[acimlessons_list] REVIEW II, LESSON 84 - March 25

[Sue Roth]

Review II, Lesson 84 - March 25

"Love created me like Itself."

"Love holds no grievances."

PRACTICE SUMMARY:

Longer: 2 times (once for each of the ideas), for about 15 minutes

* For 3 or 4 minutes, slowly read over the idea and comments (repeatedly if
you wish) and think about them. *	Close your eyes and spend the
remainder listening for the message the Holy Spirit has for you. We can see
this time of listening as having the following components:

1. Listen "quietly but attentively" (3:1)-listen in stillness and with all
your attention.

2. Hold an attitude of confidence ("this message belongs to me"), desire ("I
want this message"), and determination ("I'm determined to succeed").

3. Listening for ten minutes can easily be one big invitation to mind
wandering, and so the majority of instruction for this exercise deals with
this issue. For out-of-control mind wandering, go back and repeat the first
phase. For more minor wandering, realize the distracting thoughts have no
power and that your will has all the power, and then replace the thoughts
with your will to succeed. Do so with firmness. "Do not allow your intent to
waver" (4:1). "Refuse to be sidetracked" (5:2).

This is not mentioned in the instructions, but you may find it helpful to
actually ask for the message, at the beginning and then periodically
throughout. You may say, for instance, "What is Your message for me today?"
You may even want to use this request as the specific vehicle for dispelling
wandering thoughts.

REMARKS: Regard these exercises as dedication to God. Refuse to be
distracted. Be determined to assume your function today.

SHORTER: Frequent

First half of day: "Love created me like Itself." Second half of day: "Love
holds no grievances."

RESPONSE TO TEMPTATION:

You may use these specific forms or your own words:

First half of day: "Let me not see an illusion of myself in this." "As I
look on this, let me remember my Creator." "My Creator did not create this
as I see it."

Second half of the day: "This is no justification for denying my Self." "I
will not use this to attack love." "Let this not tempt me to attack myself."

COMMENTARY

If I am created in the likeness of my Creator, then "I cannot suffer, I
cannot experience loss and I cannot die. I am not a body" (1:3-4). That just
makes sense. God cannot suffer, experience loss or die, and He is not a
body. He created me like Himself (1:7); therefore these things must be true
of me. My reality is completely unlike what I believe about myself, for
assuredly I have believed that I can suffer, experience loss and die, and I
have identified almost entirely with my body.

What is it that makes and reinforces this illusion about myself? Grievances.
"Love holds no grievances" (3:1). I am love, in the likeness of Love which
created me, but when I choose to hold a grievance I am denying my own
reality, I am affirming I am not love, because "grievances are completely
alien to love" (3:2). In so doing, I am re-affirming that I am what I think
I have made of myself, and I am choosing, without conscious awareness, to
suffer, lose, and die. The only way I can rediscover my own reality is to
stop holding grievances. A grievance is an attack on my Self (3:6, 4:4). It
affirms that I am something I am not.

If I see ugliness, unloveliness or evil in my brothers I am attacking
myself. Deny what they are and I am denying what I am. Today I choose to see
others as I would see myself, and as I would have God see me. I have the
power to make this choice. I see what I desire to see, and today I desire to
see my Self, in myself and in everyone.