ACIM Daily Workbook Lesson 47, Year 2020

ACIM Lesson 47 God is the strength in which I trust.

ACIM Daily Lesson 47

God is the strength in which I trust.

1. If you are trusting in your own strength, you have every reason to be apprehensive, anxious and fearful. ²What can you predict or control? ³What is there in you that can be counted on? ⁴What would give you the ability to be aware of all the facets of any problem, and to resolve them in such a way that only good can come of it? ⁵What is there in you that gives you the recognition of the right solution, and the guarantee that it will be accomplished?

2. Of yourself you can do none of these things. ²To believe that you can is to put your trust where trust is unwarranted, and to justify fear, anxiety, depression, anger and sorrow. ³Who can put his faith in weakness and feel safe? ⁴Yet who can put his faith in strength and feel weak?

When we are directing our questions to the ego-mind, we are misplacing our trust. The ego is not interested in our happiness and cannot give us anything that is true or that is a real solution. The ego always leads us into fear, anxiety, depression, anger, and sorrow. If I experience any of these effects, I know that I have turned to the ego for guidance and so I change my mind.

Switching Allegiance

3. God is your safety in every circumstance. ²His Voice speaks for Him in all situations and in every aspect of all situations, telling you exactly what to do to call upon His strength and His protection. ³There are no exceptions because God has no exceptions. ⁴And the Voice which speaks for Him thinks as He does.

The point of this lesson is to help us switch our allegiance from the ego to the Holy Spirit and to assure us that He will respond to our call. Here is an example of how I went from listening to the ego to listening to the Holy Spirit instead. My mom died of Alzheimer’s Disease as did her sister. Her mother also had some form of dementia. I was really afraid of that happening to me. Watching Alzheimer’s devastating effects up close as it ravaged my mom’s mind made my fear worse.

I was asking the ego how to see this situation and it brought fear and anxiety. It felt hopeless to me but I scoured the internet for ways to avoid it. I even thought about suicide if I started noticing signs. The more I did these things, the worse the fear became. This is how the ego “helps” when we use that thought system to guide our thoughts and actions.

Finding a Solution

Eventually, I realized what I was doing and I pulled myself out of that kind of thinking. I began looking at each dark thought with the Holy Spirit asking for the miracle to undo these thoughts. It took a while but trusting in the strength of God I was able to let go of my fear-driven thoughts. The truth began to come back into my mind as I followed the logic of the Course.

²There is no world! ³This is the central thought the course attempts to teach. (ACIM, W-132.6:2-3). Since there is no world outside our minds, there are no bodies. At no single instant does the body exist at all. (ACIM, T-18.VII.3:1). Since the body does not exist, I cannot be in the body. The Christ in you inhabits not a body. ²Yet He is in you. ³And thus it must be that you are not within a body. (ACIM, T-25.in.1:1-3) This means that I am eternally safe in the Mind of God. I no longer worry about this possibility. If this is the way the story of Myron goes, then it does. If I continue to choose the Holy Spirit consistently, my dream will be a happy one no matter what happens.

The Practice

4. Today we will try to reach past your own weakness to the Source of real strength. ²Four five-minute practice periods are necessary today, and longer and more frequent ones are urged. ³Close your eyes and begin, as usual, by repeating the idea for the day. ⁴Then spend a minute or two in searching for situations in your life which you have invested with fear, dismissing each one by telling yourself:

⁵God is the strength in which I trust.

When I first did these lessons, I felt an enormous sense of relief when I would say that God is the strength in which I trust. But it would be a while before I understood the power of this belief. First, I had to break the habit of trusting the ego solutions. Secondly, I had to lean into the strength of God many times before I learned to trust it. Sometimes it seemed not work and I would become discouraged. But eventually, I came to realize that God always works, it was my mind that was variable. This can be frustrating but consistent practice makes it easier.

Gaining Confidence

5. Now try to slip past all concerns related to your own sense of inadequacy. ²It is obvious that any situation that causes you concern is associated with feelings of inadequacy, for otherwise you would believe that you could deal with the situation successfully. ³It is not by trusting yourself that you will gain confidence. ⁴But the strength of God in you is successful in all things.

6. The recognition of your own frailty is a necessary step in the correction of your errors, but it is hardly a sufficient one in giving you the confidence which you need, and to which you are entitled. ²You must also gain an awareness that confidence in your real strength is fully justified in every respect and in all circumstances.

I never think that I (as my ego) is sufficient to solve all problems or any problems, really. It is a hard habit to break and sometimes I fall back into it to my regret. But I just shrug it off and return to trusting God. One of the problems I can encounter is the confusion that comes with wanting a particular outcome. The truth is, I don’t know what outcome is best. How could I? I don’t have enough information to make that determination. So when I feel confused about what is the Voice for God and what is the ego voice in my head, I pause. I let myself trust the outcome to the Holy Spirit and then the next step becomes clear.

This is the sentence that stands out to me in this lesson: ²You must also gain an awareness that confidence in your real strength is fully justified in every respect and in all circumstances. It is those words, “in every respect and in all circumstances” that grab my attention. I try never to keep some part of my life separate from God to deal with on my own. Watching my mind for that kind of thinking helps me to quickly choose again. I have learned to trust in the strength of God through this practice.

Finding the Place of Peace

7. In the latter phase of the practice period, try to reach down into your mind to a place of real safety. ²You will recognize that you have reached it if you feel a sense of deep peace, however briefly. ³Let go all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind, and reach down and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven. ⁴There is a place in you where there is perfect peace. ⁵There is a place in you where nothing is impossible. ⁶There is a place in you where the strength of God abides.

Sometimes I have problems with these meditations. My undisciplined mind doesn’t want to stop thinking. But this is one that I can fall into easily. I can do this in minutes when I pause to allow it. There is a place in me where there is perfect peace. I know because I dwell there more and more often. That there is a place in me where nothing is impossible is becoming true for me. It does so as I practice choosing the strength of God in me.

The Peace of God is Your Right

8. During the day, repeat the idea often. ²Use it as your answer to any disturbance. ³Remember that peace is your right, because you are giving your trust to the strength of God.

I have a problem right now, a time issue, and I have absolutely no idea what to do about it. Thinking about it, I start to feel the tension in my body and I have to laugh. This is just the ego-mind searching frantically for the solution and not finding it. I let it go and just do the next thing. And somehow it all works out. The only time there is a problem is when I let my mind start to wander into future thinking. But I don’t stay there. I trust in the strength of God to solve this problem as well.  

To enjoy the Pathways of Light Insights on ACIM Lesson 47 click here.

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