LESSON FORTY-TWO

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE: The Course text is in bold face. The Guidance is in normal type In His Guidance, He has asked Me to capitalize the pronouns You and We as an acknowledgement of the Divinity of All of Us, an acknowledgement of Equality, an expression of His Love and respect for You. When You see the word ‘YOU’ capitalized in the Guidance, know that He is not just speaking to YOU, He is honoring YOU.

God is my strength. Vision is His gift.

You do remember that two thousand years ago I said: “Of My own self, I can do nothing.”₁ And then I demonstrated unto You that with God all things good are more than possible.₂  They are Reality, right here, right now.

¹ The idea for today combines two very powerful thoughts, both of major importance. It also sets forth a cause and effect relationship which explains why you cannot fail in your efforts to achieve the goal of the course. You will see because it is the Will of God. 

– His Love for You is never-ending, always present, although You do ignore It.  So has It stood; It does stand now, and It will stand forever. –

It is His strength, not your own, that gives you power.

– Of Our own selves, We can do nothing; Myself included.  Our Oneness with Our Source is but eternal. –

And it is His gift to you, rather than your own, which offers vision to you.

All Good You see in Me, as Me, is Yours as well, just awaiting Your acceptance.

When You are willing to discard the ego, and let Your Loving Source take over, You will see why this is called A Course In Miracles.  (The ego, on the other hand, has but offered You an ongoing course in its drama, pain, and suffering.)

The ego-thought has blinded You, so You see only miscreations.  This Course does aim to return Your Real Vision to You, along with Your Joy. Could You ask for more?  Real Vision sees with only eyes of Love, only eyes of Life. Thus did I heal sick Brothers, and raise Them from sin and dying.  And I have never left, but stand with Our Father to do the very same for You, as You are willing.

We can’t wait to see Your Peace and Happiness that come with the Return of Vision.  This is why the Bible says that All Creation is on tiptoe to catch each wondrous Holy Instant.₃

² God is indeed your strength. And what He gives is truly given. This means that you can receive it any time and anywhere, wherever you are and in whatever circumstances you find yourself. Your passage through time and space is not random. You cannot but be in the right place at the right time. Such is the strength of God. Such are His gifts.

How is this?  Because You – as Your Right Mind – make anywhere and any-when be right.  Because You are there, everything is but all right.

Are You getting My meaning?  It was not right before You came.

Let Me use Myself as an example.  The crowds came seeking Me because They needed healing, and They surely received it.  Thus They appeared to be in the right place at the right time.  Yet it was I Who made Galilee be right, along with their desires for healing.

What I am saying here is that nothing is random, and a place is just a place, and time’s just time.  It is Consciousness that brings forth rightness and not ‘fate’ or the celestial whims of mercury and saturn.  These things have ‘power’ only in the dream.  You are the Son of God with nothing intervening.  Your Connection is direct forever.  The stars do bow to You, in awe at the beauty of Your Holiness.

The Universe belongs to You, as the Son of God.  And You are not at the effect of it.  It’s at the effect of You!

³ We will have two three- to five-minute longer exercise periods today, one as soon as possible after you wake and another as close as possible to the time you go to sleep. It is better, however, to wait until you can sit quietly by yourself at a time when you feel ready than it is to be concerned with the time as such.

⁴ Begin the practice period by repeating the idea for today slowly with eyes open, looking about you. Then close your eyes and repeat the idea again, quite slowly. After this, try to think of nothing except thoughts which occur to you in relation to today’s idea. You might think, for example:

⁵ Vision must be possible. God gives truly; or,
God’s gifts to me must be mine because He gave them to me. 

⁶ Whatever thought that is clearly related to the idea itself is suitable. You may, in fact, be astonished at the amount of course-related understanding some of your own thoughts contain. Let them come without censoring unless you realize your mind is merely wandering and you have let obviously irrelevant thoughts intrude. You may also reach a point where no thoughts at all seem to come to mind. If such interferences occur, open your eyes and repeat the thought once more while looking slowly about; close your eyes, repeat the idea once more, and then continue to look for related thoughts in your mind.

⁷ Remember, though, that active searching is not appropriate for today’s exercises. Try merely to step back and let the thoughts come. If you find this difficult, it is better to spend the practice period alternating between slow repetitions of the idea with eyes open, then closed, then open, and so on, than it is to strain in order to find suitable thoughts.

⁸ There is no limit on the number of short practice periods which would be most beneficial. The idea for the day is a beginning step in bringing thoughts together and teaching you that what you are studying is a unified thought system in which nothing is lacking that is needed, and nothing is included that is contradictory or irrelevant.

⁹ The more often you repeat the idea during the day, the more often you will be reminding yourself that the goal of the course is important to you, and that you have not forgotten it.

Peace and happiness are here waiting for Your glad reception!

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¹ John 5:30.  And in checking the Bible reference, I found this delightful page and poem: http://www.betterway.org/0921.HTM

²Matthew 9:26
Mark 10:27

And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.

Luke 18:27

Jesus replied, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”

³ Romans 8:19

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[Thank you Dear Brother]