Your grace is given me. I claim it now.
We claim God’s love – God’s grace – in confidence, not because of anything inherent in us, but because of what God is. God does not distinguish between minds that sleep and those which are awake. God is not bothered by the appearance of the world or the ego. Love seeks nothing but itself, and since there is nothing but itself, Love is all it finds.
You and I don’t believe that, otherwise we do not need – would not bring forth – projects like A Course in Miracles. We perceive a world that is literally made by distinctions and differences, many of which are in conflict with each other. Violence and grief abound. Whatever good there is – and we do see good – is easily offset by the bad.
Therefore, when A Course in Miracles asserts that hope and despair are literally impossible in reality (W-pI.168.2:1), our reaction is to call it nonsense or just pretend it makes sense through various intellectual dodges. Only a fool would pretend there isn’t sometimes cause for despair.
. . . in grace you see a light that covers all the world in love, and watch fear disappear from every face as hearts rise up and claim the light as theirs. What now remains that Heaven be delayed an instant longer? What is still undone when your forgiveness rests on everything? (W-pI.168.5:3-5)
Good questions it doesn’t hurt to actually pause and try to answer for ourselves.
The essence of this lesson is that we don’t personally contribute to grace, beyond our willingness to remember it, to “claim” it. We don’t invent grace, sustain grace, or amend grace. We simply ask that it be given and then rest in anticipation of remembering that it has already been both given and accepted.
Would God not gladly give the means by which His Will is recognized? His grace is yours by your acknowledgement. And memory of him awakens in the mind that asks the means of Him whereby its sleep is done (W-pI.168.2:4-6).
Therefore, the simple mechanics of the lesson assert that God is correct about love and we are confused. We are simply clarifying a perceptual error.
Your grace is given me. I claim it now. Father I come to You. And You will come to me who ask (W-pI.168.6:5-8).
Critically, we do not have to believe this! We simply have to be willing to try it. Our motives are beside the point. It doesn’t matter why you want to go home if you are already home.
A Course in Miracles works by degrees, which is to say, it works as we work it, to the very degree that we work it. There is no judgment in this! As the lesson makes clear, God’s love is perfectly given whether we are asleep or awake (e.g., W-pI.168.1:9-11). We do the best we can and then let the spiritual chips fall where they will. God’s grace teaches us not to fear their falling.
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