I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
(191) I am the holy Son of God Himself.
In silence and in true humility I seek God's glory, to behold
it in the Son whom He created as my Self.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
Lesson 212
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
(192) I have a function God would have me fill.
I seek the function that would set me free from all the vain
illusions of the world. Only the function God has given me
can offer freedom. Only this I seek, and only this will I
accept as mine.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
The Following is Forwarded from Pathwaysoflight.org
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Lesson 211
Review: "I am not a body. I am free.
I am still as God created me."
"I am the holy Son of God Himself."
What stands out to me in this lesson are the words, "in silence and in true humility..." This reminds me that in order to seek God's glory and see it everywhere as my one Self, I must become aware of the ego's chatter and be willing to let it go. I must let go of trying to make something other than God's universal Love real.
"In silence" means choosing to quiet the ego mind and in true humility recognize that all ego thoughts of individuality really mean nothing. Thinking that I can really make something other than universal Love is arrogance. True humility does not try to imagine or make real something other than the one Self as we were created. This lesson helps me practice letting go of these absurd ideas of separation from unity, from our communion in God. Today's lesson helps me remember that we all are always in communion with our one Self.
My practice today is being willing to remember what is real. My job today is to practice true humility. My job today is to let the truth return to my awareness. The truth is not hiding. My job today is to let go of my denial of the truth of our one, universal Self. My job today is to remember that I am not a body. I am free. I remain as God created me. The truth is true and nothing else is true.
I am willing to let my mind be filled with awareness of God's Presence today. What a wonderful practice. What a wonderful opportunity I have today and every day.
This lesson teaches the opposite of what most of us believe about ourselves. "Holy" and "glory" are not words that we associate with what we think we are. Guilty and unworthy seem much more appropriate to us because of what we think we are.
Yet these attributes we believe about ourselves must be arrogant because this lesson tells us that to recognize our holiness and glory we must seek in true humility. This is the opposite of what the ego teaches, which is that humility is to see ourselves as debased and unworthy of anything but condemnation.
Gratefully the Course teaches us that God does not and never has condemned. His Love for us remains unchanged by any of our wild imaginings of a separate self. So today's lesson is another step in the reversal of the beliefs I have held about myself. It leads me toward recognition of What I am in truth. In that recognition I see my brothers as my Self, one with me, sharing God's Love and Light, sharing His glory and holiness. I can only recognize this as I recognize my brothers are one with me. Seeing myself as separate or alone blocks all awareness of my holiness and unity with God.
To see this unity I must let go of all judgment. That is why it is so important that I take each thought of condemnation to the Holy Spirit and be willing to receive His vision in place of that false perception.
Holy Spirit I open my mind to you today, that I might see the holiness and glory in my brother and therefore in myself. Help me to see past body images to the Love that is the essence of everyone and everything, for it is this that I desire to recognize in myself. Thank you Holy Spirit for Your strength and support and trust in me.
©2003, Pathways of Light, Inc. http://pathwaysoflight.org You may freely share copies of this page with your friends, provided all copies include this notice.
Lesson 212
Review: "I am not a body. I am free.
I am still as God created me."
"I have a function God would have me fill."
The function of Love is to extend Love. God created me as Love and so my function is to extend Love. I don't extend Love when I don't remember What I am. I don't remember What I am when I attempt to replace What I am with illusions of separation from What I am. I am set free when I am willing to lay these illusions down.
When the ego thoughts are quieted, God, Which is Love, is there. God is the only Reality. God is freedom. God is joy. God is oneness and Love. If I am not recognizing this, I will feel bound and limited and separate from my Identity. In truth, God is my constant Companion because I am God's extension. It is only when I return to my original function of extending Love that I find the freedom and peace that is in me.
I get what I desire and focus on. Today I seek only to fulfill my function as an extension of God's Love. Only this brings me happiness. Only this sets me free. Letting go of illusions and extending only Love is my function today.
The Course says that forgiveness is Love's reflection in this world. Thus forgiveness is the way I fulfill my function in this world. Forgiveness is letting go of illusions. It clears the way for Love to be extended. It frees me to be the Love I was created to be.
Illusions are vain because they have no real effect. But if I believe illusions are real, I will believe reality is unreal and so the reality of Love will be lost to me. It is impossible to believe in two realities. Whatever I believe to be real blocks everything else from my awareness. If I want to experience the peace and joy and Love of God, I must let go of my belief in another reality in which God (Love) is not welcome.
This world was made as a place where God is not welcome. To be free of it, I must forgive myself for imagining a world without God and I must forgive God for not giving me what He could not give. God could not give me special love because Love is given equally by Its very nature.
When I experience true forgiveness, I experience an outpouring of Love, a sense of unity and joining with my brother. I see us as the same and my heart is filled with joy and gratitude. When I fall back into old habits of judgment, that joyous feeling fades. But the memory of it reminds me that I really do want to fulfill the function God has given me. That is where I find freedom and joy.
Each experience of forgiveness strengthens my resolve to take every thought of condemnation, every judgment, to the Holy Spirit for Him to shine His loving Light upon it so that I can see the reality beyond the illusion that I mistakenly believed. Thus I fulfill the function God would have me fill and I receive His gift of happiness, which I cannot help but share with everyone.
True happiness is sharing. Holy Spirit, help me see with Your vision today that I might remember the freedom of being the Love I was created to be.
©2003, Pathways of Light, Inc. http://pathwaysoflight.org You may freely share copies of this page with your friends, provided all copies include this notice.
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