Review IV: Introduction

REVIEW IV: Introduction

Now we review again, this time aware we are preparing for the second part of learning how the truth can be applied. Today we will begin to concentrate on readiness for what will follow next. Such is our aim for this review, and for the lessons following. Thus, we review the recent lessons and their central thoughts in such a way as will facilitate the readiness that we would now achieve.

There is a central theme that unifies each step in the review we undertake, which can be simply stated in these words:

 My mind holds only what I think with God.

That is a fact, and represents the truth of What you are and What your Father is. It is this thought by which the Father gave creation to the Son, establishing the Son as co-creator with Himself. It is this thought that fully guarantees salvation to the Son. For in his mind no thoughts can dwell but those his Father shares. Lack of forgiveness blocks this thought from his awareness. Yet it is forever true.

Let us begin our preparation with some understanding of the many forms in which the lack of true forgiveness may be carefully concealed. Because they are illusions, they are not perceived to be but what they are; defenses that protect your unforgiving thoughts from being seen and recognized. Their purpose is to show you something else, and hold correction off through self-deceptions made to take its place.

And yet, your mind holds only what you think with God. Your self-deceptions cannot take the place of truth. No more than can a child who throws a stick into the ocean change the coming and the going of the tides, the warming of the water by the sun, the silver of the moon on it by night. So do we start each practice period in this review with readying our minds to understand the lessons that we read, and see the meaning that they offer us.

Begin each day with time devoted to the preparation of your mind to learn what each idea you will review that day can offer you in freedom and in peace.  Open your mind, and clear it of all thoughts that would deceive, and let this thought alone engage it fully, and remove the rest:

My mind holds only what I think with God.

Five minutes with this thought will be enough to set the day along the lines which God appointed, and to place His Mind in charge of all the thoughts you will receive that day.

They will not come from you alone, for they will all be shared with Him. And so each one will bring the message of His Love to you, returning messages of yours to Him. So will communion with the Lord of Hosts be yours, as He Himself has willed it be. And as His Own completion joins with Him, so will He join with you who are complete as you unite with Him, and He with you.

After your preparation, merely read each of the two ideas assigned to you to be reviewed that day. Then close your eyes, and say them slowly to yourself. There is no hurry now, for you are using time for its intended purpose. Let each word shine with the meaning God has given it, as it was given to you through His Voice.

Let each idea which you review that day give you the gift that He has laid in it for you to have of Him. And we will use no format for our practicing but this:

Each hour of the day, bring to your mind the thought with which the day began, and spend a quiet moment with it. Then repeat the two ideas you practice for the day unhurriedly, with time enough to see the gifts that they contain for you, and let them be received where they were meant to be.

We add no other thoughts, but let these be the messages they are. We need no more than this to give us happiness and rest, and endless quiet, perfect certainty, and all our Father wills that we receive as the inheritance we have of Him. Each day of practicing, as we review, we close as we began, repeating first the thought that made the day a special time of blessing and of happiness for us; and through our faithfulness restored the world from darkness to the light, from grief to joy, from pain to peace, from sin to holiness.

God offers thanks to you who practice thus the keeping of His Word. And as you give your mind to the ideas for the day again before you sleep, His gratitude surrounds you in the peace wherein He wills you be forever, and are learning now to claim again as your inheritance.

Journal

Jesus says that this review is preparing us for the second part of learning how the truth can be applied. It is getting us ready for what comes next. I like the sound of that. It feels like graduating to the next level in school, this anticipation of what comes next. Because everything so far has turned my thought system completely upside down, it at first seemed hard.

But really, all I am learning is that I am not the body and personality that I thought I was. This is not my life. And these are not even my thoughts that I seem to think all day long. What Jesus wants me to focus on now is that none of this could be true because my mind holds only what I think with God. So if I seem to be thinking something that is clearly not what I would think with God, then I must not be thinking at all.

It doesn’t seem reasonable at first because I have given so much weight to this mind chatter, and I have told myself that the ego mind I made up is just as real as the mind I share with God. But in reality, the ego mind that is filled with false thoughts is not real. It is just a construct made for the purpose of experiencing something that is not possible.

My real mind holds only what I think with God. Clearly, this is my salvation. Yes, I have a made up mind, a way to allow the separation idea to play out, but I also have the mind I share with God, which is my true mind. They are both within me and that means I can become aware of my true mind anytime I want to.

What is it that is blocking my awareness? Guilt, fear and all its variants are what stands between me and the state of Heaven, of knowing the Mind of God. How do I remove those blocks? I remove them by understanding that they are not real and so it is possible to be free of them, and by wanting to be free. Then the Holy Spirit removes them for me. It is simple and straight forward, however difficult it might seem.

Guilt feeds on itself and creates fear which can paralyze. The ego mind makes it seem so terribly hard, so complicated. And yet, I don’t have to do anything to return to my God. I don’t have to learn to think differently. I don’t have to get rid of the ego thoughts.  I only have to desire to remember, because, in actuality, my mind holds only what I think with God.

The return is not about doing anything to be what I am. It is simply a matter of turning away from the belief that the dream is real, and that I want to keep dreaming it. In that moment, reality comes rushing in and I am that I am. I look forward to this review, to sitting in quiet and allowing the Word of God to do its healing work in my mind.