Lesson 340: “What is the ego?”  “I can be free of suffering today.”

This lesson says, “Father, I thank you for today, and for the freedom I am certain it will bring.  This day will be holy, for today Your Son will be redeemed.” 

We must realize that our salvation has already happened.  The Course says that God declares us worthy and sinless because He desires this to be.  This is why we can trust it is so.

We know that He is supremely powerful, therefore, we can trust God to keep His word. 

All we need to do is realize this is already accomplished.  We don’t have to wager whether we will be good enough.  This never needs to cross our minds in a moment of doubt because there is not the slightest bit of truth in it.  The amazing thing is that we can be certain all the time that God loves us because God says He will always love us.

That means we just have to learn to accept it.

We have plenty of moments of disbelief.

Our process is is meant to be one of constant forgiveness.

We love ourselves despite our lapses in clear-minded decision making.  We forget to stay focused on God because we forget to respect and cherish ourselves.  We make unhelpful decisions about where to focus.  Forgiveness means we have a way out of our own hell.

When we forgive, we surrender our need to be right.  We surrender our judgement.  

We let go of our attack thoughts about ourselves and others as well.  This is why forgiveness works to give us God’s Love and peace in the most potent way we can feel it in the world while we are in the human condition.  Just forgive that we forget to be kind and gentle to ourselves.

The Course especially teaches us how to love. 

We are learning how to love ourselves in a way that is God centered and where we find the happiest experience of living in it because God’s Love is perfect.

God’s Love is aplenty with each morsel of fulfilling energy that is breathtakingly beautiful and appropriate for all interactions in which we participate.  

We are learning to love with a grateful heart as well.  

We may lose our way and it may seem like some people are too hard to love.

We can rest assured, that God gave us gratitude for a perfect antidote for our resistance to bringing love. 

When we can’t figure out how to express a great, nourishing love of God to any person, let this be fine as it is.

We, rather, simply sit in gratitude and thank that person for being who they are. 

When we let gratitude out of the door to our hearts, this is often enough just to let the flood gates of love pour open. 

Then, when we connect with our gratitude, we often find it easier to extend a full Love from that place of initial gratitude.