ACIM Workbook Daily Lesson 70, Year 2022

ACIM Daily Lesson 70 My salvation comes from me.

My salvation comes from me.

ACIM Daily Lesson 70

Lesson 70

My salvation comes from me.

1. All temptation is nothing more than some form of the basic temptation not to believe the idea for today. ²Salvation seems to come from anywhere except from you. ³So, too, does the source of guilt. ⁴You see neither guilt nor salvation as in your own mind and nowhere else. ⁵When you realize that all guilt is solely an invention of your mind, you also realize that guilt and salvation must be in the same place. ⁶In understanding this you are saved.

The feeling of guilt can be very strong and this makes it seem like it must be real. Also, it is that we think we need guilt and that makes it seem hard to believe it is not real. We hear about someone doing something awful and we believe they must be guilty and that makes it hard to believe guilt is not real. But no matter how real it seems or how determined we are to believe in it, guilt is not real. We made it up. It seems to exist solely because we want it to and if that seems crazy, well, it is. The good news is that we can choose to stop believing in it.

You Are in Charge of the Universe

2. The seeming cost of accepting today’s idea is this: It means that nothing outside yourself can save you; nothing outside yourself can give you peace. ²But it also means that nothing outside yourself can hurt you, or disturb your peace or upset you in any way. ³Today’s idea places you in charge of the universe, where you belong because of what you are. ⁴This is not a role that can be partially accepted. ⁵And you must surely begin to see that accepting it is salvation.

Before I looked at the lesson, I read that the Russians had bombed a maternity hospital. Surely, they are guilty of this, the ego argues. But I don’t want guilt in my mind and so I turned away from that thought. I remembered that Putin is my brother and that his actions are going to result in intense guilt in his own mind. Maybe not in a way he is willing to acknowledge now, but it will be there and will sicken him. How can I help him? I can love him and remember who he is for him because he is temporarily lost.

Then the ego-mind thought about how heartless it is for me to be forgiving while all these people are suffering terribly. What of the mothers who have lost the infants they just gave birth to? Surely my heart should be broken. The ego wants to think of that and let those thoughts build anger and hatred. But how would that help the mothers or the infants? It would just create more guilt and fear and thus keep the awful cycle going. I am here to break the cycle and to do my part to free us from guilt, not to intensify the belief in it. ⁴This is not a role that can be partially accepted. I can’t make exceptions and still forgive.

God’s Purpose

3. It may not, however, be clear to you why the recognition that guilt is in your own mind entails the realization that salvation is there as well. ²God would not have put the remedy for the sickness where it cannot help. ³That is the way your mind has worked, but hardly His. ⁴He wants you to be healed, so He has kept the Source of healing where the need for healing lies.

4. You have tried to do just the opposite, making every attempt, however distorted and fantastic it might be, to separate healing from the sickness for which it was intended, and thus keep the sickness. ²Your purpose was to ensure that healing did not occur. ³God’s purpose was to ensure that it did.

The guilt that we made up has kept us from accepting the healing we all want. Guilt makes us afraid of God and so we have not wanted to heal since healing would awaken us to our place in Him. But God does not know guilt and does not know punishment. God is Love and only Love and there is no guilt in Love. We are an extension of God and so we are Love. Therefore, there cannot be guilt in us. It must be then, that we are dreaming of guilt. We can wake up from this dream.

Look Within for the Solution

Instead, in our fear and confusion, we have looked outside our own minds for the solution to our distress and for happiness. We have tried to find salvation in our relationships, our jobs, our status. It has not worked because we have been looking in the wrong direction. This is why Jesus is turning us inward, asking us to go past the dark thoughts in our mind to the Light that is at the center. This is our salvation and we will avoid it if we believe it is somewhere else.

Why do you think Putin is attacking Ukraine? He thinks that this is going to give him what he needs to be happy. It is just an extreme example of what we are all doing as we look for salvation where it is not to be found. As Jesus says: ²Your purpose was to ensure that healing did not occur. ³God’s purpose was to ensure that it did. We ensure healing will not occur when we look for relief outside our minds. Let us choose again, this time with our Father Who wants us to be happy. Let us look at where the solution is.

We Are in Agreement with God

5. Today we practice realizing that God’s Will and ours are really the same in this. ²God wants us to be healed, and we do not really want to be sick, because it makes us unhappy. ³Therefore, in accepting the idea for today, we are really in agreement with God. ⁴He does not want us to be sick. ⁵Neither do we. ⁶He wants us to be healed. ⁷So do we.

How could we not be healed since we are in agreement with God on this point? And, we are given the way to health. All we need to do is to practice the lessons with the intention of receiving what is offered.

Let Us Prepare for this Practice

6. We are ready for two longer practice periods today, each of which should last some ten to fifteen minutes. ²We will, however, still let you decide when to undertake them. ³We will follow this practice for a number of lessons, and it would again be well to decide in advance when would be a good time to lay aside for each of them, and then adhering to your own decisions as closely as possible.

7. Begin these practice periods by repeating the idea for today, adding a statement signifying your recognition that salvation comes from nothing outside of you. ²You might put it this way:

³My salvation comes from me. ⁴It cannot come from anywhere else.

⁵Then devote a few minutes, with your eyes closed, to reviewing some of the external places where you have looked for salvation in the past;—in other people, in possessions, in various situations and events, and in self-concepts that you sought to make real. ⁶Recognize that it is not there, and tell yourself:

⁷My salvation cannot come from any of these things. ⁸My salvation comes from me and only from me.

Let Us Try Again to Reach the Light

8. Now we will try again to reach the light in you, which is where your salvation is. ²You cannot find it in the clouds that surround the light, and it is in them you have been looking for it. ³It is not there. ⁴It is past the clouds and in the light beyond. ⁵Remember that you will have to go through the clouds before you can reach the light. ⁶But remember also that you have never found anything in the cloud patterns you imagined that endured, or that you wanted.

Those clouds represent the dark thoughts of the ego and we will not find our freedom in them. We must walk through them without letting those thoughts entice us into further thoughts. When I noticed a thought that interested me, I changed my mind and walked on past.

No Idle Fantasy

9. Since all illusions of salvation have failed you, surely you do not want to remain in the clouds, looking vainly for idols there, when you could so easily walk on into the light of real salvation. ²Try to pass the clouds by whatever means appeals to you. ³If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading you. ⁴And I assure you this will be no idle fantasy.

Oh, wow. Jesus is offering to take our hand and lead us through the clouds and to the light. That never fails to bring tears to my eyes when I read it. He is making it clear that this is not meant as symbolic when he assures us that it will be no idle fantasy. Thank you, Brother. I love you and appreciate you so much.

Our Short and Frequent Practice Periods

10. For the short and frequent practice periods today, remind yourself that your salvation comes from you, and nothing but your own thoughts can hamper your progress. ²You are free from all external interference. ³You are in charge of your salvation. ⁴You are in charge of the salvation of the world. ⁵Say, then:

⁶My salvation comes from me. ⁷Nothing outside of me can hold me back. ⁸Within me is the world’s salvation and my own.

In this last paragraph, Jesus reminds us that we are in charge of our own salvation. Nothing outside us can interfere. It is our own thoughts that lead us to salvation or hamper us according to what thoughts we choose to believe. I am no longer going to make choices that hurt me and keep me in hell. I am watching my mind for false thoughts and forgiving them immediately.

To enjoy the Pathways of Light Insights on ACIM Lesson 70 click here.

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