Sometimes the unconscious guides us to a certain familiar pathway as a warning. If I find myself gazing vacantly out a window and fantasizing about the future, the future that I see is best avoided. But remember not to try too hard to predict the future; probabilities change.
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Reality offers what I really want–the prayer of the heart. (A Course in Miracles, M-21.1:3-4)
Note: I am thinking of preparing a prayer book, organized by topic. Would you have any interest in a little prayer book that you could hold in your hand and make notations, or read on your tablet or phone and highlight? I would offer the book at a low price, no more than $3.99 for the print, anticipated 150 pages; and 99 cents for the e-book. If you would have any interest in such a book, please reply in a comment to this blog. I will not post your comments. And you are not obligated in any way. Thank you very much. Love, Celia
“When you feel worried, sit down, relax, take a deep breath, connect with the desire, and wait for the answer. The answer to desire will be given in due time and in perfect form. Someone will knock on the door and bring you the solution, or a situation will be unlocked, or a successful idea will come, or simply the problem will be otherwise resolved.” Choose Only Love bk.3, 3:I
This good outcome is what happens when we pray with anticipation and a quiet mind. I have found that some things that bother me have never found their way into my prayers. And that is why the Answer may be a long time in coming.
If we articulate a need, the solution is found with the problem. This tenet is part of A Course in Miracles. I have found it to be very true. Notice that there is no time delay. Time delay is not always needed, particularly if we ourselves hold all the keys to the Answer. Sometimes we just have to get ourselves and our worries toned down, and all will be well.
I notice that Jesus says here that we are to sit down, relax, take a deep breath. Is this not common sense? But how many of us do this, consistently? We might get answers to our prayers more readily if we prepared ourselves as he describes.
If the Answer seems long in coming, know that there is a reason that we cannot fathom. God Himself does not like delay; He works fast, once we know what we are really asking.
Focus on the questions for which we need Answers. And give a prayer of thanks when the Answers come.
“Thus you go from the top of the mountain to the world with a clear goal: to bring love.” Choose Only Love bk.2, 21:II
This quotation is strongly reminiscent of the journey to the top of the mountain that takes up the last 40 (actually 41) chapters of A Course of Love. We take that journey with Jesus, and with our brothers and sisters. And we return to the world with a burning message of Awakening in love.
I fear that discussing love so often in this blog will make others feel that the advice is trite. The idea that love is trite is simply because religious leaders have harped on this idea for millennia. It is the principal advice we find from Jesus as well: Love God, and love our neighbor.
We need to take a good, hard look at love, and realize, perhaps, that we have never fully considered its meaning before. The ego had veiled our eyes.
The point is made in other channelings by Jesus that if love were some new substance in the universe just discovered by scientists, we would take a further look at it—saying that we had just been ignorant of it previously, but we are open to it now. Well, as often as the word “love” has been evoked, we are missing the mark if we don’t take it seriously in our life. But not serious in an egoic sense, but in a lighthearted, even playful, way.
Love will take us to lighthearted happiness. And it is this that God would have us experience in this world. Sure, there are serious problems in our world, but we do no one any favors by walking around with a long face. We help our brothers and sisters most keenly when we love them in the joyful sense that Jesus means. Then and only then do we make a difference.
Take a good, strong look at the love that we might have missed. Know that this is indeed the Answer to our prayers.
“It may help if you say this prayer to me:
“I would like to pray that my will be united with thine, recognizing that thy perfect love will suffice (or correct) for my imperfect love.
“I pray that I may accept the Atonement with conviction, recognizing its inestimable worth, and my own divine worth as part of this identification with thine.
“I pray that my fear be replaced by an active sense of thy love, and they continual willingness to help me overcome the split or divided will which is responsible for my difficulty with this.
“I accept the divinity of the messages I have received, and affirm my will in both accepting and acting upon the Atonement principle.
“Here I am.” (ACIM, COA ed., T-2.IX.14:1-6)
We need to empty ourselves, as Marianne Williamson says. And when we pray a prayer of such dignity and grace as this one, here quoted, we are led to empty ourselves so that we might be filled with the power and single-minded purpose of Jesus. He guides us as we pray, and if we listen attentively, and pray intently, we will join our will with our heavenly Father, and join our will with the intent of the Atonement.
There is, in truth, little more we need to do. When we empty ourselves, we are overcome with a warmth that indicates that God Himself is right here with us, in us, around us, everywhere. He is living through us, for we are part of Him. His way will ultimately win out, but we have to join our will to his, for our will itself is free, and there is no coercion.
When we realize that our way of a separate path has not worked and can never work, we are more flexible in His hands. We know that the separation is a myth best left behind. We know that God means us well, as He lives through us, and we realize that our trial of a separate existence has failed miserably. We are then ripe for the Atonement, which is the merging of our will with His, and the acceptance of Jesus’s part in our salvation.
So: Let us empty ourselves so that we might be filled with the grace of God. There is no better way to live well, no way to live well apart from this at all.
1 – Giving What Is Needed
“Who would profit more from prayers alone? Who needs but a smile, being as yet unready for more? (M70)”
2 – Interactions
Our interactions with our brothers and sisters always must be attuned to what they are ready to accept. Perhaps a vocal witness is the wrong tactic. Then we will be let to pray for them, or, as this passage says, to give only a smile. We do not want to turn off others by unwelcome proselytizing.
3 – Catherine Marshall
Catherine Marshall, a spiritual writer of earlier times, counseled putting a “golden zipper” upon our lips when around unbelievers who are not actively seeking our help. This is Mrs. Marshall’s advice particularly where significant others are concerned. Those closest to us do not want to be inundated by unsought advice about their salvation.
4 – Questions
If we are lucky, when they see that we have changed, they will begin to ask questions. Then is the time to take off the “golden zipper” from our lips, and to witness to them. May this day come soon for all of us, especially with those closest to us.
5 – The Curriculum
“The curriculum is highly individualized, and all aspects are under the Holy Spirit’s particular care and guidance. Ask and He will answer. The responsibility is His, and he alone is fit to assume it. To do so is His function. To refer the question to Him is yours. Would you want to be responsible for decisions about which you understand so little? (M70)”
6 – Individualized
The phrase, “the curriculum is highly individualized,” means, I think, that we all have, tailor-made for us, the pathway that serves best. We learn what we are ready to learn, and we run across the guidance, in the form of reading (often), or words, or intuition, the particular reactions that we are prompted to have. We are not left to our own devices. We are led every step of the way.
7 – Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit, the Universal Inspiration, is chosen by God for this task. We can appeal to Him, and, without exception, be answered. We may not recognize this Answer immediately, but if we are attuned at all (not overwrought), we will come to understand sooner rather than later.
8 – Guidance
We are to ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance. That is our function, to refer to Him in all things. To defer to Him in all things. Let us proceed cautiously, sometimes, through our days, especially when the way seems confusing and we don’t know what to do.
9 – Be with Us
Be with us as we seek this guidance on a constant basis. This guidance will lead us back to God.
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
May I be a good witness for You. May I not let my own troubles interfere with helping those who surround me. May I choose rightly what they are ready to accept by way of salvation.
Help me today. I need Your help. I am hesitant to choose what my brothers and sisters can best accept from me now.
Amen.
MIRACLES EACH DAY 