Lesson 47: God is the strength in which I trust.
I feel relieved when Jesus acknowledges that I cannot do anything on my own. Several large exhales follow my reading of paragraph 1, which sounds harsh to the ego, but is music to the memory of God within:
“If you are trusting in your own strength, you have every reason to be apprehensive, anxious and fearful. What can you predict or control? What is there in you that can be counted on? What would give you the ability to be aware of all facets of any problem, and to resolve them in such a way that only good can come of it? What is there in your that gives you the recognition of the right solution, and the guarantee that it will be accomplished?”
After all, as he says in the next paragraph, “Who can put his faith in weakness and feel safe? Yet who can put his faith in strength and feel weak?”
Now if only I could fully embrace the opening of paragraph 3: “God is your safety in every circumstance.”
Next comes reassurance: “His Voice [the Holy Spirit] speaks for Him in all situations and in every aspect of all situations, telling you exactly what to do to call upon His strength and His protection.” However, be alert to this: God’s Voice, the Holy Spirit, tells us exactly what to do to call upon God’s strength and God’s protection.
God’s Voice does not tell us exactly what to do in all situations and in every aspect of all situations. God’s Voice tells us how to call upon God’s strength and protection. There is a difference! It is the same wisdom Jesus imparted to Helen Schucman, the channel for A Course in Miracles:
“The correction of fear is your responsibility. When you ask for release from fear, you are implying that it is not. You should ask, instead, for help in the conditions that have brought the fear about. These conditions always entail a willingness to be separate. At that level you can help it. You are much too tolerant of mind wandering, and are passively condoning your mind’s miscreations. The particular result does not matter, but the fundamental error does. The correction is always the same. Before you choose to do anything, ask me if your choice is in accord with mine. If you are sure that it is, there will be no fear.” T-2.VI.4:1-10
I like how, towards the end of Lesson 47, Jesus builds us back up, saying we must “gain an awareness that confidence in your real strength [God strength] is fully justified in every respect and in all circumstances”. Although he doesn’t call this a meditation, it certainly fits the bill. He directs:
“…try to reach down into your mind to a place of real safety. You will recognize that you have reached it if you feel a deep sense of peace, however briefly. Let go all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of your mind, and reach down and below them to the Kingdom of Heaven. There is a place in you where there is perfect peace. There is a place in you where the strength of God abides.”
Jesus’ parting words in Lesson 47, “Remember that peace is your right, because you are giving your trust to the strength of God.” Can you imagine remembering, all day long, that peace is our right because we are giving our trust to the strength of God? Yes, let’s say yes, we can imagine this because we want to, and so, more and more, we do.
Note: Bold mine.
