I place the future in the Hands of God.
Today's idea takes another step toward quick salvation, and a giant stride it is indeed! So great the distance is that it encompasses, it sets you down just short of Heaven, with the goal in sight and obstacles behind. Your foot has reached the lawns that welcome you to Heaven's gate; the quiet place of peace, where you await with certainty the final step of God. How far are we progressing now from earth! How close are we approaching to our goal! 6 How short the journey still to be pursued!
Accept today's idea, and you have passed all anxiety, all pits of hell, all blackness of depression, thoughts of sin, and devastation brought about by guilt. Accept today's idea, and you have released the world from all imprisonment by loosening the heavy chains that locked the door to freedom on it. You are saved, and your salvation thus becomes the gift you give the world, because you have received.
In no one instant is depression felt, or pain experienced or loss perceived. In no one instant sorrow can be set upon a throne, and worshipped faithfully. In no one instant can one even die. And so each instant given unto God in passing, with the next one given Him already, is a time of your release from sadness, pain and even death itself.
God holds your future as He holds your past and present. They are one to Him, and so they should be one to you. Yet in this world, the temporal progression still seems real. And so you are not asked to understand the lack of sequence really found in time. You are but asked to let the future go, and place it in God's Hands. And you will see by your experience that you have laid the past and present in His Hands as well, because the past will punish you no more, and future dread will now be meaningless.
Release the future. For the past is gone, and what is present, freed from its bequest of grief and misery, of pain and loss, becomes the instant in which time escapes the bondage of illusions where it runs its pitiless, inevitable course. Then is each instant which was slave to time transformed into a holy instant, when the light that was kept hidden in God's Son is freed to bless the world. Now is he free, and all his glory shines upon a world made free with him, to share his holiness.
If you can see the lesson for today as the deliverance it really is, you will not hesitate to give as much consistent effort as you can, to make it be a part of you. As it becomes a thought that rules your mind, a habit in your problem-solving repertoire, a way of quick reaction to temptation, you extend your learning to the world. And as you learn to see salvation in all things, so will the world perceive that it is saved.
What worry can beset the one who gives his future to the loving Hands of God? What can he suffer? What can cause him pain, or bring experience of loss to him? What can he fear? And what can he regard except with love? For he who has escaped all fear of future pain has found his way to present peace, and certainty of care the world can never threaten. He is sure that his perception may be faulty, but will never lack correction. He is free to choose again when he has been deceived; to change his mind when he has made mistakes.
Place, then, your future in the Hands of God. For thus you call the memory of Him to come again, replacing all your thoughts of sin and evil with the truth of love. Think you the world could fail to gain thereby, and every living creature not respond with healed perception? Who entrusts himself to God has also placed the world within the Hands to which he has himself appealed for comfort and security. He lays aside the sick illusions of the world along with his, and offers peace to both.
Now are we saved indeed. For in God's Hands we rest untroubled, sure that only good can come to us. If we forget, we will be gently reassured. If we accept an unforgiving thought, it will be soon replaced by love's reflection. And if we are tempted to attack, we will appeal to Him Who guards our rest to make the choice for us that leaves temptation far behind. No longer is the world our enemy, for we have chosen that we be its friend.
The Following is Forwarded from Pathwaysoflight.org
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Lesson 194
"I place the future in the Hands of God."
This lesson is very comforting to me. When I remember that my future is in God's Hands, all concern, worry and anxiety fade away. If I look honestly at all my thoughts of worry or concern, they all come from a lack of trust in the future, which reflects what I believe the past has taught me. I believe the past has taught me that things happened to me that I didn't want to happen. And other things didn't happen that I did want to happen. Thus all my concerns about the future are projections of the past.
Placing my future in the hands of God ends that projection. My only hesitation comes from lack of trust in God. That lack of trust is just another reflection of old beliefs from the ego thought system. Even this is gently dealt with in this lesson. We are not expected to instantly no longer have ego-based thoughts or temptations. We are simply reassured that by placing the future in God's Hands, these ego thoughts will be quickly replaced by Love's reflection, which is forgiveness. Forgiveness is letting go of the past. And since the past is an illusion, forgiveness is letting go of illusion.
The more I am able to place my future in God's Hands, the more I open my mind to the Holy Spirit's gentle correction of my mistaken beliefs. With the future in God's Hands, I no longer need to spend my days planning for my safety and my survival. They are in God's Hands. All I need to do is maintain an open mind, a receptive mind, willing to receive Holy Spirit's guidance and corrective perception.
As with yesterday's lesson, by practicing each hour letting go of the mistakes of the previous hour, and putting the hour to come in God's Hands, I become free. Each time a thought of worry enters my mind, I will use it as a reminder to place the future in the Hands of God. Thus I take what was used to make separation and fear seem real and make it into a stepping stone to freedom. With every concern, every apprehension, I remind myself, "I place the future in the Hands of God." Thus I walk the path of forgiveness that leads me Home.
If I have any worries, it is always about something in the future. The Holy Spirit teaches me that these worries are always groundless. We all are always safe, no matter what dreams we dream. We cannot separate from God. We cannot make a world of separation. It cannot be true. We remain safe eternally as God created us.
My dreams may frighten me, but they are not true. There is no past, there is not future, there is no sequential time. There is only the eternal now. Everyone is in Heaven now.
By placing my future in the Hands of God, I open my mind to the eternal truth that I am in God and remain in God eternally. This is eternal safety, eternal happiness, eternal peace. This is what is true. This is what is real. Anything else is wandering in the wilderness, dreaming of separation. God is. Love is. Nothing else is real. This is my comfort today. Today I am willing to surrender all my fear thoughts and return to the Love that is always true now and forever.
I have little sticky notes stuck everywhere in my house. It's not exactly a Martha Stewart look, but they are very helpful to me because each one has some passage from the Course or some other spiritual book. They remind me often during the day of something I am working on. One of them reminds me that I choose not to make plans against uncertainties and I will add to it today's lesson to place the future in God's hands.
Thinking about how we connect everything to the past made me think about something that happened yesterday. I was shopping at Sam's when I noticed a family shopping near me. The mom was reprimanding the teenager for something he was doing and the baby was crying, the father looked angry and the teenager looked halfway between hurt and defiant. I thought as I continued to shop that this was a familiar scene for them because they all looked comfortable in their roles. I understood this because this could have been my family a few years ago when my son was a young teenager, and we had played out a number of scenes ourselves.
Suddenly I looked back because the confrontation had become louder. I saw the mom pushing the cart away with the wailing baby in it and looking very angry and upset. The father and teenage son were standing toe to toe glaring each other down. They looked just moments from throwing punches.
I found myself moving quickly away from the situation. I didn't want to see this. My son and his father had confronted one another more than once and I knew how bad this could be. The problem was resolved for my son and his father through anger management classes, but for a long time, life was very scary around our house. Watching this family's drama unfold was extremely upsetting to me because I was replaying my past.
As I hurriedly moved away, my stomach tightening, my anxiety level quickly rising, I suddenly remembered my lesson;"All things are lessons God would have me learn." Immediately what was happening began to take on a new meaning for me. I had a conversation with myself. At first I berated myself for my reaction and said to myself that I shouldn't feel like this. Then my calmer inner voice reminded me that I feel what I feel. "Ok," I said,"I shouldn't react like this. It isn't helpful." I was still a little upset so I continued the lesson with,"I will forgive and this will disappear." I felt myself releasing the anxiety that had held me so tightly just moments before.
I then asked myself what reaction would be appropriate in this situation. What would be helpful? I began to pray for that family. I began to see peace descending on them and enfolding them. I realized that I had been feeling angry and resentful of them because of my reaction and all the unpleasant memories it brought back. As I prayed for them all that melted away. I felt very loving toward them and my prayers became more heartfelt. I can still see their faces very clearly, and I am going to continue to visualize peace and forgiveness for them.
I've been thinking about how all that played out. If I had not been doing my lesson, it may have been just another unpleasant moment which would leave me depressed I would have also been angry with my ex-husband all over again. Instead, I chose to use that moment and that situation to practice releasing the past through forgiveness. I chose to bless that family, and in doing so, to bless mine as well. I feel so grateful that I was in that place at that moment and so was afforded the opportunity to heal.
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