Daily Inspiration for Living A Course in Miracles

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The Gift Forgiveness Offers

Extension of forgiveness is the Holy Spirit’s function. Leave this to Him. Let your concern be only that you give to Him that which can be extended. Save no dark secrets that He cannot use, but offer Him the tiny gifts He can extend forever. He will take every one and make of it a potent force for peace. He will withhold no blessing from it, nor limit it in any way. He will join to [our willingness to forgive] all the power that God has given Him, to make each little gift of love a source of healing for everyone. Each little gift you offer to your brother lights up the world. Be not concerned with darkness; look away from it and toward your brother. And let the darkness be dispelled by Him Who knows the light, and lays it gently in each quiet smile of faith and confidence with which you bless your brother. (A Course in Miracles, T-22.VI.9:2-11. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

We need to offer the Holy Spirit our willingness to let our perceptions be corrected. We must not insist that our interpretation of what we perceive in the world is correct. As we let go of needing to be right, we open the door to receive God’s gift of happiness.

Again and again the Course points out to us that the body and the world we see with the body are illusions. This is the essential foundation that justifies forgiveness. If the body and what the body’s eyes see were real, there would be no basis for forgiveness. Harm and loss would be real. Guilt and retribution would be justified. Conflict, attack and defend would be a way of life. This is the ego’s world.

But as we are willing to be taught to recognize illusion, we open to the possibility that there is another way to see. The vision the Holy Spirit offers us in our minds shows us that beyond the conflict, guilt and fear is the changeless Love of God’s Universe — our Home. Here is where we remain in truth. As we are willing to forgive and accept Holy Spirit’s vision, the world of fear and guilt fades and the reality of our safety in God’s Love becomes certain. This is the gift our forgiveness offers.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Forgiveness Frees Love to Be Itself

Hear… a certain Voice, which tells you of a function given you by your Creator Who remembers you, and urges that you now remember Him.

His gentle Voice is calling from the known to the unknowing. He would comfort you, although He knows no sorrow. He would make a restitution, though He is complete; a gift to you, although He knows that you have everything already. He has Thoughts which answer every need His Son perceives, although He sees them not. For Love must give, and what is given in His Name takes on the form most useful in a world of form.

These are the forms which never can deceive, because they come from Formlessness Itself. Forgiveness is an earthly form of love, which as it is in Heaven has no form. Yet what is needed here is given here as it is needed. In this form you can fulfill your function even here, although what love will mean to you when formlessness has been restored to you is greater still. Salvation of the world depends on you who can forgive. Such is your function here. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 186, W-pI.186.12:6-14:5. See also ACIM Lesson 186 Insights.)

We were created as God’s extension of Love. As Love’s extension, our only function is to extend Love.

In the dream of separation, the forms of the world stand as barriers to Love’s extension. Forgiveness removes these barriers to let Love extend Itself. Each time we let ourselves be taught that forms have no meaning nor substance, we learn to see past form. The Love we are is free to be Itself.

Holy Spirit, help us to recognize forms for what they are that we may see past them to the reality of Love everywhere. We would accept Your help so that we may accept our function in God’s plan of salvation.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Welcoming the Gift of Love

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.)

If we want to know and experience the peace of God, we need to stop trying to make a world of our own. Our real Thoughts are the Thoughts we share with Him. His Will is our will. The truth in us wants only to see Love and extend Love. There is nothing else.

If we think we see something else, it is because we are denying and opposing our true Will. We are turning our back on our Self. This can only bring a sense of loss, despair, fear and guilt. Just as this was a decision we made, we can reverse the decision and accept the Will we share with God. This is what forgiveness does.

We are willing now to accept the help that is already given us to change our mind and welcome the gift of Love and all Creation.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting Help to See Truly

Deny not Heaven. It is yours today, but for the asking. Nor need you perceive how great the gift, how changed your mind will be before it comes to you. Ask to receive, and it is given you. Conviction lies within it. Till you welcome it as yours, uncertainty remains. Yet God is fair. Sureness is not required to receive what only your acceptance can bestow.

We count on God, and not upon ourselves, to give us certainty. And in His Name we practice as His Word directs we do. His sureness lies beyond our every doubt. His Love remains beyond our every fear. The Thought of Him is still beyond all dreams and in our minds, according to His Will. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 165, W-pI.165.4,8. See also ACIM Lesson 165 Insights.)

God has not abandoned us. The gift of His Thought of Love is still ours, for what God gives is eternal. It feels like we have been abandoned because belief in being separate from our Source makes our eternal connection unknown to us. It is our belief that stands between our experience of being alone and on our own, hiding the fact that we still remain in Heaven, at one with God.

Because we are believing in a false idea, we need to ask for help to see past illusions to the truth of Heaven. The world of separate bodies seems so real that even asking for help seems like a reach. But it doesn’t matter that we are uncertain.

When we are willing to ask for help, we are opening the door to accept the help we need to see truly. The Help is already given us and as we accept It, the Light of Truth shows us the reality that Heaven is ours now. Love is ours now. God’s peace is ours now. We are free to share God’s joy now. Today we practice remembering to ask for help to see truly.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Returning to Awareness of Heaven

Life not in Heaven is impossible, and what is not in Heaven is not anywhere. Outside of Heaven, only the conflict of illusions stands; senseless, impossible and beyond all reason, and yet perceived as an eternal barrier to Heaven. Illusions are but forms. Their content is never true.

How can you know whether you chose the stairs to Heaven or the way to hell? Quite easily. How do you feel? Is peace in your awareness? Are you certain which way you go? And are you sure the goal of Heaven can be reached? If not, you walk alone. Ask, then, your Friend to join with you, and give you certainty of where you go. (A Course in Miracles, T-23.II.19:6-9;22:6-13. See also ACIM Text Q & A.)

We all have an inner Guide That will lead us out of the illusions of separate forms and return us to the unity of Heaven. Only in the unity of Heaven is God’s Love experienced. Only in the unity of Heaven do we know we are at Home — safe, happy and at peace.

Our inner Guide is always there for us as we are willing to stop and listen, without thinking we already know the difference between the real and unreal. Here we are learning that all separate forms are unreal. Here we are learning that only Love’s Oneness is real.

We are now in the process of returning to our natural Home in Heaven. We get there by opening up to our inner Guide. Here the Light of Truth transforms our thoughts. The Light of Truth dispels what is not true. With illusions gone, eternal, changeless Love is self-evident. Here there is only Love, peace and joy. Sanity has returned.

Today we have only one goal — to listen to the guidance and inspiration of our inner Guide, Who knows how to return us to our true, eternal Home in Heaven.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Accepting God’s Peace

It is God’s strength in you that is the light in which you see, as it is His Mind with which you think. His strength denies your weakness.

The light of strength is constant, sure as love, forever glad to give itself away, because it cannot give but to itself. No one can ask in vain to share its sight, and none who enters its abode can leave without a miracle before his eyes, and strength and light abiding in his heart.

The strength in you will offer you the light, and guide your seeing so you do not dwell on idle shadows that the body’s eyes provide for self-deception. Strength and light unite in you, and where they meet, your Self stands ready to embrace you as Its Own. Such is the meeting place we try today to find and rest in, for the peace of God is where your Self, His Son, is waiting now to meet Itself again, and be as One. (A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 92, W-pI.92.3:1-2;8-9. See also ACIM Lesson 92 Insights.)

To experience the peace of God, we need to learn to not believe what we see with the body’s eyes. The body is incapable of showing us Reality, being itself an illusion. It is our belief in illusions that blocks our awareness of the Light and strength of our Self.

The Holy Spirit will teach us to look past the appearances of the world to the Light of Love that is everywhere. We need only be willing to bring all our perceptions to the Holy Spirit with willingness to be shown the truth behind the appearance. This is how we learn to accept the Light and strength of our Self and see It in our brothers. This is how we open the door to experience the peace of God.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Following Holy Spirit’s Lead

To do what must be done to bring you beyond the suffering inherent in separation, requires the help that is given from beyond separation. It cannot be given however, unless you choose to ask for it and receive it. Your active willingness is required, for you do not need help once or twice a day or occasionally, but constantly. Your mind is always active and always choosing illusion or Truth with everything you think, say, or do. Decision making must become consistent, choosing Truth over illusion repeatedly as you go through your day, if you are to escape the madness of the world you have made. To respond effectively to the challenges and conditions you face, requires clarity of perception and understanding, and commitment to your single purpose. You must surrender, ask for help, receive it as it comes, and act upon it. (From the Christ Mind Book II, p. 116)

Holy Spirit, we ask Your help today. We would not lead, but only follow Your plan. We would make no decisions on our own, for we desire to know the freedom of the Self that Love created us to be.

Lead us to the limitlessness You know to be true… Lead us to the full recognition of the innocence of all… We ask that only Your Will be done, for we accept it as our own.

© 2016, Pathways of Light. http://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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