Hello Everyone,
As we move into our 19th week of building our Miracle Toolboxes, the recent events surrounding the tragic death of George Floyd provide us with an opportunity to apply the lessons regarding prayer that Jesus has been teaching us in the Song of Prayer. Many Course students shared that feelings of fear, sadness, disappointment, and anger arose as the news stories unfolded. An interesting coincidence is that our reading for today, section III Praying with Others, specifically addresses the problem of perceiving others as “enemies”.
Rest assured that if anyone has experienced the type of feelings indicated above, and any accompanying thoughts of distress, then they have given up their sense of inner peace in exchange for becoming a jailer who has imprisoned themselves. This is because they are buying into the illusion and are forgetting that the perceived individuals outside of themselves are Sons of God too. Additionally, Jesus explains that what we are doing is projecting unconscious guilt that we have within ourselves onto other individuals. From this perspective, we have become jailers who use our own jailer keys to imprison the Christ within us because of our belief in the dream.
Fortunately, the Holy Spirit within us can take our jailer keys and turn them into something good – and for a holy purpose. Jesus shares with us in this reading that we have a choice. We can continue to imprison ourselves or we can choose to be still and instant and ask the Holy Spirit for help. We can ask the Holy Spirit for a different perception of the situation and for a reminder of the truth. As we allow Him to heal our minds in this way, we can then get back to practicing True Prayer. Remember, at the lower levels of the Ladder of Prayer, we have a tendency to ask for things within the world. However, as we continue to study and learn about how True Prayer really works, we find that it is the practice of letting all worldly desires go for a while. Instead, we let go and step aside. We move into a meditative space where we desire only to connect and commune with God. We spend time just quietly listening and loving our Creator.
Many Blessings,
Rev. Paul
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