June 17th 2014 Lesson 42
God is my strength. Vision is His gift.
Today's idea combines two very powerful thoughts, both of major importance. It also sets forth a cause and effect relationship that explains why you cannot fain in your efforts to achieve the goal of the course. You will see because it is the Will of God. It is His strength, not your own, that gives us power. And it is His gift, rather than your own, that offers you vision.God is indeed your strength and what He gives is truly given. This means that you can receive it any time and anywhere, wherever you are, and in whatever circumstance you find yourself. Your passage through time and space is not at random. You cannot but be in the right place at the right time. Such is the strength of God. Such are His gifts.
- Intention: We will have two three-to-five-minute practice periods today, one as soon as possible after you awake, and another as close as possible to the time you go to sleep. It is better, however to wait until you can sit quietly by yourself, at a time when you feel ready, that it is to be concerned with the time as such.
- Practice: Begin the long practice periods by repeating today's idea slowly, with eyes open, looking about you. Then close your eyes and repeat the idea again, even slower than before. After this, try to think of nothing except thoughts that occur to you in relationship to the idea for the day. You might think, for example:
Vision must be possible. God gives truly,
or
God's gifts to me must be mine, because He gave them to me.
Any thought that is clearly related to today's idea is suitable. You may, in fact, be astonished at the amount of course related understanding some of your thoughts contain. Let them come without censoring unless you find your mind is merely wandering, and you have let obviously irrelevant thoughts intrude. Your may also reach a point where no thoughts at all seem to come to mind. If such interferences occur, open your eyes and repeat the thought once more while looking slowly about; close your eyes, repeat the idea once more, then continue to look for related thoughts in your mind.
Remember, however, that active searching for relevant thoughts is not appropriate for today's exercises. Try merely to step back and let the thoughts come. If you find this difficult, it is better to spend the practice period alternating between slow repetitions of the idea with eyes open, then with eyes closed, than it is to strain to find suitable thoughts.
- Application: There is no limit on the number of short practice periods that would be beneficial today. The idea for the day is a beginning step in bringing thoughts together, and teaching you that you are studying a unified thought system in which nothing is lacking that is needed, and nothing is included that is contradictory or irrelevant.
The more often you repeat the idea during the day, the more often you will be reminding yourself that the goal of the course, which is the peace of God, is important to you, and that you have not forgotten it.
Insights/comments:
- The goal of the course is peace, for with peace comes the potential for happiness. Peace comes from a sense of safety and freedom from worry, and there is no safer place to be than with the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present Creator of the universe. God is with us, so we have no need to fear or worry. He has given us everything that we could ever need, by making us a part of Himself, were this not so, there would indeed be cause for worry, but God is unchanging, unified and complete. He lacks nothing for He is everything that exists, and so has no motive for changing. God and His creation ((the sonship to which we all belong)) is one undifferentiated whole. We do not yet see this, and thus is our need for vision.
I and my Creator are One. 
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