Introduction
- Nothing beyond yourself can make you fearful or loving because nothing is beyond you. Time and eternity are both in your mind and will conflict until you perceive time solely as a means to regain eternity. You cannot do this as long as you believe that anything happening to you is caused by factors outside yourself. You must learn that time is solely at your disposal, and that nothing in the world can take this responsibility from you. You can violate God’s laws in your imagination, but you cannot escape from them. They were established for your protection and are as inviolate as your safety.
- God created nothing besides you and nothing besides you exists for you are part of Him. What except Him can exist? Nothing beyond Him can happen because nothing except Him is real. Your creations add to Him as you do but nothing is added that is different because everything has always been. What can upset you except the ephemeral, and how can the ephemeral be real if you are God’s only creation and He created you eternal? Your holy mind establishes everything that happens to you. Every response you make to everything you perceive is up to you, because your mind determines your perception of it.
- God does not change His mind about you, for He is not uncertain of Himself. And what He knows can be known because He does not know it only for Himself. He created you for Himself, but He gave you the power to create for yourself so you would be like Him. Your mind is holy. Can anything exceed the love of God? Can anything, then, exceed your will? Nothing can reach you from beyond it because, being in God, you encompass everything. Believe this, and you will realize how much is up to you when anything threatens your peace of mind, ask yourself, “Has God changed His mind about me?” Then accept His decision for it is indeed changeless and refuse to change your mind about yourself. God will never decide against you, or He would be deciding against Himself.[1]
When we let the world upset us, when we let the affairs of other people become our problem, whether we react with love or with fear to that which is in the outer world, we are not perceiving time as a means to regain eternity – we are perceiving time as where we belong. As long as we think of the world as our home, the things that happen in the world will determine our state of being. We will feel compelled to know what is going on in the outer world and make it our business. We will praise the Lord and wave our arms about when our presidential candidate wins and go about congratulating each other on how our country now has hope of becoming more godly. If our presidential candidate does not win we are liable to become sulky, depressed, and blame our country’s problems on the other party! Every situation we encounter will either make us happy or sad because instead of trusting in God, we trust in the world.
Jesus tells us that time is at our disposal and that there is nothing in the world that can take this responsibility from us. If we want to keep being deceived by the projections of the ego, we are violating God’s law of truth because we are believing in lies. But believing in lies does not make them real! This is the law of truth which protects truth, protects us, and keeps us safe no matter how the lies of the illusions spin us up and down and all around!
We are part of God and there is nothing outside of God. God is everything. Everything that happens, happens in God. God is Reality. When we extend love, peace, and joy to others we add to the treasury of God, but it is just more of what is already there. We cannot introduce different and new to what always has been and will always be.
The only thing that can keep us in a tizzy, break our hearts, and drive us crazy is what happens in time. It is fleeting, It is uncertain and chaotic. It is transient. Everything passes away. Nothing is real that is in time. We are God’s Creation, His only Creation, Jesus says. God does not create that which is not good, pure, holy, and forever. He gave us His Spirit, and His Mind. Everything that happens to us is established by the holy mind in which we were given by God. When we let the world get to us and mistake it for our reality, we miss the whole point of time – which is to regain eternity. When we perceive what happens in the world with the vision of Christ, we know that we can trust in God who is our strength, our power, our very Being. It is up to us with what eyes we choose to perceive the world.
Jesus tells us that God does not change His mind about His creations. He believes in what He creates. There is no part of God that is not certain about Himself and about His creations. God did not make us to reject us, to neglect us, to make war upon us. He created us to be like Him and to share in His glory and grandeur and magnitude. He made us holy because He is holy. There is nothing that can go beyond the Love of God. God’s Will is for us and not against us and nothing can prevail against us because as part of God, we encompass everything.
Dare to believe this and we will come to know just how much is up to us when anything comes along to threaten our peace of mind. God will never change His mind about you or about me or about any of us. When we accept ourselves as God created us to be and refuse to allow the world to influence us to change our mind about what we are in God, we will not accept the idols and the falsehood of the world to take His place in our minds. No matter what the kingdom which is not God’s Kingdom tries to tell us about ourselves, let us always remind ourselves that God never decides against us because if He would decide against us, He would be deciding against Himself!
[1] A Course in Miracles. Chapter 10 The idols of sickness. Introduction. Foundation for Inner Peace, Second Edition (1992).
For daily 2021 Workbook lessons visit www.i-choose-love.com courtesy of Linda R.
Audio credit: www.eckiefriar.com
the friar patch 