what seems to stand between you and your brother that makes it look impenetrable, and defends the illusion of its immovability. (A Course in Miracles, T-22.V.1;6. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

Our strength lies in our unity with God, the only Source of strength. We feel fearful and defensive only because we have identified with an illusion of our self, which denies God’s strength in us. Our belief in a false self that is powerless makes us unaware of our real strength. God’s strength is always with us, whether we are aware of it or not.

As long as we believe we are a powerless, separate self, we will defend this image even unto death. We need to be taught that there is another Self, the one Self we all share that is united with the strength of God. The Holy Spirit will teach us to see past the false separate image we project on our brother. Beyond that false image is the Light of Love, harmless yet with power that needs no defense.

Forgiveness teaches us that what appears to happen between “battling” images has no effect on our one Self. There is truly no need to defend what cannot harm nor be harmed. Today we forgive by welcoming the Holy Spirit’s vision, which will always show us the Light of Love beyond all images of separation.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Claiming God’s Strength as Ours

The idea for today [there is nothing to fear] simply states a fact. It is not a fact to those who believe in illusions, but illusions are not facts. In truth there is nothing to fear. It is very easy to recognize this. But it is very difficult to recognize it for those who want illusions to be true.

The presence of fear is a sure sign that you are trusting in your own strength. The awareness that there is nothing to fear shows that somewhere in your mind, though not necessarily in a place you recognize as yet, you have remembered God, and let His strength take the place of your weakness. The instant you are willing to [let His strength take the place of your weakness] there is indeed nothing to fear. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 48, W-pI.48:1;3. See also ACIM Lesson 48 Insights.)

The ego is weak because it denies the strength of God. Because God is all that is real, the ego cannot be real. To believe in the ego thought system is to believe in illusions and deny Reality.

Fear is a warning flag, not that we are in danger, but that we are believing in an illusion. It is not the illusion that needs to be defended against or fixed. It is the belief in the false idea that needs to be corrected. The practice of bringing all our fear thoughts, all our uncertainty and sense of weakness, to the Holy Spirit with willingness to receive His loving correction is the path to freedom from fear.

The Holy Spirit’s purpose is to remind us that the strength of God is ours. As we accept His help, we learn that there is nothing that can harm the truth of What we are. Our true Self remains eternally safe in God’s strength. The belief that we are something else that is vulnerable and weak will fade away as the Holy Spirit reminds us that we remain as God created us, with all His strength and all His Love.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Learning Lessons of Peace and Happiness

All things are lessons God would have me learn.

A lesson is a miracle which God offers to me, in place of thoughts I made that hurt me. What I learn of Him becomes the way I am set free. And so I choose to learn His lessons and forget my own.

I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 213, W-pI.213. See also ACIM Lesson 213 Insights.)

The ego believes in guilt and punishment. It projects this belief onto God. When bad things seem to happen to us, the ego interprets this as God’s punishing lesson. But this is the lesson the ego wants us to learn to justify the illusion of guilt and punishment.

God cannot conceive of punishment because Love sees only innocence. God’s lesson is that what we perceive as hurt, fear or guilt is based on a false idea that could never be true. His lesson would teach us to see our eternal harmlessness. God’s lesson always teaches that only Love is real. The perception of anything other than Love, peace and joy is nothing more than a mistaken belief that needs to be let go. What is not true does not exist and cannot affect God’s Son.

With this idea in mind, every perception that is less than peaceful and happy is a lesson that God would have us learn — to overlook the false that could never be true. If we are willing to accept the Holy Spirit’s help, we will learn the lesson presented to us by the false perception. Any pain associated with God’s lessons come from the ego’s misinterpretation. God’s lessons always lead to deeper peace and greater happiness.

© 2017, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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