A Course in Miracles.
Lesson 197.
It can be but my gratitude I earn.
Here is the second step we take to free your mind from the belief in an outside force pitted against your own.
You make attempts at kindness and forgiveness,
Yet you turn these attempts into attacks again,
Unless you find external gratitude and lavish thanks.
Your gifts must be received with honor,
Lest they be withdrawn,
And so you think God's gifts are loans at best.
At worst,
God's gifts are deceptions which would cheat you of the defenses that would ensure that when God strikes you,
He will not fail to kill you.
How easily are God and guilt confused by those of us who know not what our thoughts can do.
If you deny your strength,
Weakness must become salvation to you.
If you see yourself as bound,
Prison bars become your home.
You will not leave the prison house or claim your strength until guilt and salvation are not seen as one.
You will not leave the prison until freedom and salvation are perceived as joined,
With strength beside them.
Salvation,
Freedom,
And strength all to be sought,
Claimed,
Found,
And fully recognized.
The world must thank you when you offer it release from your illusions.
Yet,
Your thanks belongs to yourself as well,
For the world's release can only mirror yours.
Your gratitude is all your gifts require.
Let the gifts be a lasting offering of a thankful heart,
Released from hell forever.
Is it this you would undo by taking back your gifts because they were not honored?
It is you who honor the gifts and give them fitting thanks,
For it is you have received the gifts.
It does not matter if someone thinks your gifts unworthy.
There is a part of their mind that joins with yours in thanking you.
It does not matter if your gifts seem lost and ineffectual.
Your gifts are received where they are given.
In your gratitude are your gifts accepted universally.
In your gratitude are your gifts thankfully acknowledged by the heart of God himself.
Would you take your gifts back when God has gratefully accepted them?
God blesses every gift you give to him,
And every gift is given to God.
Because gifts can only be given to yourself,
And what belongs to God must be his own.
So,
Say to yourself,
Say,
In your mind,
It can only be my gratitude I earn.
It can only be my gratitude I earn.
You will never realize God's gifts are sure,
Eternal,
Changeless,
And limitless.
You will never realize God's gifts are forever giving out,
Extending love.
God's gifts add to your never-ending joy,
But you will never realize God's gifts while you forgive,
Only to attack again.
Withdraw the gifts you give,
And you will thank that what has been given you has been withdrawn.
But,
Learn to let forgiveness take away the sins you think you see outside yourself.
You can never think the gifts of God are lent only for a little while,
Before God snatches them away again in death.
For death will have no meaning for you then.
With the end of this belief is fear forever over.
Thank yourself for this,
For God is grateful only unto God,
And God gives thanks for you unto himself.
To everyone who lives will Christ yet come,
For everyone must live and move in Christ.
Christ,
Being in his Father,
Is secure,
Because their will is one.
Their gratitude to all they have created has no end,
For gratitude remains a part of love.
A part of love.
Thanks be to you,
The holy child of God,
For as you were created,
You contain all things within yourself,
And you are still as God created you.
Can you dim the light of your perfection?
In your heart,
The heart of God is laid.
God holds you dear,
Because you are God.
All gratitude belongs to you,
Because of what you are.
Ponder on this.
As you were created,
You contain all things within yourself.
To all of us will Christ yet come,
For we live and move in Christ.
Thanks be to you,
Holy child of God,
As you were created,
You contain all things within yourself.
We are still as God created us.
In our hearts,
The heart of God is laid.
You are as God created you.
You are God.
We cannot dim the light of our perfection.
God holds you dear,
Because you are God.
All gratitude belongs to you,
Because of what you are.
Your gratitude is all your gifts require.
Let the gifts be a lasting offering of a thankful heart,
Released from hell forever.
Give thanks as you receive it.
Be you free of all ingratitude.
To anyone who makes your higher self complete,
And from your higher self is no one left outside.
Give thanks for all the countless channels which extend this higher self.
All that you do is given unto God.
All that you think can only be God's thoughts,
Sharing with Christ the holy thoughts of God.
Earn now the gratitude you have denied yourself,
When you forgot the function God has given you.
But never think that God has ever ceased to offer thanks to you.
You are as God created you.
You are God.
It can be,
But my gratitude I earn.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
