ACIM Workbook Lesson 46 – for Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Affirmation: “God is the Love in which I forgive.”
Selected Passage:
“Fear condemns and love forgives. Forgiveness thus undoes what fear has produced, returning the mind to the awareness of God. For this reason, forgiveness can truly be called salvation. It is the means by which illusions disappear. (WB73)”
Reflections:
This passage explains why forgiveness–true forgiveness–is the only way to go. Elsewhere we learn that our brothers and sisters, as well as ourselves, are innocent; we have made mistakes (needing correction), but we have not “sinned.” We will find ourselves wanting to repeat an error that we have called a “sin,” but, with mistakes, we simply want to make correction (a Text tenet).
If we want to rid ourselves of fear, the best way is to forgive ourselves and all in this world, whether near or far from us. When we forgive, we recognize God once again. We do not feel ourselves to be fearful anymore. And this is a very powerful motivation.
“Forgiveness can truly be called salvation.” What a joy! We will be motivated to forgive when we know that it leads us directly to salvation. Our illusions will disappear as we welcome the real world–the reality that God Himself shows us. The illusions of this world, the maya, is recognized as only a dream. And we do not want to remain in dreams, even when they are the “happy dreams the Holy Spirit brings” (a quotation from ACIM).
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
Help me to realize that I need to forgive in order to love better. My fears keep me chained to my ego, and I would change all of that nonsense. I do want to rid myself of my mistakes, and I thank You for the knowledge–and it is knowledge–that mistakes are not “sins.”
I do not fully understand how I can still be innocent after all the mistakes I have made. Yet Jesus says that I am innocent and deserving of pardon (forgiveness) for the illusions in which I have believed and which I have perpetrated on myself and others. Help me to leave illusions behind, even the happy dreams sent by the Holy Spirit. I would choose Awakening. I pray that You will choose Awakening for me sooner rather than later.
Amen.
