Content and Happy, Peaceful and Free of Fear

“Although you may still feel confused and lacking in ability to do what I am asking of you, I feel confident in also saying that you are more content and happy, more peaceful and free of fear than you have ever been. While your life may not have changed in ways that you would like and while its limitations may seem even more frustrating than before, I am also confident in saying that a hope has been instilled within you, a hope for the very changes that you feel you need in order to reflect, within your daily life, the new Self you have become. (Treatises of A Course of Love: Treatise on the Personal Self, 16.4)”

Affirmation: “I thank You for the peace that I feel today.”

Reflections:

1 – Personal Experience

I do personally feel the essential tone of the passage for today, sensing a peace and happiness that was heretofore unknown. Perhaps the work of A Course in Love is emerging. I hope for this for all others who read ACOL as well.

2 – God’s Presence

How can it be that we feel more contented now than ever before? Is it because we sense God’s Presence in a more vital way than ever before? Is it because our yearning to “know” has been increasingly satisfied, in that we have a cosmology now that is satisfying and whole, leading us to drop contentions against God that He must be unloving because there is pain in this world? We know, from A Course in Miracles, that this world is illusory, but perhaps the world that we project becomes real when we have reach the next level of Christ-consciousness (an interpretation, not stated in ACIM or ACOL). The real world, according to ACIM, is given to us just prior to the Awakening, which God Himself initiates when we are ready, a decision that belongs rightly to Him alone. Certainly the real world is a blessing that we would all long to see, and many of us have seen it in glimpses. These glimpses give us the peace and contentment, happiness and freedom from fear, that encourage us in the path that we have embarked upon.

3 – Contentment

Certainly we commune with God when we feel contentment. We intuitively thank Him for this state of mind and heart. The fact that in this world the feeling is fleeting, sometimes present and sometimes absent, does not mitigate against its very real nature when it is present. Medieval mystics often talked of God’s coming and going, including the dark night of the soul, which is a stop on the pathway to the mystical culmination.

4 – Gratefulness

Let us be grateful today for what we have, for it is indeed a good bit. The blessing of A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love are beyond description for those who have chosen this way of learning. There are, of course, many other pathways to salvation. Each must choose as he or she feels drawn to the message.

5 – God

Let us thank God that He has provided so well for us in an illusory world that we made as an attack on Him (from the Workbook of A Course in Miracles).

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Thank you for the peace that I feel today. I sense Your Presence, and this sensing is a blessing in itself. Thank You for being there.

May we all know contentment in this world, even before we walk into the real world while on earth. We do not have all the answers, but we have been guided by Jesus’s words. Thank You for the knowledge that has been granted to us.

Amen.

Attempt Not to Find Peace in Murderous Attack

ACIM Workbook Lesson  261 – for Sunday, September 18, 2011

Affirmation:  “God is my refuge and security.”

“I will identify with what I think is refuge and security.  I will behold myself where I perceive my strength, and think I live within the citadel where I am safe and cannot be attacked.  Let me today seek not security in danger, nor attempt to find my peace in murderous attack.  I live in God.  In Him I find my refuge and my strength.  In Him is my Identity.  In Him is everlasting peace.  And only there will I remember Who I really am.

“Let me not seek for idols.  I would come, my Father, home to You today.  I choose to be as You created me, and find the Son whom You created as my Self.  (WB426)”

Reflections:

It is so typical of us to want security above all else, even love.  We especially think that we want security when times are rough in our world.  This passage indicates that our only real need is the relationship that we need to develop with our God.  He is not a magic wand; life does not always run smoothly, even for very saintly people.  But He makes life, regardless of outward circumstances, worth living.  He is there for us, and we recognize His presence (and feel His presence) when we are there for Him.

God wants to communicate with us, according to ACIM.  It is an “unnatural habit” (a Text quotation) not to communicate with God.  He knows that the channels of communication are closed, and He thinks that we sleep and need to be awakened (paraphrases from the Text).  We are in a sleep, according to ACIM, and we need to experience Awakening.  For all of us to experience Awakening may take millions of years.  The separation, according to ACIM, occurred over millions of years as well.

I personally think that the more we seek, the quicker we will be to find.  (This is an interpretation elaborated upon from the New Testament.)  God would have all of us return sooner rather than later.  The world is very weary now (an ACIM tenet), and many of our brothers and sisters see no hope.  It is to us that Jesus would turn to give hope to this world.  He is not limited to A Course in Miracles, of course.  There are many curricula, and each teacher of God teaches in his or her own way.  But together we can realize that we can make a difference.  And one blessing is that we will find ourselves in the process.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would find peace today, not attack.  The fact that attack can seem murderous does give me cause for reflection.  Jesus has said that rage is not unlike a fairly gentle anger.  I would have neither today.  Be with me to ensure that I stay on Your pathway.

May I follow Your guidance.  I sometimes seek to improve on what is already good.  Help me to be contented with the lot in life with which You have so blessed me.  Thank You.

Amen.