ACIM Workbook Lesson 31 – for Monday, January 31, 2011
Affirmation: “I am not the victim of the world I see.”
Selected Passage:
“The idea for today is also a particularly useful one to use as a response to any form of temptation that may arise. It is a declaration that you will not yield to it, and put yourself in bondage. (WB48)”
Reflections:
1 – We Choose Our Reality
We choose our reality; this is a tenet stated in the Text. But this choice is no by the little self, but the higher Self (a tenet of A Course of Love). We are not victims, but neither do we choose to “blame the victim,” if we think that their little selves have chosen pain for themselves. Those things that happen to us are chosen by the higher Self, and normally we do not have access to the knowledge of what this Self wishes for us.
2 – Guidance
Guidance can explain more. It is enough to take responsibility for our lives, not to develop a victim mentality (which will only make things worse). We will not, according to the Text, be without temptation is this world. But it is our task to rise above it, because we know that to try to follow a will of the ego is to dismiss God and to choose pain. Our real will is the same as God’s Will (also from the Text). Until we recognize this truth, we truly are in bondage.
3 – To Follow God’s Will
To follow God’s will is to be free. Perhaps we do not understand this yet, and imagine (as the ego would have it) that to do God’s will would make of us puppets. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The Holy Spirit, in His guidance, chooses for us and all mankind. He would never lead us wrong, and only our own misunderstandings will therefore lead us into suffering. We will even be able to rise above pain, because we will recognize its illusory nature. Jesus says that it is not necessary to learn through pain (a tenet of the Text). And that learning through more joyful means is superior, because can offer only a temporary effect.
4 – The Real World
We want permanence in following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and in seeing a new, real world. May we move ever closer to this real world today.
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
May I realize in the depths of my being that I am not a victim. I make choices that determine what happens to me. May I make the right choices today.
May my Self teach me. May I be open to this teaching. Thank You for being with me always, as I make my way through this sometimes challenging world. I know that there is no challenge to the teacher of God, but sometimes I do not measure up–and I ask for Your help always.
Amen.
