LESSON 47
God is the strength in which I trust.
If you are trusting in your own strength, you have every reason to be apprehensive, anxious and fearful. What can you predict or control? What is there in you that can be counted on? What would give you the ability to be aware of all the facets of any problem, and to resolve them in such a way that only good can come of it? What is there in you that gives you the recognition of the right solution, and the guarantee that it will be accomplished?
Of yourself you can do none of these things. To believe that you can is to put your trust where trust is unwarranted, and to justify fear, anxiety, depression, anger and sorrow. Who can put his faith in weakness and feel safe? Yet who can put his faith in strength and feel weak?
God is your safety in every circumstance. His Voice speaks for Him in all situations and in every aspect of all situations, telling you exactly what to do to call upon His strength and His protection. There are no exceptions because God has no exceptions. And the Voice which speaks for Him thinks as He does.
Today we will try to reach past your own weakness to the Source of real strength. Four five-minute practice periods are necessary today, and longer and more frequent ones are urged. Close your eyes and begin, as usual, by repeating the idea for the day. Then spend a minute or two in searching for situations in your life which you have invested with fear, dismissing each one by telling yourself:
God is the strength in which I trust.
Now try to slip past all concerns related to your own sense of inadequacy. It is obvious that any situation that causes you concern is associated with feelings of inadequacy, for otherwise you would believe that you could deal with the situation successfully. It is not by trusting yourself that you will gain confidence. But the strength of God in you is successful in all things.
The recognition of your own frailty is a necessary step in the correction of your errors, but it is hardly a sufficient one in giving you the confidence which you need, and to which you are entitled. You must also gain an awareness that confidence in your real strength is fully justified in every respect and in all circumstances.
In the latter phase of the practice period, try to reach down into your mind to a place of real safety. You will recognize that you have reached it if you feel a sense of deep peace, however briefly. Let go all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind, and reach down and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven . There is a place in you where there is perfect peace. There is a place in you where nothing is impossible. There is a place in you where the strength of God abides.
During the day, repeat the idea often. Use it as your answer to any disturbance. Remember that peace is your right, because you are giving your trust to the strength of God.
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Lesson 47
“God is the strength in which I trust.”
Remembering that God is the strength in which I trust is the same as putting my trust in Reality instead of illusions. Illusions are unstable and constantly change. God is eternal and changeless. Placing my trust in a world of illusions is like placing my trust in quicksand. It will always fail. God is the only place of real trust. Only God is invulnerable. Only God can be relied upon in every situation. We all have our foundation in God. God is the Tree of real, everlasting Life. Trusting in anything but God is just a silly idea.
God, I hand over every concern to You. Only in You is there true meaning. Returning to Love is my one function. Extending Love is my only joy. This is my strength. This is my security. This where my true happiness lies. I cannot do anything on my own, for on my own I am nothing. “God is the strength in which I trust.”
This lesson speaks to us as we perceive ourselves in this world — as separate, alone, weak and with every reason to apprehensive and fearful because we trust in the “strength” of this limited self. But if we look at the lesson as a whole, it is clear that Jesus does not see this as the truth about us. The strength of God is in us because God is in our mind, as we learned in an earlier lesson. The peace of God is there to be found in us because God is in our mind. It is only our belief in a false image of ourselves as alone and separate from God that leads us to feel weak, apprehensive, fearful and out of control. It is this false image that leads us to feel we must defend ourselves.
Remembering that God is in our mind can help us remember that God’s strength is ours. Love’s strength is ours. If only Love is real, which the Course tells us in the introduction to the Text, then harm is impossible. There can be nothing to fear.
There is another aspect of this lesson that is very important to me. Not only does it assure me that I can trust in the strength of Love, but it assures me that I can rely on this Love to guide me in every aspect of my doing. It is another way of assuring me that I am never alone. I have everything I need to safely and lovingly move through every situation, harmlessly and in perfect peace. I need only place my trust in Love, in God. Love is the strength in which I trust.
My son was expressing to me the uncertainty he feels about everything in life. There seems always to be more than one way to judge everything and how do you know what to believe and what is the best way to act on it. He said that he can't feel certain about anything and that he realizes he doesn't know anything. He was feeling like he was standing over an abyss with no bridge, no net under him.
I congratulated him on reaching a Truth at age 17 most people don't reach for many years in their life, if ever. I assured him the answers were there in him and that realizing his ego didn't have the answers made it possible to get there. Today's lesson was great place to continue our conversation.
I find it a great relief to be able to let go of any residual in my belief that I have the answers and that I can successfully act on my own. It is a comfort to know that I don't have to, and that I have the strength of God within me. I am not left to flounder on my own, but have certain direction that I can't lose because it is in me.
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