A Course in Miracles Workbook Daily Lesson 254, Year 2022

ACIM Lesson 254 Let every voice but God’s be still in me. 1. Father, today I would but hear Your Voice.

Lesson 254

Let every voice but God’s be still in me.

1. Father, today I would but hear Your Voice. ²In deepest silence I would come to You, to hear Your Voice and to receive Your Word. ³I have no prayer but this: I come to You to ask You for the truth. ⁴And truth is but Your Will, which I would share with You today.

2. Today we let no ego thoughts direct our words or actions. ²When such thoughts occur, we quietly step back and look at them, and then we let them go. ³We do not want what they would bring with them. ⁴And so we do not choose to keep them. ⁵They are silent now. ⁶And in the stillness, hallowed by His Love, God speaks to us and tells us of our will, as we have chosen to remember Him.

God’s Will and your will are the same whether you notice it or not. Byron Katie

When I notice that I am tempted to anger, guilt, or fear thoughts of any kind, I remember that this is not my will because it is not God’s Will. At that moment in which I have denied the ego thoughts, my mind is silent, and into that silence, God speaks. It may come as a true thought or simply as peace, and I know that my mind is healed.

An old memory of something I did that I used to regret showed up in my mind this morning.

I felt the pain of guilt for a moment, but then I changed my mind about choosing that idea on which to place my attention. I remembered that Jesus says that this is an ancient memory I have placed before my eyes. In this case, it is a memory of an ancient memory, but if I hold onto it as if it is true and worthy of my attention, it will bring me more of the same. So, I choose to turn my attention to the truth instead, and just like that, the emotional reaction fades away, and with it, the memory itself.

I have learned to question my thoughts.

Today I felt some stress from the idea that time is moving along and I still have things to get done. I used to live like that, always chasing time and always losing the race. Even when it seemed to all get done, I still lost because I did everything in fear of failure and so lack of love. I don’t know how I was able to survive life living like that.

This morning as soon as I noticed the tension, I questioned my thoughts. I realized that I must have been asking the ego for advice, and I chose again. This time, I surrendered the day to the Holy Spirit, and I did what seemed to be in front of me and then did the next thing, and I felt peaceful and happy doing them.

Everything that needs doing will get done, not because I am working hard or fast, but because I have turned from the self and to the Self. What does the little ego self know? How can it guide me to a peaceful and happy outcome? My mind becomes quiet when it is time to do the next thing so that God’s Will can come into my awareness. I love my life now.

Regina’s Tips on “What is Sin?”

We have read the special theme while replacing the word sin with “insanity.” Let’s read the special theme again, and this time let’s replace “sin” with “My ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, what should be and what should not be.”

For example, “My ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, what should be and what should not be are the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined, issuing from thoughts that are untrue. They are ‘proof’ that what has no reality is real. My ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, what should be and what should not be ‘proves’ God’s Son is evil; timelessness must have an end; eternal life must die. …”

Most people take their ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, what should be and what should not be to be fact. However, not everyone sees right and wrong, good and bad, what should be and what should not be in the same way. Therefore, our ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, what should be and what should not be are opinions.

NTI calls these ideas “judgment,” and claims that judgment is the building block of illusion. Our special theme makes the same claim:

[My ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, what should be and what should not be are] the home of all illusions, which but stand for things imagined, issuing from thoughts that are untrue. They are ‘proof’ that what has no reality is real.

My Thoughts

Using the words “My ideas of right and wrong, good and bad, what should be and what should not be” works well for me. That is what the ego is about, this personal self with its opinions. Wednesday, I left early for my Al-Anon meeting because of heavy traffic. Since I was so early, I stopped at Sam’s to pick up a few things, and my daughter called to ask if I wanted her to come to spray my lemon tree for whiteflies. I was disappointed to have to tell her I wasn’t home.

Then, I went to the building where we have our meeting, and I could hardly walk when I got out to go in. I realized that I had done too much that day, and while I could have stayed, I was concerned that coming home would be difficult. I decided to skip the meeting, and I felt that it was all for nothing since I did not get my meeting and missed getting my tree sprayed.

Twice, I judged the situation of what was good and what was bad.

The only thing I got for my judgment was suffering and reinforcing the ego. If I had not judged it, the same thing would have happened, but I would not have suffered. Fortunately, I recognize this kind of thinking for what it is, and I let it go pretty fast. As it turns out, it rained that night or early morning, so I am glad my daughter had not sprayed the tree. It would have all washed away.

When I let go of the idea that I needed that evening to turn out a specific way, I did that by remembering to love all things just as they are and to choose happiness regardless of the circumstances.

All day yesterday, when I would find my mind wandering, I would remind myself that I will to hear only the Voice for God today. It was very helpful to do this. I love that today the lesson is helping me to continue that practice. I notice the first paragraph is in first person, and I decided to say the second paragraph in that way, too. It was more powerful and made more of an impact on my mind when I did this.

I invite you to join me.

Today I let no ego thoughts direct my words or actions. When such thoughts occur, I quietly step back and look at them, and then I let them go. I do not want what they would bring with them. And so I do not choose to keep them. They are silent now. And in the stillness, hallowed by His Love, God speaks to me and tells me of my will, as I have chosen to remember Him. (It gives me chills to say that God speaks to me in the stillness hallowed by His Love.)

Next, I say this the way it was written, knowing that all around the world, there are my brothers and sisters saying it with me. We share this, and it increases exponentially in power. Again, I get chills thinking about this. Together, you and I and all our fellow students join in the prayer for God’s Voice alone to speak to us and guide us and heal us.

The following is from a past journal.

In this lesson, we commit to not letting ego thoughts direct us. I am ready for that commitment as I have been working toward this for a long time. I am so much closer to this being true for me. He says this: “When such thoughts occur, we quietly step back and look at them, and then we let them go.” This tells me two things. One is that I am going to have ego thoughts in my awareness, and two, that I can let them go. This letting go is something that I have focused on for a few days now.

I will notice that I feel sad or guilty or fearful, and I consider the thoughts I was having. Those thoughts cause the feeling, and I don’t have to keep thinking them. I look at them, and then I let them go. I haven’t reached the stage in my healing where I can be silent without thoughts for very long, but I can choose not to stay with dark thoughts. Sometimes I still think about something that could go wrong, a grievance, or a past upset. When that happens, I stop thinking about it. Why should I waste my time thinking about things that don’t make me happy?

I used to feel compelled to think about the scary stuff.

Things like what if I retire and a hurricane damages my house, and I don’t have the money to fix it? Then I would get scared about retiring. And probably I would worry about having enough insurance and what if I can’t afford the insurance. I would spend time planning for these disasters, and before you know it, I was all into being a victim and feeling sorry for myself, thinking I would have to work till I died. Let’s see; I am not a victim of the world I see; I will make no plans by myself; I will make no decisions on my own. Ha! All my rules for a happy life, right down the drain.

One day, I just decided to stop doing this.

I will see some ego thought arising in my mind, and I will decide not to continue it. Mostly, this is pretty easy. Very quickly, I acknowledge the thought, look at it with Holy Spirit, and then choose to think of something else. If I need to, I think true thoughts for a while as I get my head on straight. I do have times when it is not as easy. For instance, if my child is sick or endangered in some way, I notice it is much harder.

But I also see that it is still possible. I ask the Holy Spirit for help and I still my mind. Now I rest in God and am in peace. I allow myself to be aware of the true thoughts that are in my mind. If the thoughts pop back up, I just do it again. I don’t want what they bring with them, so I don’t choose to keep them. It is taking practice, but it is time well spent. I am so much happier now than I used to be.

This is from another journal from the past.

In The Way of Mastery, Jeshua said that I live no ordinary moments. This morning I was very aware of this. I was getting ready for work, watching my time closely so that I would have time for my journaling, and realized I needed something from my car. That was when I realized that I didn’t know where my keys were.

I looked everywhere and couldn’t find them. I thought I might have left them in my car, which would not be good, or even dropped them where someone could find them. All you would have to do to match them to the car would be to push the button and wait for the beep. So I checked to be sure the car was in the hotel parking lot, and it was.

Using my time like this was making me anxious.

I was aware that I was using up time looking for the keys I could have used to do my journaling. I knew that if I had to call for another key, it would completely screw up my schedule for the entire month as it was very tightly packed with no room for rescheduling. And yet, the whole time this happened, I watched my thoughts with the Holy Spirit. This was no ordinary moment; it was an opportunity to stay asleep or to wake up. I chose to use it for my awakening by using it to remember to listen to Holy Spirit rather than ego.

I found my keys and did this journaling. Of course, I would eventually have done all of this even if I had listened to the ego, but it would not have been as peaceful and would probably have been a more protracted situation because I would have been too upset to think straight. And, because I gave it my willingness, my willingness is now stronger. I won’t say that the ego was silent in my mind, but I didn’t listen to it, choosing to listen to the Holy Spirit instead.

To enjoy the Pathways of Light Insights on ACIM Lesson 254 click here.

If you found this content helpful, please share on social media so more people can read and learn.