May 22
"My
mind holds only what I think with God."
"I
thank my Father for His gifts to me."
"Let
me remember I am one with God."
PRACTICE
SUMMARY
Review IVPurpose: To prepare for part II of the Workbook, by concentrating on readiness for it and by reviewing the last 20 lessons in a way that will facilitate that readiness.
Longer: 2--beginning and ending of the day, 5 minutes or more.
* Open your mind, clear it of all distracting thoughts. For five minutes let this thought alone occupy it, displacing all others: "My mind holds only what I think with God."
* Read the day's two ideas. Close eyes and repeat ideas slowly, without hurry, for this is what time was made for. Let each word shine with the meaning God gave it. Receive from each idea the gift God placed in it.
Remarks: Phase 1 will be enough to set your day along the lines God planned, making it a special time of blessing for you and for the world. It will be enough to place Him in charge of all your thoughts. Your thoughts will come from more than you. They will also come from Him and tell you of His Love. Thus will you, His completion, join with Him. And He, your completion, will join with you. He thanks you for your practicing. And as your day ends, His gratitude will surround you.
Shorter: hourly, a quiet moment
* Say: "My mind holds only what I think with God." Spend a quiet moment with it.
* Then repeat the day's two ideas, slowly enough to see their gifts and receive their gifts.
COMMENTARY
That my mind holds only what I think with God is not something I have to work at to attain. It is not a thought to be repeated like a purgative, to drive out opposing thoughts, with the undertone of "I have to make my mind have only God's thoughts in it." That my mind holds only what I think with God is "a fact, and represents the truth of What you are and What your Father is" (rIV.2:3).
As we were told early in the Workbook, when we think that we are thinking without God, we are not really thinking at all; our mind is actually blank. "While thoughtless ideas preoccupy your mind, the truth is blocked. Recognizing that your mind has been merely blank, rather than believing that it is filled with real ideas, is the first step to opening the way to vision" (W-pI.8.3:2, 3). "Now we are emphasizing that the presence of these `thoughts' means that you are not thinking" (W-pI.10.3:2).
The Thoughts of God that fill my mind in reality are my Father's gift to me. I am opening my mind, today, to His thoughts. What I ordinarily think of as thoughts that interfere or conflict with God's Thoughts are like the static on a radio that interferes with the actual signal. They are not thoughts; they are static, they are noise. The signal is still there; but the static needs to be tuned out so that the signal can come through. The truth about me is that I am one with God; His Mind is my mind, His Thoughts are my thoughts. I am not something other than what He is. This is "the truth of What you are and What your Father is" (rIV.2:3).
To say that my mind holds only what I think with God can be a joyous affirmation of the truth. It can remind me of His gifts to me, and remind me that I am one with Him. That in me which seems contrary to God, distant from God, or opposed to God, is not who I am; it is not my reality. It is without meaning. There is nothing opposed to God in my mind. Another way of putting that is that what seems to be in me, opposing God, is actually nothing; it is an illusion or an hallucination, with no power and no strength of its own. It is empowered only when I believe in it. Today, I choose to deny that anything not of God has any power over me. I choose to remember what my reality is. I choose to remember that I am one with God.
Copyright © 1996, The Circle of Atonement, Sedona,
Arizona, USA.
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