Loss is not loss when properly perceived. Pain is impossible. There is no grief with any cause at all. And suffering of any kind is nothing but a dream. Such is the truth—at first to be but said; and then repeated many times; and next to be accepted as but partly true, with many reservations; then to be considered seriously more and more; and finally accepted as the truth. I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt. And I would pass beyond the words today, go past all reservations, and arrive at full acceptance of the truth in them.
2. Father, what You have given cannot hurt, so grief and pain must be impossible. Let me not fail in trust in You today, accepting but the joyous as Your gifts; accepting but the joyous as the truth.[1].
[1]. A Course In Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Father, I made an image of myself, and it is this I call the Son of God. Yet is creation as it always was, for Your creation is unchangeable. Let me not worship idols. I am he my Father loves. My holiness remains the light of Heaven and the love of God. Is not what is beloved of You secure? Is not the light of Heaven infinite? Is not Your Son my true identity, when You created everything that is?
2. Now are we one in shared identity, with God our Father as our only Source, and everything created part of us. And so we offer blessing to all things, uniting lovingly with all the world, which our forgiveness has made one with us.[1].
[1]. A Course In Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
My true identity abides in You. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
If I could realize but this today, salvation would be reached for all the world. This the decision not to be insane, and to accept myself as God Himself, my Father and my Source, created me. This is the determination not to be asleep in dreams of death, while truth remains forever living in the joy of life. And this the choice to recognize the Self Whom God created as the Son He loves, and Who remains one reality.
2. Father, Your Name is Love, and so is mine. Such is the truth. And can the truth be changed by merely giving it another name? The name of fear is simply a mistake.91 Let me not be afraid of truth today.[1].
[1]. A Course In Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 91. This implies that we have so identified with fear that we have in essence given ourselves the nave of fear. The truth remains, however, that our real name is love.
Personal Notes:
I will not be afraid of love today. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
The Holy Spirit mediates between illusions and the truth. As He must bridge the gap between reality and dreams, perception leads to knowledge through the grace that God has given Him to be His gift to everyone who turns to Him for truth. Across the bridge that He provides are dreams all carried to the truth to be dispelled before the light of knowledge. There are sights and sounds forever laid aside. And where they were perceived before, forgiveness has made possible perception’s tranquil end.
2. The goal the Holy Spirit’s teaching sets is just this end of dreams. For sights and sounds must be translated from the witnesses of fear to those of love, and when this is entirely accomplished, learning has achieved the only goal it has in truth. For learning, as the Holy Spirit guides it to the outcome He perceives for it, becomes the means to go beyond itself, to be replaced by the eternal truth.
3. If you but knew how much your Father yearns to have you recognize your sinlessness, you would not let His Voice appeal in vain, nor turn from His replacement for the fearful images and dreams you made. The Holy Spirit understands the means you made by which you would attain what is forever unattainable. And if you offer them to Him, He will employ the means to where it truly is at home.
4. From knowledge, where He has been placed by God, the Holy Spirit calls to you to let forgiveness rest upon your dreams, and be restored to sanity and peace of mind. Without forgiveness will your dreams remain to terrify you, and the memory of all your Father’s love will not return to signify the end of dreams has come.
5. Accept your Father’s gift. It is a Call from Love to love, that it be but itself. The Holy Spirit is His gift, by Which the quietness of Heaven is restored to God’s beloved Son. Would you refuse to take the function of completing God, when all He wills is that you be completed?[1]
Lesson 281
I Can Be Hurt By Nothing But My Thoughts.
Father, Your Son is perfect. When he thinks that he is hurt in any way, it is because he has forgotten who he is, and that he is as You created him. Your thoughts can only bring me happiness. If ever I am sad or hurt or ill, I have forgotten what You think, and put my little, meaningless ideas in place of where Your thoughts belong, and where they are. I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts. The thoughts I think with You can only bless. The thoughts I think with You alone are true.
2. I will not hurt myself today, for I am far beyond all pain. My Father placed me safe in Heaven, watching over me.90 And I would not attack the Son He loves, for what He loves is mine to love as well.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 90. Jeremiah 31:28 (RSV): “So I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the Lord.” Traditionally, God watches over us here on earth, protecting us from danger. In the above passage, however, God watches over us in Heaven, making sure we are perfectly safe from anything less than Heaven.
Personal Notes:
I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Whom God created limitless is free. I can invent imprisonment for him, but only in illusions, not in truth. No thought of God has left its Father’s Mind. No thought of God is limited at all. No thought of God but is forever pure. Can I lay limits on the Son of God, whose Father willed that he be limitless, and like Himself in freedom and in love?
2. Today let me give honor to Your Son, for thus alone I find the way to You. Father, I lay no limits on the Son You love and You created limitless. The honor that I give to him is Yours, and what is Yours belongs to me as well.[1]
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 87. “God’s Son” here refers to our brother. This is made clear in the prayer, where by giving honor to him we receive honor ourselves and find the way to God.
Personal Notes:
What limits can I lay upon God’s Son? I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
The end of dreams is promised me, because God’s Son is not abandoned by His Love. Only in dreams is there a time when he appears to be in prison and awaits a future freedom, if it be at all. Yet in reality his dreams are gone, with truth established in their place. And now is freedom his already. Should I wait in chains which have been severed for release, when God is offering me freedom now?
2. I will accept Your promises today and give my faith to them. My Father loves the Son Whom He created as His Own. Would You withhold the gifts You gave to me?[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Creation’s freedom promises my own. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
If I accept that I am prisoner within a body, in a world in which all things that seem to live appear to die, then is my Father prisoner with me. And this do I believe when I maintain the laws the world obeys must I obey; the frailties and the sins which I perceive are real and cannot be escaped. If I am bound in any way, I do not know my Father or my Self. And I am lost to all reality. For truth is free, and what is bound is not a part of truth.
2. Father, I ask for nothing but the truth. I have had many foolish thoughts about myself and my creation, and have brought a dream of fear into my mind. Today I would not dream. I choose the way to You instead of madness and instead of fear. For truth is safe, and only love is sure.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
If I am bound, my Father is not Free. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Your Son is free, my Father. Let me not imagine I have bound him with the laws I made to rule the body. He is not subject to any laws I made by which I try to make the body more secure. He is not changed by what is changeable. He is not slave to any laws of time. He is as You created him, because he knows no laws except the law of love.
2. Let us not worship idols, nor believe in any laws idolatry would make to hide the freedom of the Son of God. He is not bound except by his beliefs. Yet what he is, is far beyond his faith in slavery or freedom. He is free because he is his Father’s Son, and he cannot be bound unless God’s truth could lie and God could will that He deceive Himself.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
Let me not bind Your Son with laws I made. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
What is the Word of God? “My Son is pure, and holy as Myself.” And thus did God become the Father of the Son He loves, for thus was he created. This the Word His Son did not create with Him, because in this His Son was born. Let us accept His fatherhood, and all is given us. Deny we were created in His love and we deny our Self, to be unsure of who we are, of who our Father is, and for what purpose we have come. And yet, we need but to acknowledge Him Who gave His Word to us in our creation to remember Him and so recall our Self.
2. Father, Your Word is mine. And it is this that I would speak to all my brothers, who are given me to cherish as my own, as I am loved and blessed and saved by You.[1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Personal Notes:
The Word of God is given me to speak. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
Let us today attend the Voice of God, Which speaks an ancient lesson no more true today than any other day. Yet has this day been chosen as the time when we will seek and hear and learn and understand. Join me in hearing. For the Voice of God tells us of things we cannot understand alone, nor learn apart. It is in this that all things are protected, and in this the healing of the Voice of God is found.82
2. Your healing Voice protects all things today, and so I leave all things to You. I need be anxious over nothing.83 For Your Voice will tell me what to do and where to go, to whom and what to say to him, what thoughts to think, what words to give the world. The safety that I bring is given me. Father, Your Voice protects all things through me.84, [1].
[1]. A Course in Miracles Complete & Annotated Edition.
Footnote 82. God’s Voice heals and protects, in other words, because His messages by their very nature affirm unity, in that they can only be understood by those who are joined together.
Footnote 83. Matthew 6:25 (RSV): “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or what you shall drink, nor about your body, what you shall put on.” In the above passage, we “need be anxious over nothing” because Holy Spirit will direct all of our behavior, telling us who to bring His message to and how to bring it. Being “anxious over nothing” may well include not being anxious over our earthly needs, since other Course passages speak of our earthly needs being taken care of once we devote ourselves single-mindedly to our function as God’s messengers. See, for instance, T-20.IV.10:4, which alludes to the same speech in the Bible: “You need take thought for nothing, careless of everything except the only purpose that you would fulfill.”
Footnote 84. This means that I bring protection to others by letting the Voice of God tell me what to do for them and what to say to them. This brings safety to them, and the safety I give them is then given to me.
Personal Notes:
God’s healing Voice protects all things today. I meditate on above prayer today, and in quiet I wait to hear my Father’s Voice. I pray for all my brothers and myself for continued guidance, wisdom, discernment, protection, and illumination, of The Way, The Truth, The Life, in Christ Jesus, Amen. Thank you for sharing with me. Walk in Love my friend!
