Today God Is My Only Goal

ACIM Workbook Lesson 256 – for Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Affirmation:  “God is the only goal I have today.”

“And so, our Father, would we come to You in Your appointed way.  We have no goal except to hear Your Voice, and find the way Your sacred Word has pointed out to us.  (WB422)”

Reflections:

This affirmation and prayer, in a capsule, are most precisely how I view A Course in Miracles.

We must follow guidance, because we do not have the prescience to know all past, present, and future factors that affect our reality (a paraphrase from the Manual).  When I follow guidance, my day goes well.  When I get off the track, being willful, then my day goes downhill (and fast).  We must be flexible enough, as I have said previously in this blog, to turn on a dime.  We must start the day over again, metaphorically, when we have gotten off track.

This is the only sane way to live.  It gives the blessings which ACIM promises to us.  It is the greatest piece of wisdom, in my estimation, that ACIM offers.

The means of following guidance is through our relationships, especially a particular relationship to a “brother” who, once in our life, stays in it.  There may be more than one of these relationships in a lifetime, but generally they are few (a Manual tenet).

Finding God (who was never lost, but we turned away) is our greatest need.  Until we do this, we flounder, though He has never abandoned us, and He can help even when we think He is hiding from us.

Some of our brothers and sisters go throughout life without a spiritual experience.  I once had a close friend who said, “I didn’t choose not to believe.”  And she was on a constant search.  Finally, just before her death, after counseling, she found the peace that she had sought.

Surely there are many in our circle who are in similar straits.  We would reach out to them to the extent that they are ready.  They probably would not welcome proselytizing.  We would turn them off.  The most we can offer is to live our lives so that our friends who are searching can wonder, and ask, in their own way, for what we have found.  Then we are freed to talk.  What we say will find a receptive audience.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Thank You for allowing me to find a sense of being “saved” at an early age.  I did not know then how much would be offered me in this lifetime.  Thank You for the many blessings that knowing You has brought to me.  Forgive me in the moments–past, present, and possibly future–when I turn away.  I know that You have never abandoned me.  It is I who is fallible.

Help me not to judge, not to attack, and not to make plans against contingencies to come.  Jesus has given these three facets of our lives as the danger points.  May I bypass danger today.  And may I know that life can only be lived one day at a time, and tomorrow must I pray the same prayer.

When You are not my sole goal, then let me realize that I am thinking amiss.  When my goal is solely for You, then all lesser desires and loves fall into place easily.  You would not leave me alone, but You do want me to reach inwardly to You above all else.  Then and only then is my welfare assured.  Thank You.

Amen.

I Will Judge Nothing

ACIM Workbook Lesson 243 – for Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Affirmation:  “Today I will judge nothing that occurs.”

“I will be honest with myself today.  I will not think that I already know what must remain beyond my present grasp.  I will not think I understand the whole from bits of my perception, which are all that I can see.  (WB415)”

Reflections:

If we do not have “present grasp,” then how do we know anything?  We do not know from our perception, for perception is projected from within and is illusory.  We can “know” when we have invited the Holy Spirit to show us the real world.  This real world will arise before our eyes, and it is composed of joy, truth, beauty, happiness, peace, and the like (an interpretation, not stated directly in ACIM).

Perception and knowledge are quite different.  And it is knowledge that we seek.  May we turn to guidance of the Holy Spirit for that knowledge.  And let us not be misled by egoistic thinking that parades as guidance.  We need to test the indications that we receive to be sure that they pass the test of love.  Do nothing that fails this test, for it is not of God (an interpretation, not stated in ACIM).

We are not to be the judge of what may happen.  We are to leave this judgment to the Holy Spirit, Who alone can see the whole picture.  We do not know all from the past, the present, or the future.  And we have been wrong many times, when we thought that we were right.  Would we use such faulty reasoning as our own judgment to make decisions?  No, we would not.  (These are all paraphrases from the Manual.)  Turn all decisions over to the Holy Spirit, and we will walk in peace.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I judge nothing today.  May I recognize that there is One who knows all the circumstances–past, present, and future–and it is only He Who therefore can judge wisely.  This is Your Communicator, the Holy Spirit.  May I not fall into judgment, for to do so is surely to invite the ego into my doings.

Be with me today as I seek to lead a good life amid individuals I love, some of whom have reason not to forgive me for the mistakes that I have made.  May I be patient, knowing that You will right my errors, and also bring my loved ones into an acceptance of me as a person who tries, but sometimes fails.

Amen.

A Teacher Who Cannot Make a Mistake

“Be glad you have a Teacher Who cannot make a mistake.  His answers are always right.  Would you say that of yours?  (M70)”

Affirmation:  “Are my answers always right?”

Reflections:

The Teacher here is the Holy Spirit.  And this is yet another prodding that we will follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The probing question, “Would you say that of yours?,” referring to the correctness of our answers, if insightful.  Certainly we know that we make mistakes, and that our answers about what to do in various situations are not always correct.  Indeed, they are perhaps more frequently wrong than right.  This is what behooves us to follow a higher guidance.

We have earlier indicated a number of ways that the Holy Spirit speaks to us.  Probably the most common is what we usually call intuition.  This means that we go against the teaching of this world, in that we are taught to rely on our judgment.  The Course counsels just the reverse, noting in significant passages that our judgment is frequently wrong because we cannot see the whole picture.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Once again I find that I am negligent in always following the guidance that I receive.  I fall down when I don’t follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  May my understanding be honed so that I ascertain rightly, and may I then walk quietly and calmly into Your light.

Thank you for providing this sure guidance.  I have not always followed, but I have known of Your guidance for many years.  When I have followed Your guidance, I have been happy.

Amen.

Temptation

“God’s gifts can rarely be received directly.  Even the most advanced of God’s teachers will give way to temptation in this world.  (M58)”

Affirmation:  “May I not give way to temptation today.”

Reflections:

Even the most advanced of God’s teachers is still fallible.  We won’t get it right all the time.  We will succumb to temptations in this world, and that includes especially the tendency to feel anger and then to attack.  In addition, we will judge ourselves and others.  And we will make contingency plans against uncertainties to come.  These three actions are all ways in which temptations take us away from God.  And we will fall on our face in our dealings with our brothers and sisters.

Leaving temptation behind is an ongoing pathway.  We will never, perhaps, be free of temptations in this world, but the times that they intrude upon our lives will lessen as we live closer to the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

God gives us gifts, though we may not recognize them when they come.  One might not recognize a miracle at high noon, if our thoughts are solely on our own desires and wishes.  We may study the Course, and as we do, we will do better in this world.  Our power will come to us as we let guidance lead the Way.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I not give way to temptation, though You say that I will be likely to do so from time to time.  May I not give way to temptation today.

Thank You for your support always.  May I avoid anger and attack today.  May I be good to my brothers and sisters.  When I hear guidance, let me be steadfast to hold it close to me.

Amen.