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.
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 means that I watch my thoughts for errors, and within my mind, the Holy Spirit corrects them. I do this instead of looking outward for a solution.
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.
The peace of God is shining in my mind and it radiates outward to bless everyone and everything. As it blesses others, I am blessed as well. Most of this is unknown to my conscious mind. Sometimes I witness the effects of my blessings and this is encouraging. But mostly, I don’t know who I bless or who accepts this blessing. That part is not my business. It is enough to know that we all benefit when anyone allows their light to shine. 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.
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.
I give the peace of God 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. 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.
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.
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. 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. I become a messenger of God. If I make a mistake, I forgive it and try again.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This light, the peace of God, is always in us and we will know this as we open our minds and hearts to it. I am vigilant for thoughts that obscure the light and quick to release them. I spend some time nearly every day leaving the thoughts of the world behind so that I can be free for at least a few minutes. 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.