ACIM Workbook Lesson 98 – for Friday, April 8, 2011
Affirmation: “I will accept my part in God’s plan for salvation.”
Selected Passage:
“The guiltless have no fear, for they are safe and recognize their safety. They do not appeal to magic, nor invent escapes from fancied threats without reality. They rest in quiet certainty that they will do what it is given them to do. They do not doubt their own ability because they know their function will be filled completely in the perfect time and place. They took the stand which we will take today, that we may share their certainty and thus increase it by accepting it ourselves. (WB174)”
Reflections:
“Quiet certainty” is a lovely promise. It gives us just what we want and need. Elsewhere Jesus says that we will be “perfectly calm and quiet” all the time, when we have accepted all that Atonement holds out for us. Perhaps, still partially encased by the ego, we do not want to be this peaceful. We may still want drama. But perhaps we will surprise ourselves, and not want drama at all when we have something better–the perfect peace of God.
When we do not feel guilty because we recognize that our Self is innocent, we will be at peace. That does not mean that we can just make mistakes right and left, with a disregard for our better nature and for our brothers and sisters in this world. We indeed must try to follow the best pathway, and ACIM carefully points the way to walk along this pathway.
Elsewhere we are told that we do not need to plan ahead what to say, that the Holy Spirit will give us the words that we need at the time that we need them. This is reminiscent of biblical teachings, especially St. Paul in the New Testament. But there are similar teachings in the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible as well. So there is a continuity between the Bible’s understanding and that of ACIM. Earlier (and will next year as well) this blog considered A Course of Love (ACOL), and there is continuity here as well. We are not asked to accept things for which we have no background in Christianity.
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
I wish to have quiet certainty of Your grace today. Let me not get frustrated by any events of the day, but let me rest in quiet and calm always. You have promised that I will not want “drama” when I have accepted all that salvation holds out to me. When all of us have experienced the Awakening, we will be different people indeed.
Be with me today, so that I feel Your presence. I ask for Your guidance, and especially I ask for the will to be flexible enough to follow that guidance when You present it to me.
Amen.
