I call upon God's Name and on my own.
God's Name is holy, but no holier than yours. To call upon His Name is but to call upon your own. A father gives his son his name, and thus identifies the son with him. His brothers share his name, and thus are they united in a bond to which they turn for their identity. Your Father's Name reminds you who you are, even within a world that does not know; even though you have not remembered it.
God's Name can not be heard without response, nor said without an echo in the mind that calls you to remember. Say His Name, and you invite the angels to surround the ground on which you stand, and sing to you as they spread out their wings to keep you safe, and shelter you from every worldly thought that would intrude upon your holiness.
Repeat God's Name, and all the world responds by laying down illusions. Every dream the world holds dear has suddenly gone by, and where it seemed to stand you find a star; a miracle of grace. The sick arise, healed of their sickly thoughts. The blind can see; the deaf can hear. The sorrowful cast off their mourning, and the tears of pain are dried as happy laughter comes to bless the world.
Repeat the Name of God, and little names have lost their meaning. No temptation but becomes a nameless and unwanted thing before God's Name. Repeat His Name, and see how easily you will forget the names of all the gods you valued. They have lost the name of god you gave them. They become anonymous and valueless to you, although before you let the Name of God replace their little names, you stood before them worshipfully, naming them as gods.
Repeat the Name of God, and call upon your Self, Whose Name is His. Repeat His Name, and all the tiny, nameless things on earth slip into right perspective. Those who call upon the Name of God can not mistake the nameless for the Name, nor sin for grace, nor bodies for the holy Son of God. And should you join a brother as you sit with him in silence, and repeat God's Name along with him within your quiet mind, you have established there an altar which reaches to God Himself and to His Son.
Practice but this today; repeat God's Name slowly again and still again. Become oblivious to every name but His. Hear nothing else. Let all your thoughts become anchored on this. No other word we use except at the beginning, when we say today's idea but once. And then God's Name becomes our only thought, our only word, the only thing that occupies our minds, the only wish we have, the only sound with any meaning, and the only Name of everything that we desire to see; of everything that we would call our own.
Thus do we give an invitation which can never be refused. And God will come, and answer it Himself. Think not He hears the little prayers of those who call on Him with names of idols cherished by the world. They cannot reach Him thus. He cannot hear requests that He be not Himself, or that His Son receive another name than His.
Repeat God's Name, and you acknowledge Him as sole Creator of reality. And you acknowledge also that His Son is part of Him, creating in His Name. Sit silently, and let His Name become the all-encompassing idea that holds your mind completely. Let all thoughts be still except this one. And to all other thoughts respond with this, and see God's Name replace the thousand little names you gave your thoughts, not realizing that there is one Name for all there is, and all that there will be.
Today you can achieve a state in which you will experience the gift of grace. You can escape all bondage of the world, and give the world the same release you found. You can remember what the world forgot, and offer it your own remembering. You can accept today the part you play in its salvation, and your own as well. And both can be accomplished perfectly.
Turn to the Name of God for your release, and it is given you. No prayer but this is necessary, for it holds them all within it. Words are insignificant, and all requests unneeded when God's Son calls on his Father's Name. His Father's Thoughts become his own. He makes his claim to all his Father gave, is giving still, and will forever give. He calls on Him to let all things he thought he made be nameless now, and in their place the holy Name of God becomes his judgment of their worthlessness.
All little things are silent. Little sounds are soundless now. The little things of earth have disappeared. The universe consists of nothing but the Son of God, who calls upon his Father. And his Father's Voice gives answer in his Father's holy Name. In this eternal, still relationship, in which communication far transcends all words, and yet exceeds in depth and height whatever words could possibly convey, is peace eternal. In our Father's Name, we would experience this peace today. And in His Name, it shall be given us.
The Following is Forwarded from Pathwaysoflight.org
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Lesson 183
"I call upon God's Name and on my own."
As I read this lesson, I was aware of my resistance coming up. As it said, "Repeat God's Name" again and again, I was mentally wishing that it would say what God's name is, spell it out for me. I wanted it to say, "God's Name is 'xxxx.' Say only xxxx." That is a typical ego attempt to make rules that separate. If the Course said, "This is the Name of God to use," then the ego would have a basis to say that anyone who doesn't use that exact word is not praying to God and will not be saved. Thus the ego would use this name of God to separate instead of unify.
What I get out of this lesson today is that it is leading us to recognize unity as all encompassing and indivisible. It does not matter what word we use for the name of God as long as It represents to us unity and Love. It may be the meaning we give the word God does not represent His unity and Love. It may instead bring up feelings of fear and guilt because we have not yet forgiven God for our projections on Him, that He is judge and punisher. In that case it may be more appropriate to use another word such as Love. We are taught that, "God is but Love and therefore so am I," which parallels the title of today's lesson, "I call upon God's Name and on my own."
The key to me is that I use this exercise of repeating God's Name to help me focus on the unity of Love that is real to the exclusion of all thoughts of separation, individuality and differences. It is the experience of uniform, changeless, all encompassing Love that this lesson is leading me toward. It is leading me to remember my Self as I was created.
As I repeated "God" in my mind, sometimes interchanging it with "Love," I had a taste of that unity. I began to feel more peaceful. Thoughts of all the "to do's" and things of this world were laid aside. A feeling of quiet joy grew in my heart. I do not feel that I fully achieved the recognition of complete unity, but I got a taste of it, and I am truly blessed and motivated to continue on with the practice. I know that this is what I want and I am grateful to have the means with which to reach it.
In the movie "Phenomenon," John Travolta tells his friend to pick up an eraser and erase the words he wrote on a page. Then he told him that this is like erasing all the fear that stands in front of our seeing the Love that is there. The fear comes from all the images we have made in the attempt to replace God. All the names that represent individuality or separation that are taking the place of our remembering God need to be erased.
As we do this erasing process in our lives, we will find more and more that only God is there. In today's lesson is a process that is much like the eraser that John Travolta was talking about to his friend. As we let God's Name replace all the little names we have given everything in this world, it is making an open space where we can remember God, our one Self.
I see that this as our life's work. This is forgiveness. This is letting go of what has never happened in truth. This is what we receive when we ask for a miracle. To me God's Name is universal Love and universal means everywhere and every thing.
Today's lesson is a very useful process for returning my mind to oneness. When I have created something that appears very fearful to me and I am like a little child hiding under the covers while having a fearful nightmare, this practice can clear an open space where I can see that it is just a nightmare and was never really true at all. Only universal Love is real. All the names need to be erased through my willingness.
I get what I focus on, and today my practice is to focus on the Presence of universal Love. As this is all I want to see, this is what I will see. It is my choice today. Which will I choose?
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