Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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Revealing the Light of Our True Self

Today we are considering the will you share with God. This is not the same as the ego’s idle wishes, out of which darkness and nothingness arise. The will you share with God has all the power of creation in it. The ego’s idle wishes are unshared, and therefore have no power at all. Its wishes are not idle in the sense that they can make a world of illusions in which your belief can be very strong. But they are idle indeed in terms of creation. [Idle wishes] make nothing that is real.

Idle wishes and grievances are partners or co-makers in picturing the world you see. The wishes of the ego gave rise to it, and the ego’s need for grievances, which are necessary to maintain [the world], peoples it with figures that seem to attack you and call for “righteous” judgment. These figures become the middlemen the ego employs to traffic in grievances. [Grievances] stand between your awareness and your brothers’ reality. Beholding them, you do not know your brothers or your Self.

Your picture of the world can only mirror what is within. The source of neither light nor darkness can be found without. Grievances darken your mind, and you look out on a darkened world. Forgiveness lifts the darkness, reasserts your will, and lets you look upon a world of light. (, A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 73, W-pI.73.1-2;5:1-4. See also ACIM Lesson 73 Insights.)

The ego is the wish to have its own domain separate from Creation. But because Creation is one and encompasses all of Reality, the ego’s private domain cannot be real. All that the wish for a private domain can produce is illusions that picture the wish to be separate.

The source of this wish is the grievance against God, Whose Will is the unity of Love. Love could not grant the ego’s wish for a private domain because that would be the denial of God’s Love. That makes the ego’s domain loveless.

The wishes of the ego people its domain with loveless images held in place by grievances. The judgments spawned by grievances declare that images of separation are real, capable of having an effect. But these “effects” seem real only because we believe they are real. Grievances are the foundation of every belief in the ego’s world of separation. Withdraw the belief and the images disappear.

If we are willing to question the reality of what we perceive and ask the Holy Spirit for His true perception, we will see the Light of our true Self revealed. Each time we release a false belief, we welcome the Light of Love. We welcome our true Will, which is the Will we share with God. Here we find the Love, peace and happiness that cannot be found in the ego’s private domain.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Forgiveness Sets Us Free

Forgiveness is acquired. It is not inherent in the mind, which cannot sin. As sin is an idea you taught yourself, forgiveness must be learned by you as well, but from a Teacher other than yourself, Who represents the other Self in you. Through Him you learn how to forgive the self you think you made, and let it disappear. Thus you return your mind as one to Him Who is your Self, and Who can never sin.

Each unforgiving mind presents you with an opportunity to teach your own [mind] how to forgive itself. Each [unforgiving mind] awaits release from hell through you, and turns to you imploringly for Heaven here and now. It has no hope, but you become its hope. And as its hope, do you become your own. The unforgiving mind must learn through your forgiveness that it has been saved from hell. And as you teach salvation, you will learn. Yet all your teaching and your learning will be not of you, but of the Teacher Who was given you to show the way to you.”

The unforgiving mind does not believe that giving and receiving are the same. Yet we will try to learn today that [giving and receiving] are one through practicing forgiveness toward one whom you think of as an enemy, and one whom you consider as a friend. And as you learn to see them both as one, we will extend the lesson to yourself, and see that their escape included yours. (, A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 121,W-pI.121.6-7;9. See also ACIM Lesson 121 Insights.)

Sin (separation) is an idea we taught ourselves to believe is true. Belief does not make real but it makes appearances seem real. If we believe an appearance is real, we react to it as if it were real. It is this self-taught belief that must be undone.

Only the Holy Spirit can teach us to recognize what is untrue and let it go. The ego is invested in making us believe that what could never be true is real. Its seeming existence depends upon our accepting this belief. As we let the Holy Spirit use our perceptions of others to teach us how to forgive, we learn that we ourselves are forgiven. What we learn is untrue disappears because belief no longer seems to keep it in place.

Forgiveness sets us free to remember that everyone is Love and nothing else.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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The Lessons God Would Have Us Learn

God does not know of learning. Yet His Will extends to what He does not understand, in that He wills the happiness His Son inherited of Him be undisturbed; eternal and forever gaining scope, eternally expanding in the joy of full creation, and eternally open and wholly limitless in Him. That is His Will. And thus His Will provides the means to guarantee that it is done.

God sees no contradictions. Yet His Son believes he sees [contradictions]. Thus [His Son] has a need for One Who can correct his erring sight, and give him vision that will lead him back to where perception ceases. God does not perceive at all. Yet it is He Who gives the means by which perception is made true and beautiful enough to let the light of Heaven shine upon it. It is He Who answers what His Son would contradict, and keeps his sinlessness forever safe.

These are the lessons God would have you learn. …They are the same in fundamental content. It is this:

Forgive, and you will see this differently. (, A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 193,W-pI.193.1-2;3:1,5-7, A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 193,)

The lesson that will relieve us of fear, guilt, pain and suffering is very simple. We must learn to forgive or let go of the belief that we could be separate from our Creator, from Love. Though God cannot conceive of lovelessness, He recognizes that we believe a world where Love is absent is possible and real.

He has given us the remedy for this mistaken belief. It is the Holy Spirit Who knows the oneness of Love and can see our mistaken perceptions without believing in them. This is how He is able to guide us past our mistaken perceptions. He can teach us to recognize our mistaken perceptions as untrue and therefore unreal. This is the core lesson we must learn. This lesson frees us from the self-imposed limitation of the ego thought system.

As we accept the Holy Spirit’s purification of our perception, we learn that only Love is real. We come to the gates of Heaven where we are welcomed into the Heart of Love, our Source. We have seen the world of ego differently and have recognized it as unreal. We have learned that God’s joy, peace and Love are ours now. Our mistaken perceptions have been transformed to true perception.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Opening to Holy Spirit’s Way of Seeing

When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him you will see yourself. As you treat him you will treat yourself. As you think of him you will think of yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself. Whenever two Sons of God meet, they are given another chance at salvation. Do not leave anyone without giving salvation to him and receiving it yourself. For I am always there with you, in remembrance of you.

The Holy Spirit teaches you that if you look only at yourself you cannot find yourself, because that is not what you are. Whenever you are with a brother, you are learning what you are because you are teaching what you are. He will respond either with pain or with joy, depending on which teacher you are following. He will be imprisoned or released according to your decision, and so will you. Never forget your responsibility to him, because it is your responsibility to yourself. Give him his place in the Kingdom and you will have yours. (A Course in Miracles, T-8.III.4;5:7-12. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

We give salvation to our brother by remembering he is not a body. We let the Holy Spirit help us look past the body image to the Love that is the truth in him. By doing this we teach our brother that he is only Love and learn that we are only Love.

As we ask the Holy Spirit to help us see as He sees, we let go of the meaning we have given to world. This is forgiveness. We make way for the Holy Spirit to show us His meaning, which is Love or the recognition of a call for Love. Every judgment, fear or guilt is a call for Love, whether it is seen in another or felt in ourselves. The Holy Spirit always responds with Love. Today we practice opening our minds to the Holy Spirit’s way of seeing.

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Seeing Only Love

Every situation, properly perceived, becomes an opportunity to heal the Son of God. And he is healed because you offered faith to him, giving him to the Holy Spirit and releasing him from every demand your ego would make of him. Thus do you see him free, and in this vision does the Holy Spirit share. …It is this joining Him in a united purpose that makes this purpose real, because you make it whole. And [making whole] is healing. The body is healed because you came without it, and joined the Mind in which all healing rests.

Faithlessness [perceiving a brother as a body] would always limit and attack; faith would remove all limitations and make whole. Faithlessness would destroy and separate; faith would unite and heal. Faithlessness would interpose illusions between the Son of God and his Creator; faith would remove all obstacles that seem to rise between them. Faithlessness is wholly dedicated to illusions; faith wholly [dedicated] to truth. Partial dedication is impossible. Truth is the absence of illusion; illusion the absence of truth. Both cannot be together, nor perceived in the same place. To dedicate yourself to both [illusions and truth] is to set up a goal forever impossible to attain, for part of it [illusion] is sought through the body, thought of as a means for seeking out reality through attack. The other part [the goal of truth] would heal, and therefore calls upon the mind and not the body. (A Course in Miracles, T-19.I.2:1-3,5-7;5:3-11. See also ACIM Text Made Simple.)

To have faith in our brother is to have faith in the truth in him — Love and nothing else. Faith in illusion is faith in nothing and is therefore faithlessness. Nothing real can come from an illusion.

To see a brother as a body and respond to what the body does is to put faith in an illusion. This is faithlessness. This perpetuates the perception of separation and makes healing impossible. Healing is of the mind and comes with putting our faith in the truth. As we let the Holy Spirit guide our vision, we see the truth of Love and join with It in Its oneness. To fully experience this, we must be wholly dedicated to seeing only Love, to having faith only in Love’s oneness.

Let us today join with the Holy Spirit in our dedication to truth. This is how we give and receive the gift of healing. This is how we remember only Love is real.

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Claiming Our Unity with God’s Love

Our footsteps have not been unwavering, and doubts have made us walk uncertainly and slowly on the road this course sets forth. But now we hasten on, for we approach a greater certainty, a firmer purpose and a surer goal.

Steady our feet, our Father. Let our doubts be quiet and our holy minds be still, and speak to us. We have no words to give to You. We would but listen to Your Word, and make it ours. Lead our practicing as does a father lead a little child along a way he does not understand. Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe because his father leads the way for him.

So do we bring our practicing to You. And if we stumble, You will raise us up. If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure remembering. We wander off, but You will not forget to call us back. Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk more certainly and quickly unto You. And we accept the Word You offer us to unify our practicing, as we review the thoughts that You have given us.

God is but Love, and therefore so am I.

This Self alone knows Love. This Self alone is perfectly consistent in Its Thoughts; knows Its Creator, understands Itself, is perfect in Its knowledge and Its Love, and never changes from Its constant state of union with Its Father and Itself. (, A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson Review V, W-pI.revV.1:5-3:6;4:3-5)

The ego tells us that God is judgmental, punitive and may, at a whim, end our life and condemn us to hell. This image is certainly frightening. But it’s really the ego’s projection of its own image. The ego’s version of eternity is unforgivable guilt. It is this ego fantasy that needs to be undone for us to remember the changeless of God’s Love.

Reminding ourselves frequently that “God is but Love, and therefore, so am I” is a way to undo the ego’s definition of God. Love does not condemn. Love is one and there is nothing real outside of Love. Love does not change nor come and go with a whim. It has no degrees or variations. It gives wholly of Itself with no limitations as It extends Itself to all.

This is the Love that we are, united with our Creator. This is the Love that will bring us certainty, a sense of safety and peace that cannot be disturbed. It brings the gift of joy beyond description. This is what we claim when we remind ourselves, “God is but Love and therefore so am I.”

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Welcoming God’s Gifts in the Present

We ask for rest today, and quietness unshaken by the world’s appearances. We ask for peace and stillness, in the midst of all the turmoil born of clashing dreams. We ask for safety and for happiness, although we seem to look on danger and on sorrow. And we have the thought [I rest in God] that will answer our asking with what we request.

This is the day of peace. You rest in God, and while the world is torn by winds of hate your rest remains completely undisturbed. Yours is the rest of truth. Appearances cannot intrude on you. You call to all to join you in your rest, and they will hear and come to you because you rest in God. They will not hear another voice than yours because you gave your voice to God, and now you rest in Him and let Him speak through you.

You rest within the peace of God today, and call upon your brothers from your rest to draw them to their rest, along with you. You will be faithful to your trust today, forgetting no one, bringing everyone into the boundless circle of your peace, the holy sanctuary where you rest. Open the temple doors and let them come from far across the world, and near as well; your distant brothers and your closest friends; bid them all enter here and rest with you. (, A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 109, W-pI.109.1;4;8. See also ACIM Lesson 109 Insights.)

It is God’s Will that we have all of His peace, all His joy and all His Love. It is all available to us in the present moment. But when the events of our world experienced through the body capture our attention, we are interpreting based on perceptions of the past. These perceptions are illusions. But using them to interpret our present experience brings the past to the present. This process blinds us to the eternal presence of peace that is the truth now.

Each time we remind ourselves that we rest in God, we loosen our attachment to the past and welcome God’s gifts in the present moment. “I rest in God” reminds us that what we have been perceiving in the world is not real. We remind ourselves to question these perceptions and welcome the peace of God. As we welcome God’s peace, the seeming reality of the world fades. Practicing this thought will help us reach the point where we overlook all appearances, for we are certain of our safety in our Home in God.

Today we will remind ourselves often, “I rest in God.”

© 2018, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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