LESSON 88
March 29
"The
light has come."
"I
am under no laws but God's."
PRACTICE
SUMMARY
Longer: 1 (or 2)times for about 15 minutes
- For 3 or 4 minutes, read over the ideas and comments slowly (repeatedly if
you wish) and think about them.
- Close your eyes and spend the remainder of the time listening quietly and
attentively. There is a message for you. Be confident you will receive it, for
it belongs to you and you want it. If you have distracting thoughts realize
they have no meaning or power. Replace them with your will to succeed. Trust it
to carry you past distractions. If your mind still wanders, repeat first phase
of exercise.
Shorter: Frequent
First half of day: "The light has come."
Second half of day: "I am under no laws but God's."
Response To Temptation: You may use these specific forms or your own words:
First half of day: "This cannot show me darkness, for the light has come." "The light in you is all that I would see, [name]." "I would see in this only what is there."
Second half of the day: "My perception of this shows me I believe in laws that do not exist." "I see only the laws of God at work in this." "Let me allow God's laws to work in this, and not my own."
COMMENTARY
The ideas being reviewed today, seemingly concerned with very different concepts, yet have a certain common ground that is brought out in this review. That common ground could be expressed in this thought: Only what is of God is real; what appears to be in opposition is only an illusion without power, except that given it through my belief.The light of salvation has already come. "I always choose between truth and illusion" (1:5), and "Attack and grievances are not there to choose" (1:4). I really have no alternative to the light because there is no alternative. My entire experience of darkness is an adventure in delusion and nothing more; there is no darkness."I can but choose the light, for it has no alternative" (1:7). This is why the Text tells me that the outcome of my drama here on earth is inevitable. "God is inevitable, and you cannot avoid Him any more than He can avoid you" (T-4.I.9:11). In seeking that my perception be changed, I are only seeking to see what is already there, and what is the only thing there.
God's laws alone rule me. The other laws that I think have power over me are laws that I made up. "I suffer only because of my belief in them. They have no real effect on me at all" (3:5-6). The laws of the ego cannot constrain me; I can be free of them now because I am, in reality, always free of them; they have no power. My ego at times seems so very powerful, the knee-jerk reaction of hurt and anger seems beyond my control and in control of me, but it is not so. I am free of these "laws" of chaos, of sin and guilt and punishment and separation. The healing of every relationship is inevitable because God's laws make us one, not separate. "A happy outcome to all things is sure" (Lesson 292) because there are no laws but God's, no will but God's. Only my belief in it gives power to the appearance of an opposing will, with opposing laws.
Let me then, today, look on everything with this insight. Where I seem to see darkness, let me proclaim the reality of light. Where I see laws opposed to God at work, let me declare them powerless. Thank You, Father, for the certainty of Your plan, the present reality of Your light.
Copyright © 1996, The Circle of Atonement, Sedona,
Arizona, USA.
All rights reserved.