Lesson 109
I rest in God.
1. We ask for rest today, and quietness unshaken by the world’s appearances. ²We ask for peace and stillness, in the midst of all the turmoil born of clashing dreams. ³We ask for safety and for happiness, although we seem to look on danger and on sorrow. ⁴And we have the thought that will answer our asking with what we request.
It’s easy to fall into a story of danger and turmoil even if nothing frightening is happening right now. We read the headlines of catastrophe to come and of catastrophe that has happened elsewhere and realize it might happen to us next. These thoughts can take us out of reality and into the illusion if we place our focus there. Instead, let us place our awareness on our Self and on our Creator as we simply rest in God for a while each day.
2. “I rest in God.” ²This thought will bring to you the rest and quiet, peace and stillness, and the safety and the happiness you seek. ³“I rest in God.” ⁴This thought has power to wake the sleeping truth in you, whose vision sees beyond appearances to that same truth in everyone and everything there is. ⁵Here is the end of suffering for all the world, and everyone who ever came and yet will come to linger for a while. ⁶Here is the thought in which the Son of God is born again, to recognize himself.
The reason we become anxious or angry is the same; we have forgotten Who We are. In this dream of separation, that is easy to do. The world is the effect of our desire to separate. This is why we need this respite each day, a time of remembering, a time of healing. Perhaps you might like to combine this time today with yesterday’s lesson. I did. I began my first practice by offering this to everyone. I envisioned one person in particular to represent all and imagined us taking time to rest in God. I imagined every cell in our bodies relaxing and resting in God as our minds rested There.
3. “I rest in God.” ²Completely undismayed, this thought will carry you through storms and strife, past misery and pain, past loss and death, and onward to the certainty of God. ³There is no suffering it cannot heal. ⁴There is no problem that it cannot solve. ⁵And no appearance but will turn to truth before the eyes of you who rest in God.
Have you ever wished you had a magic wand that would fix all this is causing you pain and suffering? You don’t need one. Rest in God and move through and past the world of illusions. Remember Who You are. Let this remembrance fill your mind. Remember the truth and allow all problems to be solved. Don’t think about this or try to figure it out, just do it.
4. This is the day of peace. ²You rest in God, and while the world is torn by winds of hate your rest remains completely undisturbed. ³Yours is the rest of truth. ⁴Appearances cannot intrude on you. ⁵You call to all to join you in your rest, and they will hear and come to you because you rest in God. ⁶They will not hear another voice than yours because you gave your voice to God, and now you rest in Him and let Him speak through you.
Those I call to rest with me in God will hear me because God speaks through me. In this state of rest, there is nothing that can disturb us because all that disturbs are just appearances not reality. In rest, we are past appearances and in truth.
5. In Him you have no cares and no concerns, no burdens, no anxiety, no pain, no fear of future and no past regrets. ²In timelessness you rest, while time goes by without its touch upon you, for your rest can never change in any way at all. ³You rest today. ⁴And as you close your eyes, sink into stillness. ⁵Let these periods of rest and respite reassure your mind that all its frantic fantasies were but the dreams of fever that has passed away. ⁶Let it be still and thankfully accept its healing. ⁷No more fearful dreams will come, now that you rest in God. ⁸Take time today to slip away from dreams and into peace.
After reading each paragraph, I stop and rest in God. What seems to happen is that after a couple of minutes, the body calls to me. It has an ache here, a need for water, an itch. Of course, the body cannot call me because the body is simply a neutral event onto which I project my desires. To my dismay, I realize I desire to be called away from my rest in God, but then I also realize that I am experiencing this meditation from the perspective of the ego thought system and this is not me. I change my mind and I sink back into rest.
6. Each hour that you take your rest today, a tired mind is suddenly made glad, a bird with broken wings begins to sing, a stream long dry begins to flow again. ²The world is born again each time you rest, and hourly remember that you came to bring the peace of God into the world, that it might take its rest along with you.
Thank you, Brother, for the reminder of my purpose. I came to bring peace to the world. When I forget my purpose, I forget who I am. I forget that this is all a dream. I forget that I am perfectly safe and always as God created me. My remembrance is not just for me, it is for all the Sonship, that each of us might be called to our purpose. All those who are ready to hear this call will receive it, and all those not yet ready, become closer to readiness. One mind resting in God blesses all minds.
7. With each five minutes that you rest today, the world is nearer waking. ²And the time when rest will be the only thing there is comes closer to all worn and tired minds, too weary now to go their way alone. ³And they will hear the bird begin to sing and see the stream begin to flow again, with hope reborn and energy restored to walk with lightened steps along the road that suddenly seems easy as they go.
I let my mind imagine a world at rest in God, restored to beauty and perfection, each one caring deeply for every other one knowing they are all part of each other. Every one treating each other and the earth itself with love, respect, with kindness, and in joy at simply existing with and in each other. It begins with me and with each of us; it begins with these simple practices. I pay attention to my part because my part is essential to the whole.
8. You rest within the peace of God today, and call upon your brothers from your rest to draw them to their rest, along with you. ²You will be faithful to your trust today, forgetting no one, bringing everyone into the boundless circle of your peace, the holy sanctuary where you rest. ³Open the temple doors and let them come from far across the world, and near as well; your distant brothers and your closest friends; bid them all enter here and rest with you.
As sometimes happens when I read our Brother’s precious words, I cry. And as I rest in God in this holy sanctuary, opening the temple doors to everyone, I see them entering. Some seem ragged and exhausted from dreams of being alone and afraid. I see their heads raised to the beauty around them, their eyes beginning to fill with hope. And I cry some more.
I see how fear has darkened some of their hearts and left them bereft of joy. I cry because I have felt all these things myself and I know how awful it is to forget Love. I renew my commitment to my purpose and my mind clears and God’s Voice speaks through me again as we all feel the relief of resting in God.
9. You rest within the peace of God today, quiet and unafraid. ²Each brother comes to take his rest, and offer it to you. ³We rest together here, for thus our rest is made complete, and what we give today we have received already. ⁴Time is not the guardian of what we give today. ⁵We give to those unborn and those passed by, to every Thought of God, and to the Mind in which these Thoughts were born and where they rest. ⁶And we remind them of their resting place each time we tell ourselves, “I rest in God.”
We are one and what we give we have received. We give to all, as Jesus says to those unborn and those passed by. There is no past and future in God, there is only now and all are here now in this temple of rest. May we remember the value of our hourly practice this day. If you cannot carve out five minutes, give what you can remembering how important it is that your part be accomplished.