ACIM Workbook Daily Lesson 188, Year 2022

ACIM Daily Lesson 188 The peace of God is shining in me now.

Lesson 188

The peace of God is shining in me now.

1. Why wait for Heaven? ²Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes. ³The light is in them now. ⁴Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all. ⁵Light is not of the world, yet you who bear the light in you are alien here as well. ⁶The light came with you from your native home, and stayed with you because it is your own. ⁷It is the only thing you bring with you from Him Who is your Source. ⁸It shines in you because it lights your home, and leads you back to where it came from and you are at home.

The peace of God is a light in my mind that I brought with me to this world from my Source. Because it is in my mind, I cannot be without it. That I don’t always see it, means that I have closed my eyes to it. I make a choice for sight each time I remind myself of the truth and decide for God. There is nothing I can do or say or think that can eliminate this light. It is what I am. It leads me back Home as I take notice of it.

Look Within

2. This light can not be lost. ²Why wait to find it in the future, or believe it has been lost already, or was never there? ³It can so easily be looked upon that arguments which prove it is not there become ridiculous. ⁴Who can deny the presence of what he beholds in him? ⁵It is not difficult to look within, for there all vision starts. ⁶There is no sight, be it of dreams or from a truer Source, that is not but the shadow of the seen through inward vision. ⁷There perception starts, and there it ends. ⁸It has no source but this.

For a long time, I would meditate and hope to see light and would not do so. I felt like I failed and that I was promised something that I could not have. It was so disappointing and discouraging. But what I understand now is that the light is the light of understanding. I do understand and what I don’t understand, I ask and am answered.

Who do I ask? I ask the Holy Spirit. He is the Answer and He is part of me, created for me and placed in my mind. I cannot lose this Answer, nor fail to find it when I do truly want it. It is the Light that guides me Home. Looking within I watch my thoughts for errors, and the Holy Spirit corrects them. I do this instead of looking outward for a solution. This allows the light to shine ever brighter.

The Shining in Your Mind

3. The peace of God is shining in you now, and from your heart extends around the world. ²It pauses to caress each living thing, and leaves a blessing with it that remains forever and forever. ³What it gives must be eternal. ⁴It removes all thoughts of the ephemeral and valueless. ⁵It brings renewal to all tired hearts, and lights all vision as it passes by. ⁶All of its gifts are given everyone, and everyone unites in giving thanks to you who give, and you who have received.

4. The shining in your mind reminds the world of what it has forgotten, and the world restores the memory to you as well. ²From you salvation radiates with gifts beyond all measure, given and returned. ³To you, the giver of the gift, does God Himself give thanks. ⁴And in His blessing does the light in you shine brighter, adding to the gifts you have to offer to the world.

Enlightenment

“The shining in your mind reminds the world of what it has forgotten, and the world restores the memory to you as well.”

This reminds me that what I give is given back to me. As it said to us in Lesson 187, “The truth maintains that giving will increase what you possess.” I give peace to the world and the world returns it to me. I always receive more than I give. And what is given from the heart extends without my direction or effort and it is eternal.

The peace of God that is shining in me now is synonymous with Enlightenment. When I accept it and allow it, I will know that I am enlightened. This is why Jesus can say that it removes all thoughts of the ephemeral and valueless. What I see is that Regina’s instructions to be enlightened now make perfect sense. She said being enlightened now has nothing to do with pretending you are awake. 

It is actually the only honest thing we do here. Our mind is enlightened and everything that seems to deny this is a lie. And how about this thought: ³To you, the giver of the gift, does God Himself give thanks. Thinking of this brings tears of gratitude and happiness to me.

The Peace of God Shines in all Living Things

5. The peace of God can never be contained. ²Who recognizes it within himself must give it. ³And the means for giving it are in his understanding. ⁴He forgives because he recognized the truth in him. ⁵The peace of God is shining in you now, and in all living things. ⁶In quietness is it acknowledged universally. ⁷For what your inward vision looks upon is your perception of the universe.

The way I give the peace of God is through forgiveness. I forgive the world I made so that it will disappear. I forgive the thoughts of anger and fear that come toward me or that I send out. And I forgive the darkness in my mind, the belief in pain and suffering, the fear of lack and loss, the belief in victimhood and all other forms of darkness. In the place of these ideas that I forgive, there is light in the mind, and that light shows me a world of light.

Let Your Thoughts Fly to Peace

6. Sit quietly and close your eyes. ²The light within you is sufficient. ³It alone has power to give the gift of sight to you. ⁴Exclude the outer world, and let your thoughts fly to the peace within. ⁵They know the way. ⁶For honest thoughts, untainted by the dream of worldly things outside yourself, become the holy messengers of God Himself.

We are told that the way to see (Vision) is to go within. This is the reason that it is important and necessary to spend time in meditation. Jesus encourages us in this as through the daily lessons, he brings us along slowly increasing the amount of time we spend meditating on the lesson. In one lesson, he says go inward and find God. Every time I think about that it takes my breath away. Where is God? In me. Of course, the peace of God is shining in me now.

This is what I do if my mind is temporarily darkened with ego thoughts. I don’t run around in the world trying to make things all better. I don’t look for someone to agree with me. Instead, I close my eyes to the world and I go within for the answer. I don’t speak or act until my mind is clear and in that way my words and my actions are a blessing. And so, I become a messenger of God. If I make a mistake, I forgive it and try again.

Accept His Word for what You Are

7. These thoughts you think with Him. ²They recognize their home. ³And they point surely to their Source, Where God the Father and the Son are one. ⁴God’s peace is shining on them, but they must remain with you as well, for they were born within your mind, as yours was born in God’s. ⁵They lead you back to peace, from where they came but to remind you how you must return.

8. They heed your Father’s Voice when you refuse to listen. ²And they urge you gently to accept His Word for what you are, instead of fantasies and shadows. ³They remind you that you are the co-creator of all things that live. ⁴For as the peace of God is shining in you, it must shine on them.

Words Are Symbols

When I take my attention away from worldly thoughts, the thoughts in my mind are not accompanied by words. That makes sense because words are part of the illusion, symbols representing the thought. I can try to put words to the experience, but the best attempt is a poor job. The closest I can come is to say that I am finally at peace and that hardly describes it but will have to do.

Jesus tells us is that these thoughts will lead us back to God. I can speak of this with more confidence than when I am talking about meditation. I hear this Voice when it seems to come as thoughts with words and just as clearly when there are no words. As I am aware of His message, I am guided to say or do the thing that helps. I recognize it as the urge to move toward light instead of darkness.

We Are Creation

As a result, I can no longer believe the thoughts that say I am guilty and lost. I no longer believe the thoughts that say I made a terrible mistake and there is no way to come back from it. Yes, I still hear those ideas in my mind, and maybe for a moment I will feel a sense of contraction. But then the other Voice calls me back to reality. I feel an affinity for that Voice now and always move toward it.

We are creation. All things that are created are born in our mind and in God’s Mind. It is the same mind. All thoughts we have thought with God remain in our mind because thoughts leave not their source. They will lead us back to peace as we are ready to return our awareness to God. We are co-creators with God and His peace is shining in us right now even as we dream of being separate from Him.

We Practice Coming Nearer

9. We practice coming nearer to the light in us today. ²We take our wandering thoughts, and gently bring them back to where they fall in line with all the thoughts we share with God. ³We will not let them stray. ⁴We let the light within our minds direct them to come home. ⁵We have betrayed them, ordering that they depart from us. ⁶But now we call them back, and wash them clean of strange desires and disordered wishes. ⁷We restore to them the holiness of their inheritance.

Our Minds Restored

10. Thus are our minds restored with them, and we acknowledge that the peace of God still shines in us, and from us to all living things that share our life. ²We will forgive them all, absolving all the world from what we thought it did to us. ³For it is we who make the world as we would have it. ⁴Now we choose that it be innocent, devoid of sin and open to salvation. ⁵And we lay our saving blessing on it, as we say:

⁶The peace of God is shining in me now.
⁷Let all things shine upon me in that peace, and let me bless them with the light in me.

I Choose Where to Place My Attention

I practice this disciplining of my thoughts all the time now. It is easy because I understand that it is my choice where I place my attention. When I notice that my thoughts have strayed, I just shift my attention to what is actually happening. And if I need a word or a thought to help me, the Voice gives it to me and soon my mind has fallen in line with God again. It has taken some practice to master this, but it is easier than I would have thought. I want to remember what it is like to think only with God. I know I have to come back to the world for a while, but this vacation from it makes it easier to fulfill my purpose while I am here.

From My Past Journal

We take our wandering thoughts, and gently bring them back to where they fall in line with all the thoughts we share with God.

Often in the mornings when I first wake up, I am aware of the chatter in the mind. It is especially active at that time and I didn’t think much of it. When I noticed it, I would reign it in but I didn’t think of it past that. This morning, the Holy Spirit asked me to look at it with him and this is what I did.

What surprised me is that I had not done this before. I suppose I had fallen into the habit of being much too tolerant of my mind wandering. At least at this one time of the day this is so. What I saw when I looked with the Holy Spirit were attack thoughts. As I would try to grab hold of one it would slip away. So, I asked the Holy Spirit to show me them clearly.

A Big Ask

The one he wanted me to look at came into focus. Someone dear to me has been in trouble and was looking to me to bail him out and not for the first time. I followed that thought, giving it words and realized I was uncomfortable with the ask. As I let the thought become words, I also realized that I was blaming him for my discomfort, as if he was holding a gun on me as he made the demands.

So, I released that thought since I know that my feelings are never caused by anyone or anything else. I accepted responsibility for how I felt. I then let myself feel what was beneath the desire to project. The feelings were of being attacked by his ask and fear of rejection if I said no. There was also fear I would make the wrong choice. I saw I didn’t trust my ability to discern what was best to do.

I Saw the Error and the Correction

Once I had looked at all the feelings and the thoughts that sourced those feelings, I asked the Holy Spirit to heal my mind and show me another way to see this. I happily stepped back from dealing with this with the ego and waited for direction from the Holy Spirit. Immediately, I saw the next error. There was nothing for me to do because nothing was happening. All my previous distress was over something that might happen in the future. This brought me back to living in the present moment rather than planning for an unknown future with the ego as my guide.

“Holy Spirit, I am so grateful for your help with this. Please continue to show me the buried beliefs in my mind. I am ready to face them now. I trust You with the timing because You know me better than I do.”

Holy Spirit always answers these requests and things are different now. My mind does want to wander when I first wake up but I am more aware and easily forgive the thoughts that show up. As well, the situation with the loved one who thought he needed me to bail him out was resolved lovingly and permanently, and in a way that healed us both.

Contemplation 2025

To enjoy the Pathways of Light Insights on ACIM Lesson 188 click here.

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