ACIM Lesson 289 The past is over. It can touch me not. Unless the past is over in my mind, the real world must escape my sight. ²For I am really looking nowhere; seeing but what is not there.
The past is over. It can touch me not.
1. Unless the past is over in my mind, the real world must escape my sight. ²For I am really looking nowhere; seeing but what is not there. ³How can I then perceive the world forgiveness offers? ⁴This the past was made to hide, for this the world that can be looked on only now. ⁵It has no past. ⁶For what can be forgiven but the past, and if it is forgiven it is gone.
2. Father, let me not look upon a past that is not there. ²For You have offered me Your Own replacement, in a present world the past has left untouched and free of sin. ³Here is the end of guilt. ⁴And here am I made ready for Your final step. ⁵Shall I demand that You wait longer for Your Son to find the loveliness You planned to be the end of all his dreams and all his pain?
Forgiving the Past
I practice forgiving the past as I forgive the belief that there was some value in judging my neighbor the other day. I forgive the thought that I am guilty of some transgression from my past. These are symbols of the belief that I have succeeded in separating myself from my Father and that I am guilty of doing so. These symbols of anger, hatred, jealousy, fear, pain, suffering of all kinds, and finally death, are the world we made up.
Where Is the Past?
It was made in the past and so exists only there and yet, there is no past. So where is the world except in our minds, held there by our desire to keep it? We keep the past going through memories of the impossible seeming to exist. There really is just that one problem and the solution is simple. I look with the Holy Spirit at the belief in a world separate from God and it is forgiven and therefore gone.
Begin with Specifics
It seems, though, that the mind needs to build up to the one solution and so I do as Jesus instructs. I begin with specifics, the thoughts, words, and behaviors that I imagine condemn me and others. I forgive them one at a time for a while as I instruct my mind to see differently. This different way of seeing is God’s replacement for what I have imagined. It is the present world the past has left untouched and free of sin. It is the end of guilt. Once this is done, I stand at the gates of Heaven and God takes the final step.
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