LESSON 77
March 18

"I am entitled to miracles."

PRACTICE SUMMARY

Purpose: To claim the miracles that are your right.

Longer: 2 times for 10-15 minutes.

Repeat idea with real confidence. Close eyes and remind yourself (1) that you are asking for what is rightfully yours and that (2) in accepting them you take from no one and uphold the rights of everyone.
For remainder of exercise, wait quietly for the assurance your request is granted. You will receive this assurance.

Shorter: frequent.

Repeat idea. Do so whenever miracles are called for. You will recognize when.

Response To Temptation: Say: "I will not trade miracles for grievances. I want only what belongs to me. God has established miracles as my right."

COMMENTARY

What we celebrate today is our true Identity as beings who are one with God (1:3, 5, 6). The key to what the Course calls "salvation" is simply remembering what we are. I like the three-fold summary that opens the lesson. Just rearranging the words a little, the three items are:

What we are entitles us to miracles.
What God is guarantees we will receive miracles.
Our oneness with God means we will offer miracles to others.

Nothing we think about ourselves, no special powers we may believe we have, and no rituals we observe bring miracles to us. They come to us because of what we are, because of something inherent in our being. The qualifications for miracles are built in at creation; we don't have to earn them.

The Holy Spirit "will never ask what you have done to make you worthy of the gift of God. Ask it not therefore of yourself. Instead, accept His answer, for He knows that you are worthy of everything God wills for you. do not try to escape the gift of God He so freely and so gladly offers you. He offers you but what God gave Him for you. You need not decide whether or not you are deserving of it. God knows you are" (T-14.III.11:4-10)

The lesson affirms that we have been "promised full release from the world [we] made," from all the darkness, pain, suffering and death resulting from our attempts at separateness. Beyond that we have been "assured that the Kingdom of God is within you, and can never be lost" (3:2, 3). Today we are deciding not to question those premises, but to accept them as given facts. The darkness can be escaped, and the light has never been lost. And so, today, we set our minds in determination "that we will not content ourselves with less" (3:5).

The longer practice periods begin with a brief time of affirmation, reminding ourselves that we have a right to miracles, and that miracles are never given to one at the expense of another; they benefit everyone equally. In asking for myself, I am asking for everyone. After that brief reminder, the time of practice is to be spent in quiet, waiting for an inner sense of assurance that the miracles we have asked for have been given. Since we are asking exactly what God's Will is, for the salvation of the world, there is every reason to believe that He will respond favorably to our requests.

Actually, asking for miracles isn't really asking for anything. It is a statement of fact. It is an affirmation of what is always already true. The Holy Spirit can't help assuring us our request is granted! (6:1-3) How can He possibly respond differently? He cannot deny our prayer without denying the Truth, and He speaks only for the Truth. "Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists" (Text, Introduction). That is what this kind of prayer affirms.

In describing the short practice periods, we are told to ask "whenever a situation arises in which they are called for" (7:4). And then it says, "You will recognize these situations." There is no question here, not even a need to give a reason or to explain how. "You will recognize these situations." Something in us simply knows when it is appropriate to ask for a miracle. Notice also that we are not trying to generate the miracle ourselves, out of our own resources; we are asking the Holy Spirit. We are turning with our need to the Source of miracles; we are not trying to take the place of the Source. We do depend on what we are as our entitlement to miracles, but we are not relying on ourselves to find them (7:6).

Let's remember that a "miracle" as the Course understands it does not necessarily mean any kind of visible changes. Miracles are thoughts (T-1.I.12:1). They are shifts away from the bodily level, a way in which we recognize our own worth and our brother's at the same time (T-1.I.17:2; 18:4). A miracle is a correction of false thinking (T-1.I.37:1). Miracles are always expressions of love, "but they may not always have observable effects" (T-1.I.35:1).

Let's remember, also, that "may not always" does not mean "will never." If I say, "I often eat Wheaties for breakfast but I may not always eat them," the implication is that a lot of the time I do eat Wheaties. So when the Course says that miracles may not always have observable effects, it clearly implies that most of the time they do have observable effects. We should not mistakenly think a miracle has not happened if there are no observable effects, but neither should we mistakenly set aside any expectation of observable effects. The essential ingredient, however, is not anything in the material world, but the freeing of our minds from illusions.