Lesson 109: “I rest in God.”
The Course teaches us how to feel safe and home and happy with God- in a way that allows us to feel totally comfortable letting our guards down and just rushing up to spend time in the God’s company.
We don’t have to do anything or say anything to God if we don’t want to in the moment.
All we need is God’s company, get into the groove of God.
The Course teaches us a new perspective about how to have a healed relationship with God.
Most of us have grown up in western culture and been indoctrinated with the religious concepts of God, and therefore automatically assume things about God to this day- even if we are not currently actively attending church.
Society has a very particular definition of God and therefore, we tend to hold onto for very long and cling to these ideas of God that make us cringe at the thought of spending time with God. When God wants to punish us and scold us, sending attack intention, why would we want to hang out with God?
If we don’t feel safe with God, then we will never experience rest.
Even if we are atheists and have no interest in thinking about God, still just that simple hint of belief that God could in fact exist is actually sure enough to give us all the grief of our worst nightmare, and our memory banks would retain this false God image and we would not feel at ease with being intimate God.
We would never feel secure because we fear someone who is powerful may be out to get us. If that is a possibility in our minds, then it makes perfect sense that we would not let our guards down.
Thus, it makes every difference in the world that we feel safe with God.
If we know God has simply no ill thought our wish for us, then our whole attitude can rather feel light.
If God is out to hunt us down and maybe have us for dinner, we may not feel at ease letting go and relaxing about anything at all, because we would be in danger- at any and all times.
This is a terrible way to live, because peace, then, is totally absent.
The Course redefines our relationship with God so that we can heal ourselves and heal our lives.
If we know that God is purely our best friend, and most helpful parent, as well as extraordinarily powerful and benevolent deity, then we can truly rest.
Then, we believe that God is on our side.
We most certainly want God on our side because God is capable of and willing to intervene on our behalf at each and every moment we need a friend and confident.
We want God on our sides, because this gives us a whole other dimension and elevation- above the battleground- upon which we can live, because God is always ready and happy to care for us in every way.
We want to have a great relationship with God, because we all need a loving benefactor who is perfectly capable and happy to be consistently loving as well as appropriate with His help and support.
Since it turns out that God is the perfect friend for us to have in the closest spot in our lives, then we want to know that God is totally good at staying kind, gentle and helpful, and therefore can trust God.
Since we can trust God to be consistent, then we can actually relax in the deepest way.
Lots of us don’t realize how totally unable to relax we are because we have so many fears, and doubts, and rampant guilt, and lots of run away emotions.
This kind of emotional roller coaster never allows us to sit back and just enjoy the ride with no thought except a huge dose of love and happiness.
We just must not forget that we have the option of God to get us out of the nightmare.