November 17, 2020
Lesson 323 –
I gladly make the “sacrifice” of fear.
The Course makes many references to letting go of fear. Fear is an emotion or an idea that keeps us locked away from our true Identity. In many instances we are afraid of losing the identity we have made for ourselves and believe ourselves to be. It is always an identity that relies on the idea of separation – that we are separate from others and God. We have invested a lifetime of effort and belief in our identity and are afraid we will have no identity if we let go of the one we have made. The belief in this identity and our fear of it not being real keeps us locked into it even though there is a much greater something hidden beyond that identity. This fear is the destroyer of peace, for it hides the truth about who we are from our mind.
And as we pay the debt we owe to truth,—a debt that merely is the letting go of self-deceptions and of images we worshipped falsely—truth returns to us in wholeness and in joy. We are deceived no longer. Love has now returned to our awareness. And we are at peace again, for fear has gone and only love remains. W-pII.323.2:1-4
There is no great penance to pay for our mistaken identity. We only need a little willingness to see beyond who we think we are to the truth of who we really are to step into the awareness of our wholeness and holiness present within our minds. What we believe about ourselves is what we will see about ourselves. The proof is in the recognition of our holy selves and the homecoming we experience when we begin to allow our perception of ourselves to shift. Even as we begin to allow this transformation to reveal our true selves, we may still be afraid of our power and divinity that is revealed to us. Relax and allow the Holy Spirit within us to guide and direct us. This revelation will bring us to a peace of mind that surpasses anything we have believed possible about who we are. This lesson offers us the following prayer to relieve the fear we may feel about this “sacrifice.”
Here is the only “sacrifice” You ask of Your beloved Child; You ask them to give up all suffering, all sense of loss and sadness, all anxiety and doubt, and freely let Your Love come streaming in to their awareness, healing them of pain, and giving them Your Own eternal joy. Such is the “sacrifice” You ask of me, and one I gladly make; the only “cost” of restoration of Your memory to me, for the salvation of the world. W-pII.323.1:1-2
What we are asked to “sacrifice” is suffering, loss, sadness, anxiety and doubt. Who would not gladly sacrifice these things? What flows to replace these is Love and Peace. We experience the healing of all pain and find eternal joy welling up within us. This brings the transformation of the world to our consciousness. We recognize that call for love in each other rather than the attempt to attack. We recognize Heaven on earth as we open our Spirit eyes to the truth of reality. Let us set aside our fear – yes, even “sacrifice” our fear – and allow peace to flow like a mighty river through our consciousness. As others call for love, we will have the Source of unlimited Love to extend to anyone or anything that believes they lack that love. Let the circle of love be unbroken as we let love flow through our mind and our very being. So are we and the whole world healed. Hence the Course adage, “Love is letting go of fear.”
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