Part 1 Undoing the Way We See Things Now
Lesson 168 Your Grace is Given Me. I Claim It Now.
- God speaks to us. Shall we not speak to Him? He is not distant. He makes no attempt to hide from us. We tried to hide from Him and suffer from deception. He remains entirely accessible. He loves His Son. There is no certainty but this, yet this suffices. He will love His Son forever. When his mind remains asleep, He loves him still. And when his mind awakens, He loves him with a never-changing love.
- If you but knew the meaning of His Love, hope and despair would be impossible. For hope would be forever satisfied, despair of any kind unthinkable. His grace His answer is to all despair, for in it lies remembrance of His Love. Would He not gladly give the means by which His Will is recognized? His grace is yours by your acknowledgement. And memory of Him awakens in the mind that asks the means of Him whereby its sleep is done.
- Today we ask of God the gift He has most carefully preserved within our hearts, waiting to be acknowledged. This the gift by which God leans to us and lifts us up, taking salvation’s final step Himself. All steps but this we learn, instructed by His Voice. But finally He comes Himself and takes us in His arms and sweeps away the cobwebs of our sleep. His gift of grace is more than just an answer. It restores all memories the sleeping mind forgot; all certainty of what Love’s meaning is.
- God loves His Son. Request Him now to give the means by which this world will disappear, and vision first will come, with knowledge but an instant later. For in grace you see a light that covers all the world in love, and watch fear disappear from every face as hearts rise up and claim the light as theirs. What now remains that Heaven be delayed an instant longer? What is still undone when your forgiveness rests on everything?
- It is a new and holy day today, for we receive what has been given us. Our faith lies in the Giver, not our own acceptance. We acknowledge our mistakes, but He to whom all error is unknown is yet the One who answers our mistakes by giving us the means to lay them down and rise to Him in gratitude and love.
- And He descends to meet us, as we come to Him. For what He has prepared for us He gives, and we receive. Such is His Will because He loves His Son. To Him we pray today, returning but the word He gave to us through His Own Voice, His Word, His Love:
Your grace is given me. I claim it now. Father, I come to you.
And You will come to me who ask.
I am the Son you love.[1]
Notes and Personal Application: God does not hide His face from us. We do not need technology to get in touch with Him. We do not have to be in a church or a synagogue, a special place designated as holy, sacred, or serene. Nothing can keep me from communicating with God. Held in a dungeon or sitting on a throne, God loves me, and I am His Son forever. When we do not live up to our promise, when we falter and fail, when we fumble and stumble upon our way – when we know the meaning of God’s Love, we would neither hope nor despair in God’s proposed mercy, His love, His devotion to us for we would simply know it.
Today Jesus emphasizes that by acknowledging God’s grace, we receive it. It is ours! He will give us the means to make the world of separation, the dream of death and despair, disappear from our perceptions and give us first, the vision of Christ and then the knowledge of His Love and what it means.
God loves us, His Son. We are one. All we must do is ask Him for the grace that covers the world in love and washes away the fear from every face as hearts rise up and claim God’s light as theirs. When our forgiveness covers everything, time and all its heartbreak, its atrocities, its snakebites, and sorrow is not simply over, it is undone!
There is nothing for us to do but have faith – not in accepting God’s Grace, but in God who gives His Grace. As we acknowledge our mistaken identity in ego, as we acknowledge our mistakes of the flesh, as we acknowledge our mistakes of separation built upon lies and illusion, God gives us the means to lay them down, to rise to Him in gratitude and love. In this state of holy apology, we meet Him as He comes to us and as we rise to Him. He gives us what was ours all along, and now we take it and claim it as our own. He loves us! He does not want our measly sacrifices, our paltry offerings. He does not want us to grovel, plead, and beg as if we were scroungers – we are His Son, at one with Creation. He wants us to return to Him as His Son, united and whole.
In your own words and in your own way, pray this prayer today. Whether you think you are ready to claim your Sonship or not, saying the words will renew your mind and draw your heart and mind out of the world and into the light of His Love. “I accept Your grace, dear Father. I come to You and You come to me because I know I am the Son You love, at one with Christ, with all of creation, and with You. In Jesus name. Amen.”
[1] A Course in Miracles. Workbook for Students. Lesson 168. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).
Audio credit: http://www.eckiefriar.com
the friar patch 