My thoughts* on A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 71, Only God’s Plan for Salvation Will Work

Only God’s plan for salvation will work.

* ONLY.

1. You may not realize that the ego has set up a plan for salvation in opposition to God’s.

²It is this plan in which you believe.

* Apathy. Accept suffering as inevitable. You have no power as a single voice. Each is part of the destructive psychology you have been groomed to believe.

³Since it is the opposite of God’s, you also believe that to accept God’s plan in place of the ego’s is to be damned.

* To be damned is to be stopped and what else does that mindset offer?

⁴This sounds preposterous, of course.

⁵Yet after we have considered just what the ego’s plan is, perhaps you will realize that, however preposterous it may be, you do believe in it.

2. The ego’s plan for salvation centers around holding grievances.

²It maintains that, if someone else spoke or acted differently, if some external circumstance or event were changed, you would be saved.

³Thus, the source of salvation is constantly perceived as outside yourself.

* This is what takes away your power. This is what takes away Father. One in the same.

⁴Each grievance you hold is a declaration, and an assertion in which you believe, that says, “If this were different, I would be saved.”

⁵The change of mind necessary for salvation is thus demanded of everyone and everything except yourself.

* This is why I am not able to mingle with humanity right now. The representation of Father among us is so vital to our well-being and the attraction of the ego is so dynamic that I cannot come in between it and those who are clinging to the last bit of hope in the world they have created from ego.

* As a mother that is very difficult for me to accept but I see it and I have to bow to it. I have to let my adult children be who they choose to be as they pull together in these last years of their father’s life in a way that will definitely exclude me because I will not compromise my position.

* Compromise is not something that we can do any longer and still remain in our integrity. And so choices will be made in the world of illusion and current form but that has nothing to do with love or union or connection or worthiness or perfection. It is simply part of the “story” that has to transpire (take place) at this time.

3. The role assigned to your own mind in this plan, then, is simply to determine what, other than itself, must change if you are to be saved.

²According to this insane plan, any perceived source of salvation is acceptable provided that it will not work.

* Provided that it will not work.

* In 2025, THIS is the “animal” that the world is facing.

* Enough people on earth are willing to allow the idea of God’s Presence and their equality and value to be recognized and it is totally dismantling the sense of security of EVERYTHING in their existence for those not willing to see this.

³This ensures that the fruitless search will continue, for the illusion persists that, although this hope has always failed, there is still grounds for hope in other places and in other things.

⁴Another person will yet serve better; another situation will yet offer success.

4. Such is the ego’s plan for your salvation.

²Surely you can see how it is in strict accord with the ego’s basic doctrine, “Seek but do not find.”

³For what could more surely guarantee that you will not find salvation than to channelize all your efforts in searching for it where it is not?

5. God’s plan for salvation works simply because, by following His direction, you seek for salvation where it is.

²But if you are to succeed, as God promises you will, you must be willing to seek there only.

* I do this, mind you, that I understand it does not look like it because I WANT and existence in the world of form.

* Some have watched my bumpy path, but this path has taken me to where I am today and I would NEVER have plotted this course for myself. Even though I have to admit I have had lofty goals and love for the world at large since I was little.

³Otherwise, your purpose is divided and you will attempt to follow two plans for salvation that are diametrically opposed in all ways.

* This means ONLY that you cannot want to see a world that does not have the One Original and Universal Creator IN IT WITH HIS SON AS ALL THAT IS.

⁴The result can only bring confusion, misery and a deep sense of failure and despair.

6. How can you escape all this?

²Very simply.

³The idea for today is the answer.

⁴Only God’s plan for salvation will work.

⁵There can be no real conflict about this, because there is no possible alternative to God’s plan that will save you.

⁶His is the only plan that is certain in its outcome.

⁷His is the only plan that must succeed.

7. Let us practice recognizing this certainty today.

²And let us rejoice that there is an answer to what seems to be a conflict with no resolution possible.

³All things are possible to God.

⁴Salvation must be yours because of His plan, which cannot fail.

* It is NOW, you just have to take it.

8. Begin the two longer practice periods for today by thinking about today’s idea, and realizing that it contains two parts, each making equal contribution to the whole.

²God’s plan for your salvation will work, and other plans will not.

³Do not allow yourself to become depressed or angry at the second part; it is inherent in the first.

* Remember that God IS the ONLY Truth that IS.

⁴And in the first is your full release from all your own insane attempts and mad proposals to free yourself.

⁵They have led to depression and anger; but God’s plan will succeed.

⁶It will lead to release and joy.

9. Remembering this, let us devote the remainder of the extended practice periods to asking God to reveal His plan to us.

²Ask Him very specifically:

³What would You have me do?

⁴Where would You have me go?

⁵What would You have me say, and to whom?

⁶Give Him full charge of the rest of the practice period, and let Him tell you what needs to be done by you in His plan for your salvation.

⁷He will answer in proportion to your willingness to hear His Voice.

* I DO, HE WII, and HE DOES.

⁸Refuse not to hear.

⁹The very fact that you are doing the exercises proves that you have some willingness to listen.

¹⁰This is enough to establish your claim to God’s answer.

10. In the shorter practice periods, tell yourself often that God’s plan for salvation, and only His, will work.

²Be alert to all temptation to hold grievances today, and respond to them with this form of today’s idea:

³Holding grievances is the opposite of God’s plan for salvation.

⁴And only His plan will work.

⁵Try to remember today’s idea some six or seven times an hour.

⁶There could be no better way to spend a half minute or less than to remember the Source of your salvation, and to see It where It is.

(ACIM, W-71.1:1–10:6)

To Father be ALL Glory and Praise Given AS His Son, debi.