In an Instant of Time Join with God

“One can as easily give God only an instant, and in that instant join with Him completely.  (M-16.4)”

Affirmation:  “I join with God in my quiet time.”

Reflections:

1 – Eyes Closed

This is an excerpt from a passage in which we are told that one can also sit with eyes closed for an hour and yet accomplish nothing.  So time, being an illusion anyway, is of insignificance when we are trying to “reach” God.  We are trying to sink downward, into ourselves, enough to be able to “touch God” (an interpretation, not stated in ACIM).

2 – God Is Within

If God is within, and our projections make perception (whether of the ego or the Self), then what we see outside ourselves is actually part of the ego or the Self.  We are all One, and God is One with us.  This understanding tears holes in the idea of a Fatherly presence above the clouds, wearing a long, white beard.  We need to get over making God into an image that we can comprehend (or think we can).  He can “appear” anyway that would be valuable to us in our understanding, but my interpretation is that He is the All.  (Much New Age thinking has asserted this.)  But the All is One, not polytheism (or that everything is a god).

3 – Personal Experience

If we give God that moment of immediate joining, I have found that quietness is essential.  Often I pray aloud while alone in the kitchen, preparing breakfast.  This is not the first moment of the day, but it is close.  And I find that I calm down, am free of anxiety about an upcoming stressful day, when I have given these moments to God.  Jesus says that it is with the practical that A Course in Miracles is most concerned.  And so this practical turning to God, while my hands are busy but doing something that I know how to do very well, is illustrative.  God needs our attention to bring our minds and hearts back into His fold, and we need to remember that length of time is not the most important aspect.  Sincerity in reaching deep within is.

4 – Reaching God

Experiment a bit today with reaching God.  He is not hard to find.  We have often heard that He is as close as our hands and feet, or our breath.  Indeed!  For we are part of Him, though that is not the whole of it.  He has individualized, or differentiated, Himself into the many brothers and sisters that we see–indeed, of all that we can see and much that we cannot (for there are other levels of existence which our physical eyes cannot see).  Be with God often today.  It is the very best way to live.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Help me today to be good to others in my life.  Life sometimes throws us curves, and I would not send back any attack that seems to be aimed in my direction.  Help me to remember to take a timeout when life throws me a curve.

I need my quiet time today, and be with me during that time, please.  Our busy lives should not mean that we edge You out.  We always need to feel Your presence.

Thank You for so often letting me feel Your presence.

Amen.

The “Felt Presence” of God

ACIM Workbook Lesson 232 – for Saturday, August 20, 2011

Affirmation:  “Be in my mind, my Father, through the day.”

“Be in my mind, my Father, when I wake, and shine on me throughout the day today.  Let every minute be a time in which I dwell with You, and let me not forget my hourly thanksgiving that You have remained with me, and always will be there to hear my call to You and answer me.  As evening comes, let all my thoughts be still of You and of Your Love.  And let me sleep sure of my safety, certain of Your care, and happily aware I am Your Son.  (WB408)”

Reflections:

1 – Joy in Spending a Day with God

This is an especially lovely description of the joy that awaits us when we spend a day with God.

2 – Eckhart Tolle

The “felt presence of Being,” described by Eckhart Tolle, seems especially relevant here.  Eckhart is a current spiritual teacher not associated with one particular tradition, but her quotes of A Course in Miracles upon occasion in his books (The Power of Now and A New Earth are primary).  He experienced Enlightenment spontaneously around the age of 30, and eventually became well-recognized for his teaching.  The “felt presence” is the sense that we can have of “God with us,” not sometimes, but all the time.  It assumes that dark nights of the soul are not being experienced currently.

3 – Turn to God

If we turn to God in prayer or “communing” (as the Text calls prayer), then we will know what the prayer, quoted above, is all about.  There are great practical benefits to living this way.  We stroll through our days in flow, with an inner sense of what to do next.  We are not left to our own devices.  We live in grace, and by “grace” is meant the good will of God as our Heavenly Father.

4 – Follow Guidance Moment-by-Moment

Following guidance on a moment-to-moment basis is extremely rewarding.  We must be flexible enough to easily change directions if we move awry.  We must also be willing, as ACIM says, of starting the day over, if we make mistakes in attitude that spoil the good feelings.  But, Jesus says, there are obvious advantages to starting each day right in terms of saving time, and time is an early emphasis in ACIM.

4 – Let’s Go to Sleep with Peace on Our Eyelids

When the day is over, a day given to God, we go to sleep with peace on our eyelids.  We have done all that we can.  We let God handle the nighttime.  And then we realize, just before falling asleep, that a one day, just over and spent with God, is the best assurance that the next day is going to be good also.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would spent this day with you, feeling Your presence as I go about my activities.  I would feel anxiety for nothing, as You have assured me I need not.  I would begin the day with a thought of you, walk in peace with You as the day unfolds, and go to sleep, sure that You are still awake and keeping me safe.

Help me always to thank You for Your attention to me.  I never have to feel along.  Not only are there mighty companions surrounded me, companions I cannot see, but You are within me–directing the vision that I have of what surrounds me, outside of my body.   May all of my sights today be benign.

Amen.