We Must Eliminate Fear and Judgment to Sustain Christ-consciousness

“You cannot sustain Christ-consciousness while fear remains in you, just as you cannot sustain Christ-consciousness while judgment remains in you. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: ‘A Treatise on the New,’ 7.5)”

1 – Fear and Judgment

“Fear” and “judgment”–the two nay-sayers in the search for Christ-consciousness. How many of us truly can say, today, that we never experience either of these two emotions?

2 – Difficulty

That is the difficulty we all encounter as we seek to move forward. Only God Himself can reach down and bridge the gap (an ACIM tenet).

We will see glimpses of Christ-consciousness, and then we will recognize what its sustainability will do for us. Certainly whenever we experience moments that are completely joyous, we have left behind fear and judgment and entered into a new life. May we come to understand how to sustain this new life, beginning today.

3 – Planning

A Course in Miracles mentions one other mistake that will keep us astray: planning against contingencies to come. In the worldview of ACIM, we are to depend on the Holy Spirit for guidance of what to do. In the worldview ofACOL, it is dependence on the inner sense that we have, because we have walked farther along the pathway. And the God that is within.

4 – Natural

“This is all that makes up the difference between your natural state and your unnatural state. As your natural state returns to you through a heart and mind joined in unity, your body too will exist or abide within this natural state. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 7.5)”

If we eliminate fear and judgment, we will become more natural. And is naturalness not a blessing worth pursuing? If we are more natural, we are more as God intended us to be. It does not mean that we have to be super-religious. It does not mean that we never again will make mistakes. It does not mean that we will always follow the straight and narrow.

5 – Personal Self

If there are aspects to our personal self that we wish to change, we can just turn this over to the universe, and trust that that change will come about. Especially if we perceive that trait to be a mistake. God wants us to be natural in living, and if this means that we turn to the secular, I trust that God is the God of the secular as well.

6 – Attack, Judgment, & Planning

We need to realize that naturalness does not include attack, judgment, planning against presumably dire outcomes—and all three of these prohibitions are evidence of fear. We need to turn from fear to love. Love is the only emotion that is strong enough to overcome fear. But a strong enough sense of love will overcome fear in every instance.

7 – Personal

Have I reached this pinnacle yet? No, of course not. But that is my aim. And when I feel fear (which is usually unreasoning), I try to go within and just pray for stillness. I talk to God, who is deep within me. I think He always hears.

8 – Unreal Reality

“The only thing that has created an unreal reality for your heart and body has been the inability of the mind to join the truth with your conscious awareness. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 7.5)”

9 – Awareness

We need to be aware of the changes that are happening within us. And our awareness of those changes is what has been missing.

10 – Heart

“Your heart has now heard the appeal of this course and worked with your mind to bring about this acceptance of the truth, a truth your heart has always known but has been unable to free you to accept without the mind’s cooperation. (The Treatises of A Course of Love: A Treatise on the New, 7.5)”

11 – Mind

Listen to your heart. Don’t try to ask for the proof of God’s caring that our minds might ask for. The mind and the heart need to work in conjunction, but, according to A Course of Love, with the heart taking the lead. We have been honed by eons of egoic fear to listen to our minds; that is why it is important now to give the heart the ascendancy.

12 – Heart in the Right Place

Nothing we do are say can make any difference when our hearts are in the right place. Of course, we want to do the right thing, but we actually need to do nothing at all except bask in the love of God’s Spirit.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I leave fear, judgment, and unnecessary planning in the past today. Leaving these behind is my only hope. Help me to be consistent as I long to follow Your way.

Be with me today when I slip and make mistakes. I do not want to make mistakes, but I am human, and mistakes happen. Correct my misdeeds and wrong thoughts, and lead me back to the pathway toward Christ-consciousness.

Help me to say and do the right things today, knowing, internally, that You don’t require anything at all of me. You know that I will do want to follow Your way, and You know that I will do what I can. But none of this is required. You just want me to be happy in Your grace. Thank You for granting me this insight.

Amen.