Our Beliefs Are Holding Us Hostage: Forgiveness Frees Us

Our Beliefs Are Holding Us Hostage: Forgiveness Frees Us

While our Beliefs are Holding Us Hostage, We Can Be Freed.

There are many ways we keep ourselves in bondage to the world. But the way we free ourselves is simple. We notice the beliefs that are the problem and give our willingness to have them removed by the Holy Spirit. This is forgiveness. For instance, a belief in lack and loss is common among the children of God who believe they have separated from Him. This belief is easily overcome as we allow the Holy Spirit to heal our minds. Letting go of this belief, along with other untrue beliefs, is how we free ourselves from the world’s bondage.

For instance, there is a common belief in lack.

It’s easy to think that there is lack if we look around us, especially now. So many jobs have been lost. Whenever I look at my news app, I read about another company going bankrupt or laying off hundreds or even thousands of employees. There are fires and hurricanes that have left destruction of homes and lost lives in their wake. Peace of mind has been lost by many as they became embroiled in political divisiveness. Sanity is threatened as many are confused about what to believe. How do we see ourselves as safe and abundant in this atmosphere?

What we must accept if we want to be happy, peaceful, and free is to realize that the world is not real. As it tells us in Lesson 134: 2 There is no world! 3 This is the central thought the course attempts to teach. And this passage from A Course in Miracles drives home the fact that the world is not our home, and we are not in it. How else can you find joy in a joyless place except by realizing that you are not there? ²You cannot be anywhere God did not put you, and God created you as part of Him. ³That is both where you are and what you are. ⁴It is completely unalterable. ⁵It is total inclusion. ⁶You cannot change it now or ever. ⁷It is forever true. ⁸It is not a belief, but a Fact. (ACIM, T-6.II.6:1-8)

And thus, we are encouraged to release the world.

How do we do this? It sometimes seems impossible. And yet, we are assured that we can and will. We can be in the world without being of it. It is done one step at a time. For instance, I come to accept that there is no way to experience the peaceful knowledge that we are abundant in every way and perfectly safe if we hold onto the world. What I have done is relinquish my efforts to make the world safe and to provide for myself through the efforts of the ego. I let it go because this brought me nothing but failure and suffering. Instead, I surrender to the Holy Spirit as my Guide throughout this experience. He will wake me up from the dream of a world.

He teaches me that the world is made up of thoughts and beliefs that I hold dear and thus manifest as form. As Jesus tells us, ¹³There are no idle thoughts. ¹⁴All thinking produces form at some level. (ACIM, T-2.VI.9:13-14) So, if I am not happy with the world we made, I must change my thoughts. This does not make the world real, but it does change the reflection of loss to one of abundance.

I do what I came here to do as I work on purifying the mind. I focus on awakening and helping others to awaken. And I extend love, and I release all desire to judge, knowing it is a burden and cannot be accomplished by the ego-self. My mind and heart open to the Holy Spirit for healing. I step back as the personal self and allow the holy Self to guide me in every way.

This is my purpose, and I do it as completely as I can.

As for my needs, I trust that they will be met. I can’t own enough things or have enough money in the bank to feel abundant, but I can know my abundance, and in that knowledge, all things I need will be provided when I need them. I have several projects in my home that need to be done and some that were started but not completed. It is a temptation to resent those who could help or should have finished the job they started, so I feel a lack of peace. I feel a lack of help and lack of completion. But then I remember something; if I don’t have something, I must not need it.

What did I need instead? I needed to see that I could still believe in lack and that I could still think it had anything to do with the world. As soon as I saw that, I released those thoughts, and I loved and blessed my helpers and prayed for their peace of mind. That is an example of letting go of the world (the world being my thoughts projected outward). I’m grateful for what I received today since it was what I needed. I look forward to seeing what it is I need tomorrow. Maybe it will be a project completed!

Here is the bottom line.

It is that everything happening here, the body, the world itself, occurs in only one place: in our mind. We are dreaming, hallucinating. What we are, the Self that is aware of the world and its dreamy stories, is invulnerable. It cannot be harmed no matter what it dreams. The Self is not abundant in cash, diamonds, or new cars because it does not need what supports the non-existent body. The Self is abundant in creative power, in love, peace, and joy. Our Self has no needs whatsoever. If we feel lack or loss then the solution is to wake up and recognize what we are.

Here is an example of how I use the Course to let go of the world as I know it. I have come to understand that my brothers are one with me, so I always try to treat them as I would want to be treated. There is no way for you to have it except by giving it. ⁵This is the law of God, and it has no exceptions. (ACIM, T-7.VII.2:4-5)

I was checking out at the store the other day and was mindful of interacting with the clerk in a meaningful way, but she wasn’t having any of it. My first thought was one of judgment, a feeling, really. Right away, I noticed what I had done. I had meant to connect, but when my gift was ignored, I reacted as if she had reneged on a bargain. Never mind that it was one she had not made. I was, in essence, withdrawing my gift to her. Jesus knows that we will do this and talks about it in Lesson 197.

He tells us that we believe that our gifts must be received with honor lest they be withdrawn.

Through this kind of thinking, we reinforce the belief that this is the way God operates, too. He will give only to take it back, or worse yet, he will give so we relax our defenses, and then He strikes us dead. It is our thinking that causes us to confuse our beliefs with what we assume are God’s beliefs. In our minds, we give God the form of a vengeful Being because there is the idea of vengeance in our minds. We assign Him the roles that we would play under such circumstances. Because we believe in what we have done, it is true for us, though it is not true in reality.  

There is the truth within our minds, but we have become afraid of our power and strength, so it feels like our salvation is to become weak. Our job is to undo this in our mind through forgiveness, to undo these beliefs, and to claim our strength. What I did when I noticed my error with the clerk was to forgive it, and the idea vanished from my mind. ³I will forgive, and this will disappear. (ACIM, W-193.13:3) 

Gratitude both precedes and follows forgiveness.

²Gratitude is due him for both his loving thoughts and his appeals for help, for both are capable of bringing love into your awareness if you perceive them truly. (ACIM, T-12.I.6:2) How is it that we should use gratitude? How about if we are grateful for our brothers, grateful to shower them with the gifts of love and acceptance, grateful for the chance to honor them? This is a gift truly given and thus received.

When the clerk chose to ignore my gift, it was her ego that ignored it. Within her mind is the truth, and the truth, the Christ within the mind, thanked me for it. Thus are all our gifts accepted, and so bless us as well. This acceptance is universal. The mind we all share is blessed when we bless anyone with our gratitude. There is more light in the mind. I appreciate this about giving our gifts. ⁵In your gratitude are they accepted universally, and thankfully acknowledged by the Heart of God Himself. (ACIM, W-197.4:5) I am so glad I caught myself before I had taken my gift back.

I’m thinking back on the incident at the store when I looked at the clerk, smiled, and thanked her. Then she just shifted her attention to the next person, and for a moment, I considered taking back my gift in my resentment at being rejected. That brief moment seemed so minor as to be ignored. I am glad that I have learned that illusions have no hierarchy, so each one is equal in its power to destroy. I am grateful that I forgave so that the thought of resentment was undone.  It is in these seemingly small moments of forgiveness that I am letting go of the world.

This is an article I wrote for Miracle Worker Magazine. There are many great articles by well-known ACIM teachers. If you would like to read more articles from this magazine, email me at revmyron@gmail.com, and I will forward you my copy. If you would like to subscribe to the magazine, CLICK HERE.