Lesson 222 • August-10
God is with me. I live and move in Him.
Practice Instructions
See complete instructions in separate document. A short summary:
- Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.
- Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.
- Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind Meditation.
- Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind Meditation.
- Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in meditation.
- Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.
- Read the "What Is" section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.
Practice comments: The prayer for this lesson states that we will be doing Name of God Meditation. It speaks of a time when we come to God with no words in our minds except His Name, using the repetition of that Name as a request to enter His Presence and rest with Him in peace. This, of course, is a perfect encapsulation of Name of God Meditation.
Commentary
Again we are brought to the Presence of God, without words, in quiet. Our only awareness is of God, His Name upon our lips.
What does it mean to "live and move" in God? This is the message that the Apostle Paul brought to the Athenians, speaking of the "unknown God," and saying that "in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:16-28). The lesson speaks of the omnipresence of God—that God is everywhere and "everywhen." In beautiful imagery, the lesson turns our thoughts to the all-pervading Presence, never apart from us, "closer…than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet," as Tennyson wrote.
This is imagery and not (in my opinion) literal. If the world is illusion, as the Course has so often said, God is not literally "the water which renews and cleanses me" (1:2). This is speaking of our spiritual reality, where we really are. God is the reality of all things in which we look to the world for sustenance, the true Source of our life. We think we live in the world, but we live in God. We think our body contains our life, but He is our life. We think we breathe air, but we breathe Him. God is our true food and our true drink, our true home. We do not live and move in the world; we live and move in God.
Reading this lesson aloud is an excellent exercise. Or turning the first part into a prayer: "You are the Source of my life…You are my home…." Use these words at the start of your practice period to set your mind into a consciousness of being immersed in and filled with God, kept in His loving care. Then, be still, and let yourself sink into that Presence, to rest with Him in peace a while.
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