Healing from God

“Embed yourself in the solace of perfect grace.”  Choose Only Love:  Let Yourself Be Loved (COL bk.2, 10:I)

This wonderful sentence gives comfort whenever and wherever comfort is needed.  Each word is meaningful, but particularly “solace” and “grace.”  In these hard times, we need to know that God is near, living through us.  We can have this reassurance, for it is true and can be shown to us.  We feel a warmth in our very bodies, which is the presence of God making Himself known.  If we doubt God, we may feel that the warmth is just the balmy air of our heated room.  But if we venture to let go of doubts, we can open to the possibility that something else is going on, that God is with us, and He is making Himself known.

God abides with us and in us, and His presence ensures us that we are being blessed, even while we may have our doubts. 

If we “embed” the solace, it is then a part of us.  We are then the recipients of the grace of God.  This word, “grace,” means that He is favoring us with His healing Presence.  We know that we are blessed.  We feel it in our bodies, our minds, our hearts. 

His warmth assures us.  We know that we are never alone, with a Presence such as this.

Solace in God’s Care

“You have been told that the time of the Holy Spirit, the time of a need for an intermediary between yourself and God, is gone. You have been invited to know God directly, and to develop a relationship with God. It is only in knowing God that the relationship of abundance will be made clear to you and break forever the chains of want.” (ACOL, D:Day3.35)

These are very welcoming words from Jesus, words in which he encourages us to develop a direct relationship with God. He knows that we don’t fear God any longer, in that we aren’t afraid of Him. Our fear had sprung from the authority problem, as outlined in A Course in Miracles. We somehow thought we had created ourselves, and in this assertion believed subconsciously that God was not going to forgive us for this affront to Him. Now we know better; we know that there is a supreme Creator Who created all of us as differentiations of His Being. And because we know this, we aren’t afraid of God and so don’t need an intermediary (the Holy Spirit) to listen to our prayers and to answer them. We can go right to the Source.

I am very reassured by this passage. It helps to pray prayers with “suction” (as I have heard), suction meaning deep and heartfelt communion with the Godhead. It is communion now that we will live best, communion with our Maker. All of our brothers and sisters can help us, including Jesus, but perhaps it is the very best to go to God Himself. He does not have feet of clay, as some others may.

We have gone past the time of the Holy Spirit, now living (as Jesus says) in the time of Christ. We have understood that our inner Christ Self is one with God, and that the Self of union is the greater One from which we draw. Our bodies occupy a tiny dot in a vast expanse of white space, but we have access to the whole of the white space. And when we drop on greater knowledge, we live better.

Turn today to God in our prayers. Let Him know that we are no longer trembling in terror of Him. Our solace in His care is assured. Our lives take on new meaning as we invite the Lord of Hosts to a place in our hearts and minds. Be reassured that He is living through us just all the time. That is the ultimate reason that suffering has no meaning. If God Himself experiences right along with our tiny minds and small hearts, then what have we ever to fear? The Lord of All can take care of us and Himself as well.

Dear God,

I re-surrender once again. I have a better day when I begin that day with a re-surrender. This act puts me in Your flow, and gives me an assurance that You not only walk with me, but that You also embody me. Yet Your mind is infinite, and my little differentiated self is finite. Is there no better reason to realize that I need You—always and forever?

Be with me for good days. Give me balance, no ups and downs of drama. May I take Your hand as I walk through this day. May I remember to take Your hand for every day.

Amen.

Joyous Discoveries

“The first is that what you will be discovering, what you will be coming to know, will be coming to you from the state of unity, which is a shared state. Although what you will be coming to know is already known to you, it will still come in the form of a surprising discovery, a joyous discovery of the previously known but long forgotten identity of the Self and all that lives along with you. This knowing will, for a while yet, be surprising because it will be reversing the insanity of your life as you have known it thus far. These reversals will be among the first revelations and will seem quite simple and pleasing as they enter your awareness, but they may come to be seen as quite complicated as you begin the practice of living with what you come to know. (ACOL, D:13.3)

The quotation for today seeks to give us solace and comfort as the very ground is shifting beneath our feet. We are coming to know from a space beyond us, a space of unity, a space of the Self of union. This Self is not really distinct from the inner Christ-Self whom we all have. There is a flow from one to the other, and we can imagine that the flow from the larger Self of union happens more frequently than that our thoughts and feelings get communicated to It (an interpretation, not stated in A Course of Love). If it is true that we “hear” from the Self of union increasingly, then it stands to reason that we ought to open ourselves, totally, open to this knowledge. Knowledge is of God; perception is our own rendering of what we “see,” even during the previous time when we were egoic.

Surprising discoveries of that which we have always known, remembering (as it were), is a wonderful spot to invite. We are told in this quotation that we will know joy as we come to discover what we have actually always known, what we are now remembering. And don’t we all wish for joy?

Let the joy sink upon our heads, and go deeper, into our minds and hearts. As one Self, we will intuit from each other as well as the larger Self of union. And this can only give us comfort and solace, as, as one Body and Mind and Spirit, we are joining with wholeness. Wholeness will be the way from now on.

Prayer

I ask for Your comfort and solace today. I ask for the joyous discovery of that which I have forgotten. Guide my thoughts in the art of thought, the prayer, the miracle-mindedness, the miracle-readiness, the miracle itself.

May I stop being a hare, as the fable talks about. The tortoise will catch up with me. May I take things one at a time, producing for You, and producing without forming a new ego that would trip me up big time.

Thank You for guiding my life.

Amen.

We Are Always Given Solace

“There is no loss but only gain within the laws of love.

“By saying that there is no loss but only gain within the laws of love, you are being told to have no fear. Fear of loss is a great temptation of the human experience. If it were not for this fear of loss, you would not find it difficult to live by the thought system of the truth. This fear relates very strongly to your ideas of change and as such is the greatest detriment to your new beginning.” (ACOL, T3:16.11 – 16.12)

We have often held onto our treasures because we feared what how we would feel if we lost them. This is as true on intangible treasures as it is of material ones, perhaps even more so. We clung to our special relationships for what they could give us, never realizing that we were doing a disservice by clinging.

We need to be unafraid of change. Change is as true of God as of us, especially as it pertains to our personal selves, which undergo much change as time unfolds. God has been described as the Unmovable, but perhaps this is not quite true. Would God be the only part of Life never to change? How would the universe grow and evolve, for we have learned in both A Course in Miracles and A Course of Love that God is the All, the Ground of all Being. We are a part of Him. And we change.

God’s individuation created all of us. So, if God is not afraid of change, should we be?

We need have no fear. There is truly no need to have fear. If we become overwrought about something, perhaps our little or personal self has been challenged or threatened. Perhaps there is no reason to feel that a benevolent God has abandoned us. Of course not. So why fear? We are always given solace, even in the worst disasters and challenges which we are called upon to experience.

We only know gain. If we can take this idea unto ourselves, much of our worrying will cease.

Let our worrying cease today.

Prayer

May my fear of any and all changes cease now, today. Life evolves as we live it. I don’t have to give up anything when God is looking out for me. I don’t have to be fearful of loss, for in love there is no loss. And love is my reason for being.

Be with me today. Help me to love greatly. Love much.

Amen.

A Receptive Heart

“You are coming home to the way of the heart.  What you gain by sharing with others is a situation in which you ‘learn’ in unity through the receptivity of the heart.  (Addendum to A Course of Love:  Learning in the Time of Christ)”

Affirmation:  “May I share with others today.”

Reflections:

1 – Heart

May my heart be receptive today.  May I share with others, to the extent that You would wish.  May I share accurately, and may my heart dictate the words that I write.  Only when the heart is engaged do we really come to realize that we are really alright the way that we are, that all is well with us, and that we can correct the faults of our personality simply by willing these faults to disappear.

2 – Unity

All of us are One.  This is what “unity” means.  And we are one not only with our brothers and sisters, but with God and His helpers, and with ourselves, our deepest Self.  May this assurance bring us comfort today.  May we realize that the oneness of our being means that we are never alone, and therefore we do not have to fear isolation.  We are not meant to be isolated, however introverted we may be.  Everyone needs some companionship, and it is in the assurance that we are One that we know that we are not alone.

3 – Observe

May our hearts be receptive today.  When our hearts are open, we can observe (the replacement for learning) in a way that we cannot otherwise.  May today be a good day, a receptive day, that lends us credence for a safe world in which all of us abide under God’s care.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Thank You for the intuitive indications You have given me today.  They provide much solace, much comfort.  May I not depend on intuition to live my life totally, but may I know that the solution is always with the problem, and so the answer is there for me to find–immediately.

When I listen to my heart, I am the better off for it.  May I encourage others to have a good day, listening also to their hearts.

Amen.

When All Fear Ends. . .

“All fear ends when proof of your existence is established.  All fear is based on your inability to recognize love and thus who you are and who God is.  How could you not have been fearful with doubt as powerful as this?  (A Course of Love, 4.5)”

Affirmation:  “I relinquish doubt today.”

Reflections:

1 – Doubt

We have not even believed in our own true existence.  We have so doubted ourselves, and love, and God, that we scarcely knew where to turn–ever.

2 – Feel Love and Fear Is Gone

We need to take to heart this message, as it is the key to leaving fear behind.  When we recognize that we are love, and that we are surrounded by love, and we really, really feel this, then we will not fear anymore.  There will be no reason for fear.  Our safety is assured.  Regardless of what we attract in this world by our wayward thoughts, we will know internally, in our better moments, that God loves us and that we are not alone.  We will find surety in this thought, when this thought has taken hold in our hearts–and our minds.

3 – Wholeheartedness

The combination of mind and heart is called in A Course of Love “wholeheartedness.”  Jesus is getting ready to introduce this idea.  But first we need to just step aside from the mind, and listen to our hearts.  Our hearts will offer the solace that we often do not find in this world.  We will, with God’s help, be healed.  We will know real love for the first time.  We will no longer be lonely, for God will provide those things that we really need.  Our needs are always met; this is a certainty.  And if we need friends and family as support, these too will be provided.  We need only ask in certainty, and our pleas will be heard.  Our needs will no longer overcome us, and we will be free to live the better life that we are meant to find in this world.  Yes, even in this world.

4 – Fears Are Made by Us

Let us step aside from fear today.  Let us know that fears are made by us and our mistaken belief about what we are.  Fears are not of God.  Let us ask today for only the things which are of God.  And because this is a prayer in His Will, we will be answered in abundance and in assurance.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Thank You for setting aside my fears this morning.  My routine for the morning was broken, and, as a result, my fear intruded.  This is a prime example of the danger of too much routine, too many predictable rituals.  Help me to leave these undesirables alone.

Be with me as I seek to recognize that You are with me always, that feelings of love will negate fearful thoughts.  This recognition has always been a part of ACIM and ACOL, but until recently somehow its import was lost on me.  I would lose this recognition no longer.  I would know that Your felt Presence assures me that I am with You, that You are with me, and that we are One.  

In this is my loss of fear and anxious thoughts assured.

Amen.

Solace for Our Hearts

“Into this battlefield you have bravely marched.  The war rages by day and by night and you have grown weary.  Your heart cries out for solace and does not go unheard.  Help is here.  (A Course of Love, 2.20)”

Affirmation:  “Help is here.”

Reflections:

1 – “Help Is Here”

In this “help,” Jesus is referring to himself.  In some senses, he is a much more present help in A Course of Love than we found in A Course in Miracles.  In the latter, ACIM, he was appealing to our minds in an intellectual sense (especially in the Text and Manual, and less so in the Workbook).  He was dislodging the ego, which is a concept of the mind.  But here, in ACOL, Jesus is stressing the heart, a concept which we all can understand and which does need the empathy that Jesus offers to us.  We need to know that we are supported when we delve into heart-related matters.  And Jesus offers us that support.

2 – We Need Comfort

Our hearts want solace; we want to know that we are loved.  And we are, far more than we can return the love.  Our emotions are blunted from too many long years of pain and sometimes suffering.  We need the comfort that only someone like Jesus can provide.

3 – Battlefield

Jesus sees this world as a “battlefield,” and we might do the same.  If we have not voiced the word, “battlefield,” we have surely thought it without verbal identity.  Maybe we just called this world a “hell,” which is the vernacular that is more commonly used.  We have made of this world a “hell,” but, if we follow Jesus’s message in ACIM and ACOL, we can, quite literally, turn this world into a heaven.  What more could we ask?

4 – We Are Weary

We are very weary of the trials of this world.  We are weary of our own trials, which have come to us to allow a better choice to be made this time around (an ACIM tenet).  May we spend today seeking ways to go beyond our trials, to turn a situation around for the better not far off in the distance, but immediately, now.  And may we turn this world into a heaven.  Grant us the understanding and belief that such a turnabout is not only possible, but probable.  If we follow Jesus’s word.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

Today is a time for comfort.  Today is a time for solace for our hearts.  

We are weary of this world and its battles, this hell that we have sometimes made for ourselves.  May we turn today to both Jesus and to You, for with the turning to an elder brother, and with the turning inward to the Divine, we are finally taking steps that will turn our world into the heaven that we have been led to understand that this world can be.

Be with me today as I seek to live a better way.  May I choose “another way,” as the co-scribes of A Course in Miracles, Helen and Bill, learned together.  And may my good feeling not be long in coming, for I am impatient to know the way that You would show, in all your graciousness, to me.  Thanking You in advance, I am Yours.

Amen.

Awakening from the Illusion that Is This World

“Nothing can prevail against a Son of God who commends his spirit into the Hands of his Father.  By doing this the mind awakens from its sleep and remembers its Creator.  (T39)”

Affirmation:  “the mind awakens from its sleep.”

Reflections:

1 – Our “Dream”

This statement by Jesus is a paraphrase of one of the cries made from the cross.  Here we are asked to also commend our spirit into the Hands of the Father.  What happens is the greatest miracles the Course holds out to us:  Awakening.  “. . .[T]he mind awakens from its sleep and remembers its Creator.”

2 – Catherine of Siena

The medieval saint, Catherine of Siena, said a paraphrase of this passage as she died, in her early thirties, while cuddled on her mother’s lap.  She had believed herself to be the bride of Christ, and many others clustered about her in her few years.  An order of sisters was established, and she did much to try to bring the Pope back to Rome.

3 – Commend Thy Spirit unto the Father

But anyone, anywhere, can say and mean these words, commending one’s spirit into the hands of the Father, and by so doing know solace.  Indeed, this is a way to know the greatest solace.

4 – To Awaken from Sleep and to Remember

We will awaken from sleep and remember our Creator.  What a glorious promise!  Here the way is pointed out to us in a very few words:  commend our spirit to God and all will be well.  We will be at home with God, even while in this world.  We will inhabit the real world, where projections are cleansed, and thus perceptions are seen afresh.  We may know pain still, but we will not know suffering.

5 – Do Not Fret or Worry

“Nothing can prevail against. . .” is a powerful introduction to this idea.  We do not have to fret that the world of special relationships, not yet holy, will impede our progress.  “Nothing” can prevail against us once we have made the decision to surrender completely to God and to His guidance through the Holy Spirit.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

May I know what it is to commend my spirit into Your hands.  By so doing may I awaken from my sleep in this world.

May I be my real Self today; may I not fulfill a persona anymore than is necessary to live in this world.  As I see friends, may I just know that they will accept me, just as I am.  You accepts me just as I am and love me for it.  May all people that I encounter today do not less.  That does not mean that we are equal to You, but simply that we try.  And we try not to fret when we fall short.

I would be grateful for this day, this day of promise.  May my significant others get from me all that I can give by way of the right kind of love and no attack.  Be with me as I seek to fulfill the promises that You hope for me, in being the kind of person that You have already accepted.

May I draw inspiration from the example of St. Catherine of Siena.  She knew a great deal in her short life.  May my longer life serve Your Spirit, and may my life also serve the others in my world, the ones entrusted to me.

All will be well with me when I do commend my spirit into Your hands.  Thank you for this great promise.

Amen.

Solace when I Am Hurting

ACIM Workbook Lesson 281 – for Saturday, October 8, 2011

Affirmation:  “I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts.”

“Father, Your Son is perfect.  When I think that I am hurt in any way, it is because I have forgotten who I am, and that I am as You created me.  Your Thoughts can only bring me happiness.  If ever I am sad or hurt or ill, I have forgotten what You think, and put my little meaningless ideas in place of where Your Thoughts belong, and where they are.  I can be hurt by nothing but my thoughts.  The Thoughts I think with You can only bless.  The Thoughts I think with You alone are true.  (WB438)”

Reflections:

1 – When I Am Sad, Hurt, Ill

“If ever I am sad or hurt or ill” is a sweeping statement, and it continues to let us know that we have forgotten Who we are, in the Self that is the Christ.  Our little selves do feel sad or get hurt or become ill, but these little selves are the true us.  We are bigger than we think.  We are one with God in our Selves, and even in our little selves, when we turn inward in silence, we can commune with the God Who is within.

2 – It Is Our Thinking that Is Wrong

It is our thinking that is wrong, according to this passage.  When we think Thoughts with God, we do not suffer.  We can ask that this faulty thinking be remedied.

3 – May Pain Not Turn to Suffering

Of course, in this world it would be unwise to discount the many bad things that happen, the many people who are suffering, even unto death.  We must be compassionate, and we must do all that we individually can do to remedy the ills of our fellow men and women.  But in the larger sense, according to ACIM, these difficulties are illusory, and our brothers and sisters, in their real Selves, have not been hurt.  This does not mean that we downplay what they (or we) are feeling now.  This is very true to their (or our) experience.  But we do need to be cognizant of the larger picture as presented by ACIM.  This larger picture will help us to endure the pain, but not to enlarge the pain into suffering.  It is a “mind” thing–mind over matter.  We will not always succeed, because we are fallible, but we can succeed far more often than we normally give ourselves credit for.

Prayer:

Dear Father/Mother,

I would not forget that it is my own thinking that is awry when I am hurting, when I am ill, sad, dejected.  Of course, in this world I may feel pain, but help me to understand how to handle this pain so that it does not turn into suffering.  Help me to rise above pain in all its forms.  Jesus said that we do not have to learn through pain.  And I know also that he said that the solution is always found with the problem.  Help me to learn through rewards, which is the lasting way for me to learn.

I sometimes hurt when I have forgotten that I am Your Daughter.  Help me to abide in Your love, to feel ever more confident that I can overcome any limitations that seem to afflict me.  Jesus overcame the world, and in A Course in Miracles, promises us that we do not have to have limitations because of what he has done.  Thank you for this generous and blessed elder brother to me.

Be with all the world today, with my brothers and sisters who are hurting.  May we find Your blessings in the midst of pain, and may we find comfort in knowing that You are always near, deep within, ready to provide solace.

Thank You.

Amen.