The Felt Presence of God

ACIM Workbook Lesson 209 – for Thursday, July 28, 2011

Affirmation:  “I am not a body.  I am free.  For I am still as God created me.”

“I feel the love of God within me now.  (WB392)”

Reflections:

1 – God’s Love Felt

This passage for today is my most frequent prayer.  When I feel the love of God within me as a felt experience (a state described by Eckhart Tolle), I have all that I need to make it through the day.  We all must do our part to bring about this felt experience.  We need our quiet times at the beginning and the end of each day, if at all possible.

2 – Does God Ever Withdraw?

It is sometimes said that God withdraws, and this is an experience of the dark night of the soul that was described so vividly by the medieval saints.  (St. John of the Cross coined the phrase.)  When God withdraws, we are not to lament in silence, discouraged.  Evolution, according to Neale Donald Walsch (Conversations with God) is not a “straight line,” and there will be times of greater and lesser experiences of God.  We need to continue walking the pathway.  The felt experience of God will return.

3 – Gratitude for the Felt Presence

On the days when we feel God’s love especially keenly, we need to express, at least inwardly, our gratitude.  God does not need our gratitude, but we do.  And we can have more and more blessings as we express more and more gratitude (from personal experience, not stated in ACIM).

4 – Feel God’s Love as We Walk through the Day

May we live a good day today.  May we feel God’s love as we walk through each hour of the day.  And may we not be heartbroken if some tragedy strikes.  God is not walking beside us, but is carrying us at such times (from an anecdote written by Hugh Prather).

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I appreciate that You allow me to feel Your presence on most days.  I suspect that when I don’t feel Your presence, it is because I have distanced myself by being unconscious to my deeper being.  I pray for no dark night of the soul, though I recognize the value of such experiences.  I would not be “in extremis” in regard to living my life.  Having Your presence as an intimate part of my day ensures that all will be well.  Thank You.

Be with all of us today as we do the best that we know how for ourselves and our brothers and sisters.  May we return love for attack and anger, knowing that attack and anger are always calls for help.  May we give that help in the best way possible.

Amen.