ACIM Workbook Daily Lesson 228, Year 2022

ACIM Daily Lesson 228 God has condemned me not. No more do I.

Lesson 228

God has condemned me not. No more do I.

1. My Father knows my holiness. ²Shall I deny His knowledge, and believe in what His knowledge makes impossible? ³Shall I accept as true what He proclaims as false? ⁴Or shall I take His Word for what I am, since He is my Creator, and the One Who knows the true condition of His Son?

2. Father, I was mistaken in myself, because I failed to realize the Source from which I came. ²I have not left that Source to enter in a body and to die. ³My holiness remains a part of me, as I am part of You. ⁴And my mistakes about myself are dreams. ⁵I let them go today. ⁶And I stand ready to receive Your Word alone for what I really am.

I am not the story of Myron.

But it is easy in the world to condemn myself. I can find all sorts of faults and past behaviors in which I seem to be guilty, but this is not who I am. This story of Myron is not who I am. It is just a story formed by thoughts within the mind, and I am here to undo as many of those beliefs as I can. When I get caught up in some part of the story, I remind myself of this, and it helps me detach enough to remember the truth.

This is how I forgive the world and thus do my part to undo it. Yes, we made the world, and yes, we choose to keep the world going in our minds, but God doesn’t condemn me, and neither will I. I will simply do my part to undo what we did now that I am ready to awaken from it. That the world appears real to me does not make it real. That I still sometimes feel like Myron doesn’t make it true.

How could I be something God did not create? When I feel like Myron, it is like I exist in an obscuring fog. I feel heavy and lost. When I turn within and ask what am I, I feel like the fog cleared, and I am again light and happy. The ego is within, and so is my Holy Spirit, and it is up to me which I turn to, but always, only Spirit is real. Identifying with the body is depressing. Identifying with Spirit is uplifting and joyful. It is a simple and obvious choice. ⁶And I stand ready to receive Your Word alone for what I really am.

From What Is Forgiveness?

⁴It (unforgiveness) sets about its furious attempts to smash reality, without concern for anything that would appear to pose a contradiction to its point of view. 

This morning ego woke up and set about its furious attempt to smash reality. For a little while, I watched my mind frantically seeking someone or something to blame for this unsettled feeling. But I knew that this was not right. It felt like being caught in a huge spider web. I could see through it, but I was still caught in its sticky strands. Fortunately, I know how to extricate myself from ego thinking.

4. Forgiveness, on the other hand, is still, and quietly does nothing. ²It offends no aspect of reality, nor seeks to twist it to appearances it likes. ³It merely looks, and waits, and judges not.

As I turned to forgiveness, I felt my mind relax. I had the thought that I wanted to be free of ego, and that felt like I was fighting it, so instead, I looked and waited and did nothing. In the silence, I discovered another thought; I accept my freedom because it is mine to accept. The sticky strands of ego thinking melted away, and I saw that I was free.

God created me and knows me.

I am going to take His Word for what I am, and His Word is that I am exactly as He created me. I cannot be this body, however much I feel as if I am. Because this body is having some physical issues, I have been distracted by the body. But I know that while this is my experience right now, it is not what I am. 

This is why meditation is so important. I look forward to practicing focusing on my Self as opposed to the self. This self thinks it is at least in a body even though Jesus clearly says I am not in this body. I suppose it feels like I am in a body when my awareness is wholly focused on that experience, so shifting my focus to the idea of Self helps a lot. I don’t need convincing that I am as God created me, just time with that Self.  

Jesus says he will never ask us to do something we cannot do.

 This is why I am certain that I can know myself as I am in reality. I think or feel something that is not like God, but I then realize this can’t be true. The truth is, I am like God in every way, and nothing can change this. So, I let my condemning thoughts go to the Holy Spirit to be removed from my mind. It is simple, but I used to think it was hard. Now I see it is not hard, it just required vigilance and practice. 

This led to more peace and more certainty until a decision was made never again to compromise, always to choose the truth over the ego false claims. I still practice with this, but I am practicing from a place of greater freedom and joy and certainty. I cannot fail because I am not making myself anything; I am just becoming willing to remember the truth that never stopped being true. 

Like yesterday, I decided to see look at past journaling this morning.

I wanted to see how this felt in the past, and it was interesting to see how I was led from fear and doubt through the various stages of understanding, to get to this place of complete dedication and trust. 

In this first journal, I see that I was learning to release self-condemnation. 

I guess this is a way of saying, once again, that I am as God created me. I think I put myself in a body and made a world unlike God in which to keep that body apart from Him. But I know in my deepest heart that this is not right. And I feel oh so guilty for my attempt to destroy the Oneness that is God. And so, I condemn myself. I see that self-condemnation symbolized in every part of my life. But I know that no matter what I think I fail at it is really about my rejection of God. 

How do I shake this off? If God does not condemn me, why should I? Holy Spirit, please help me to understand this differently. I get it on an intellectual level, but my intellect does not serve me here. It simply masks my doubt with all the right words. My heart still contracts at the thought of my “sin.” My intellect says that God did not abandon me, that I abandoned Him, and that this is not even possible as thoughts leave not their Source. But I feel abandoned, alone in a world of a billion other alone bodies. It feels like I have been abandoned by my God. 

I need to turn to the Holy Spirit for help.

Holy Spirit, I know all the right words. I don’t want words and intellectual reasonings. I can’t think of anything more symbolic of the ego than just saying all the right words and trying to change my mind through reason. What I want is to let go of the ego thought of separation from You. I want to slough off the ego thought of unworthiness and condemnation. I want to believe in my Self, or at least when I am unable to believe in my Self, to be able to return to the truth easily and quickly. 

Holy Spirit responded to my call.

My dear friend, do you feel like someone in a fight with yourself, and if you are fighting yourself, who do you think will win? Surrender the fight. Surrender the struggle. You are sloughing off the ego identity every day. Every day you feel less like the ego and more like your true Self. 

The thought in your mind that wants to be separate and autonomous is in resistance, but it is just a small thought in the vastness of your holy mind. It is nothing to fear and nothing to fight. Surrender. Surrender to the truth. Remember that you are loved, you are loving, and you are Love. Let the struggle and the fight go out of you and allow the gentle arms of Love to wrap around your holy Self. Relax into the Truth. We surround you with love and support and wait patiently for you to accept all the help you are offered. Will you accept the Love of God now? Do you see how easy this is? Merely stop wrestling with yourself, surrender to Love, and allow us to support you. 

I have so much gratitude for His help.

Holy Spirit, it is like my mind has cleared of heavy fog. I feel my heart lift and lighten, and I am ready to see through the eyes of love. And I feel silly about my fears and self-condemnation. I don’t even know where they came from. Well, of course, they came from the little ego thought in my mind. As ego thinking comes into my mind, I will stop trying to stick it back into the recesses where I can pretend it doesn’t exist. Because what is happening is that every so often, it escapes, and I get a surprise attack that knocks me down. 

I am going to be more vigilant about these thoughts and fully willing to look at them with You and allow them to be corrected. I am willing to forgive myself for my foray into fear and egoic thinking and behavior. Self-loathing and fear have taken up residence in my mind, and I forgive myself for that. I tried to be rid of it by projecting it onto someone else, and it didn’t work because I am too aware to fool myself with that ploy for very long. For this, I am grateful, and I forgive myself for trying. I rest in forgiveness and gratitude. I rest my mind in You Who love me and guide me. 

In this next journal, I was led to The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament.

It is very interesting to me that the last time I wrote in this journal, I was wrestling with some stubborn fear thoughts because this time, I am doing the same thing. I found extra help this time in The Holy Spirit’s Interpretation of the New Testament. I was feeling very frustrated that I could not seem to surrender certain mistaken beliefs. So I picked up NTI and asked the Holy Spirit to guide me to something helpful. 

He guided me to NTI Matthew 25. The first thing I read was: 

But fear is an illusion 

and all illusions can be overcome. 

This is perfect!

I knew right away that I had been guided to the section that would be most helpful to me. This is an interpretation of a section in the Bible that talks about sheep and goats. In NTI, the Holy Spirit explains that the sheep represent the thoughts of God; love, oneness, sharing, peace, and joy. The goats are representative of the separation thoughts in the mind, and He tells us that they are both in our minds. 

The Holy Spirit says that we believe the illusion is real when we listen to the goats. He says, “What you believe shall be your experience, and so your mind will seem to be but a herd of goats.” Later he tells me that if I ask for His help, we will sort through the herd together and separate the sheep from the goats. 

It hit just the right note for me.

 It felt light, easy, and even comical. I had been wrestling with myself for the whole weekend and had started taking it all too seriously. I needed to lighten up, and when I did, I felt light, and my mind was lighted. Thank you, Holy Spirit. As I noticed ego thoughts all day long, I visualized herding that goat into the pen, and I had to laugh. What a great, lighthearted way to do the work. 

In this journal, I was learning that guilt and fear are just concepts.

Well, this is funny because again, I find myself looking at a persistent fear thought. For a couple of days, it felt heavy and burdensome, but today I understand that this thought is coming up in different ways so that I can see it and let the light of truth shine it away. At first, I completely bought into the ego belief that even having the thought in my mind was a sin and that it meant I was not saved and evidently never would be. This thought, believed, led to fear, which made the lie feel more real and more serious.

Clearly, this was not right even though I was feeling it.

I stayed with the Holy Spirit on it and kept asking for healing and another way to see it. I began to let it go, but it was not immediate. It felt stubborn and as hard to remove as ink on white linen. I kept returning to the thought and felt like I was indeed wrestling with myself. I felt like I had finally won the fight, but this morning I noticed that another similar thought on the same subject arose in my mind, but this time I remembered that the thought does not define me. It is just a thought. I looked at it and saw that it was not a true thought. End of story. 

I could have done that from the first moment I noticed that thought. But I became entangled in the ego belief that having the thought in my mind somehow made me guilty. Now it was not just a thought to examine, but it was a confusion of self-condemnation and guilt added to a wrong-minded thought. This is what made it feel like a big deal and difficult to let go. To extract my mind from this, I had to relax around the belief and see it as an opportunity to forgive what is in the mind rather than a condemnation of what is in the mind. 

This morning there was total clarity.

I could not be guilty. The other person could not be guilty. Guilt is just something made up, part of the ego illusion of separation. In the real world, there is no guilt at all; it is inconceivable. There is no one to forgive because there is nothing to forgive, not ever. The ego-mind keeps throwing out different circumstances to entice me back into the story, but the truth is not to be found in the story. 

The story was designed to draw me away from the truth. Each time the story returned to mind, I looked away from it and back to the truth. What shall I believe, the ego or truth? Looking at the story to tell me what I am is the same as asking the ego what I am. The ego story says everyone is guilty of something. The Holy Spirit doesn’t show me how each person can be seen as innocent. He shows me that guilt does not exist, so everyone is innocent. 

Contemplation 2025

To enjoy the Pathways of Light Insights on ACIM Lesson 228 click here.

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