Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now
Lesson 98 I Will Accept My Part in God’s Plan for Salvation.
- Today is a day of special dedication. We take a stand on one side today. We side with truth and let illusions go. We will not vacillate between the two but take a firm position with the One. We dedicate ourselves to truth today, and to salvation as God planned it to be. We will not argue it is something else. We will not seek for it where it is not. In gladness we accept it as it is, and take the part assigned to us by God.
- How happy to be certain! All our doubts we lay aside today, and take our stand, with certainty of purpose, and with thanks that doubt is gone, and surety has come. We have a mighty purpose to fulfil and have been given everything we need with which to reach the goal. Not one mistake stands in our way. For we have been absolved from errors. All our sins are washed away by realizing they were but mistakes.
- The guiltless have no fear, for they are safe and recognize their safety. They do not appeal to magic, nor invent escapes from fancy threats without reality. They rest in quiet certainty that they will do what it is given them to do. They do not doubt their own ability because they know their function will be filled completely in the perfect time and place. They took the stand which we will take today, that we may share their certainty and thus increase it by accepting it ourselves.
- They will be with us; all who took the stand we take today will gladly offer us all that they learned and every gain they made. Those still uncertain, too, will join with us, and, borrowing our certainty, will make it stronger still. While those as yet unborn will hear the call we heard and answer it when they have come to make their choice again. We do not choose but for ourselves today.
- Is it not worth five minutes of your time each hour to be able to accept the happiness that God has given you? Is it not worth five minutes hourly to recognize your special function here? Is not five minutes but a small request to make in terms of gaining a reward so great it has no measure. You have made a thousand losing bargains at the least.
- Here is an offer guaranteeing you your full release from pain of every kind and joy the world does not contain. You can exchange a little of your time for peace of mind and certainty of purpose, with the promise of complete success. And since time has no meaning, you are being asked for nothing in return for everything. Here is a bargain that you cannot lose. And what you gain is limitless indeed!
- Each hour today give Him your tiny gift of but five minutes. He will give the words you use in practicing today’s idea the deep conviction and the certainty you lack. His words will join with yours and make each repetition of today’s idea a total dedication, made in faith as perfect and as sure as His in you. His confidence in you will bring the light to all the words you say, and you will go beyond their sound to what they really mean. Today you practice with Him, as you say: I will accept my part in God’s plan for Salvation.
- In each five minutes that you spend with Him, He will accept your words and give them back to you all bright with faith and confidence so strong and steady they will light the world with hope and gladness. Do not lose one chance to be the glad receiver of His gifts, give them to the world today.
- Give Him the words, and He will do the rest. He will enable you to understand your special function. He will open up the way to happiness, and peace and trust will be His gifts, His answer to your words. He will respond with all His faith and joy and certainty that what you say is true. And you will have conviction then of Him Who knows the function that you have on earth as well as Heaven. He will be with you each practice period you share with Him, exchanging every instant of the time you offer Him for timelessness and peace.
- Throughout the hour, let your time be spent in happy preparation for the next five minutes you will spend again with Him. Repeat today’s idea while you wait for the glad time to come to you again. Repeat it often, and do not forget each time you do so, you have left your mind be ready for the happy time to come.
- And when the hour goes and He is there once more to spend a little time with you, be thankful and lay down all earthly tasks, all little thoughts and limited ideas, and spend a happy time again with Him. Tell Him once more that you accept the part that He would have you take and help you fill, and He will make you sure you want this choice, which He has made with you and you with Him.[1]
Notes and Personal Application: Accepting our part in God’s plan for salvation means that we have taken our stand. We are no longer split between identifying with our body on one side and our spirit on the other. We are a spirit and we take our stand with God, identifying with Christ instead of the ego.
Instead of dreading or putting off our hourly calls to today’s lesson concept, Jesus says to think of this time of training our minds to be free of the ego’s mind control as a happy time. To look forward to our five minutes that we spend with Him. He even encourages us to repeat today’s idea while we wait for the time to come.
I will be honest folks. Sometimes this mind training business gets old to me. I don’t feel like interrupting the flow of my daily routine to stop and tell myself the ideas for the day, let alone meditate upon its truth – that is until I do it. When I do it, I am filled with joy and happiness. The peace of God and knowledge of who I am and what I am in Christ lets me see how limited my ideas and how little my thoughts are in comparison with giving these minutes to Holy Spirit to transform my mind and help me to understand my holy function.
Jesus is not asking us to give our money, our blood, our firstborn. He is asking for five minutes an hour during our day to stop and reflect upon who and what we really are. Today He is asking us to tell Holy Spirit, “I will accept my part in God’s plan for salvation.” Nothing we would achieve in this world would ever compare with doing our part in saving it. Separation from God has cost us enough suffering and sorrow in time. History is rife with the horrors of war, starvation, plagues, and disasters. In the present day we face the same worries with different forms. Generation after generation we keep accepting the ego’s roles and play its fearful games. We solve one problem and a thousand more crop up to take its place. Nothing will be solved in separation and we don’t want it to be. Saving the world means deliverance from predation and chance and death for everything and everybody. No longer we will serve as prey to the exploits of the ego or serve its factious gods.
When we pray God’s Kingdom come, God’s Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven, we are praying for the salvation of the world. Today we accept our part in the plan. Jesus does not expect us to have a deep conviction or a certainty in what He is asking of us. He understands that He is asking us to believe something that we only know to be true in the part of us which has so recently been awakened from the ego’s simulation. Jesus promises us that as we say today’s idea, God will make each time we say it a complete dedication because of our faith, because of our desire to go beyond the form and get to the meaning of the words He wants to hear from us.
So join me in overcoming the resistance to our hourly five-minute meditations! Let’s pray for one another to be strong in our conviction and let’s thank the Lord for showing us the way.
[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 98 I will accept my part…Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992). pp. 174-176.
the friar patch 