I choose the joy of God instead of pain.
Pain is a wrong perspective. When it is experienced in any form, it is a proof of self-deception. It is not a fact at all. There is no form it takes that will not disappear if seen aright. For pain proclaims God cruel. How could it be real in any form? It witnesses to God the Father's hatred of His Son, the sinfulness He sees in him, and His insane desire for revenge and death.
Can such projections be attested to? Can they be anything but wholly false? Pain is but witness to the Son's mistakes in what he thinks he is. It is a dream of fierce retaliation for a crime that could not be committed; for attack on what is wholly unassailable. It is a nightmare of abandonment by an Eternal Love, which could not leave the Son whom It created out of love.
Pain is a sign illusions reign in place of truth. It demonstrates God is denied, confused with fear, perceived as mad, and seen as traitor to Himself. If God is real, there is no pain. If pain is real, there is no God. For vengeance is not part of love. And fear, denying love and using pain to prove that God is dead, has shown that death is victor over life. The body is the Son of God, corruptible in death, as mortal as the Father he has slain.
Peace to such foolishness! The time has come to laugh at such insane ideas. There is no need to think of them as savage crimes, or secret sins with weighty consequence. Who but a madman could conceive of them as cause of anything? Their witness, pain, is mad as they, and no more to be feared than the insane illusions which it shields, and tries to demonstrate must still be true.
It is your thoughts alone that cause you pain. Nothing external to your mind can hurt or injure you in any way. There is no cause beyond yourself that can reach down and bring oppression. No one but yourself affects you. There is nothing in the world that has the power to make you ill or sad, or weak or frail. But it is you who have the power to dominate all things you see by merely recognizing what you are. As you perceive the harmlessness in them, they will accept your holy will as theirs. And what was seen as fearful now becomes a source of innocence and holiness.
My holy brother, think of this awhile: The world you see does nothing. It has no effects at all. It merely represents your thoughts. And it will change entirely as you elect to change your mind, and choose the joy of God as what you really want. Your Self is radiant in this holy joy, unchanged, unchanging and unchangeable, forever and forever. And would you deny a little corner of your mind its own inheritance, and keep it as a hospital for pain; a sickly place where living things must come at last to die?
The world may seem to cause you pain. And yet the world, as causeless, has no power to cause. As an effect, it cannot make effects. As an illusion, it is what you wish. Your idle wishes represent its pains. Your strange desires bring it evil dreams. Your thoughts of death envelop it in fear, while in your kind forgiveness does it live.
Pain is the thought of evil taking form, and working havoc in your holy mind. Pain is the ransom you have gladly paid not to be free. In pain is God denied the Son He loves. In pain does fear appear to triumph over love, and time replace eternity and Heaven. And the world becomes a cruel and a bitter place, where sorrow rules and little joys give way before the onslaught of the savage pain that waits to end all joy in misery.
Lay down your arms, and come without defense into the quiet place where Heaven's peace holds all things still at last. Lay down all thoughts of danger and of fear. Let no attack enter with you. Lay down the cruel sword of judgment that you hold against your throat, and put aside the withering assaults with which you seek to hide your holiness.
Here will you understand there is no pain. Here does the joy of God belong to you. This is the day when it is given you to realize the lesson that contains all of salvation's power. It is this: Pain is illusion; joy, reality. Pain is but sleep; joy is awakening. Pain is deception; joy alone is truth.
And so again we make the only choice that ever can be made; we choose between illusions and the truth, or pain and joy, or hell and Heaven. Let our gratitude unto our Teacher fill our hearts, as we are free to choose our joy instead of pain, our holiness in place of sin, the peace of God instead of conflict, and the light of Heaven for the darkness of the world.
The Following is Forwarded from Pathwaysoflight.org
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Lesson 190
"I choose the joy of God instead of pain."
To me this lesson is about responsibility. It makes it very clear that everything I think I experience is because of my own choice. Much of my life I lived believing things happened to me that I had nothing to do with. This lesson is teaching me that I am responsible for what I see and what I feel for everything I experience.
The title implies that I have chosen pain. In case I miss the point in the title, he explains in specific detail that fear and pain are my choice. But I have another choice. I can choose instead the joy of God, the peace of Heaven. And most importantly, the choice for the joy of God is the choice for reality instead of illusion.
All I really need do is lay down the self denial that has made illusions seem real. The moment I do this, the reality of the joy and peace of God rushes in to fill the space made empty by laying down illusions. I don't have to work to become worthy of God's joy. I don't have to jump through hoops to please God in order to receive His joy. I need only lay down the illusions that block my awareness of the joy that is always there.
It cannot really be hard to let go of nothing in order to receive everything. What makes it seem hard is my unwillingness to recognize nothingness for what it is. That unwillingness comes from identifying with a self image made up of nothingness. It seems that if I give up my belief in it that I will lose my identity and everything that is of value. This is the effect of misplaced values. In fact, the whole world is the effect of misplaced values. The moment I value reality more than illusion, I will experience reality. I will experience the joy of God.
Holy Spirit, help me to recognize my misplaced values today. Help me to see their nothingness so that I can lay them down. Help me to see the treasure given me by my Creator and mine for eternity. Help me to see Love everywhere. That is the treasure I seek and would offer in every moment. Thank You for Your support.
I ask myself, "Why have I believed in the existence of pain and death? What attracts me to believe in bodily illusions instead of the truth that I am still in the Mind of God? What attracts me to believe that I or anyone can be hurt? What is the payoff for believing in what is not true?" I take this to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit shares:
Love is all powerful. Love is What you are. This is your Identity. You cannot leave your Identity. God's Will is your Will. There is only one Will. Thinking there is something other than the Will of Love is the cause of all pain. There is nothing other than the Will of Love and therefore pain is illusion.
The only thing to do with illusions is to lay them down because they are not true. You cannot fix illusions or make them better. What really works is to just give them up, let them go. They are not real. They are thoughts of being unlike God. God is not special or different. God is universal Oneness. God gives all Love to All of Itself. That is What you are for eternity.
Being willing to lift the veil of illusions is what cures all pain and sorrow. Being open to the Truth of your Identity as Love removes all belief in weakness, loss and pain. Practice this today.
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