A Course in Miracles Lesson 200 There is no peace except the peace of God.
Think you no further.
You will not find peace except the peace of God.
Accept this fact and save yourself the agony of yet more bitter disappointments,
More bleak despair.
Save yourself the sense of icy hopelessness and doubt.
Seek you no further.
There is nothing else for you to find except the peace of God.
Unless you seek for misery,
Unless you seek for pain.
This is the final point to which each one of us must come at last.
To lay aside all hope of finding happiness where there is none.
To lay aside all hope of being saved by what can only hurt.
To lay aside all hope of making peace of chaos.
To lay aside all hope of making joy of pain.
To lay aside all hope of making heaven out of hell.
Accept no more to win through losing.
Accept no more to die in order to live.
You cannot but be asking for defeat,
Yet you can ask as easily for love,
For happiness.
You can ask as easily for eternal life in peace that has no ending.
Ask for love and you can only win.
To ask for what you have already must succeed.
To ask that what is false be true can only fail.
Forgive yourself for vain imaginings.
Seek no longer for what you cannot find.
What could be more foolish than to seek and seek and seek again for hell?
When you have but to look with open eyes to find that heaven lies before you through a door that opens easily to welcome you.
Welcome home.
You have not found your happiness in foreign places.
You have not found your happiness in alien forms that have no meaning to you,
Though you sought to make them meaningful.
This world is not where you belong.
You are a stranger here,
But it has given you to find the means whereby the world no longer seems to be a prison house or a jail for anyone.
Freedom is given you where you beheld but chains and iron doors,
But you must change your mind about the purpose of the world if you would find escape.
You will be bound until all the world is seen by you as blessed.
You will be bound until everyone is made free of your mistakes.
You will be bound until everyone is honored as they are.
You made him not.
You made her not.
No more than you made yourself.
And as you free the one,
The other is accepted as they are.
There is no peace except the peace of God.
What does forgiveness do?
In truth,
Forgiveness has no function.
Forgiveness does nothing.
Forgiveness is unknown in heaven.
It is only hell where forgiveness is needed.
It is only hell where forgiveness must serve a mighty function.
Is not the escape of God's beloved children from evil dreams that they imagine,
Yet believe are true,
A worthy purpose?
Who could hope for more while there appears to be a choice to make between success and failure,
Between love and fear?
There is no peace except the peace of God,
Because God has one child who cannot make a world in opposition to God's will,
In opposition to their own will,
Which is the same as God's.
What could we hope to find in such a world?
The world cannot have reality because it never was created.
Is it here,
In this world,
That we would seek peace,
Or must we see that as we look on it,
The world can but deceive?
We can learn to look on the world another way and find the peace of God.
There is no peace except the peace of God.
Peace is the answer to conflicting goals,
To senseless journeys.
Peace is the answer to frantic,
Vain pursuits and meaningless endeavors.
Now the way is easy,
Sloping gently toward the bridge where freedom lies,
Within the peace of God.
Let us not lose our way again today.
We go to heaven and the path is straight.
Only if we attempt to wander can there be a delay.
Only if we try to wander can there be needless wasted time on thorny byways.
God alone is sure,
And God will guide our footsteps.
He will not desert his child in need.
God will not let his children stray forever from his home.
The father calls,
The child will hear,
And that is all there is to what appears to be a world apart from God,
Where bodies have reality.
There is no peace except the peace of God.
Now is there silence.
Seek no further.
You have come to where the road is carpeted with leaves of false desires,
Leaves fallen from the trees of hopelessness you sought before.
Now the leaves are underfoot,
And you look up and on toward heaven,
With the body's eyes but serving for an instant longer now.
Peace is already recognized at last,
And you can feel the soft embrace of peace surround your heart and surround your mind with comfort and with love.
Today we seek no idols.
Peace cannot be found in idols.
The peace of God is ours,
And only this will we accept and want.
Peace be to us today,
For we have found a simple and a happy way to leave the world of ambiguity.
We have found a way to replace our shifting goals and solitary dreams with a single purpose and companionship.
Peace is union if peace be of God.
We seek no further.
We are close to home.
We draw still nearer to home every time we say,
There is no peace except the peace of God.
I am glad and thankful it is so.
Ponder on this.
There is no peace except the peace of God.
I am glad and thankful it is so.
Peace is the bridge that everyone will cross to leave this world behind.
There is no peace except the peace of God.
I am glad and thankful it is so.
Peace begins with the world perceived as different.
Lead us to the gate of heaven and the way beyond.
Nothing real can be threatened.
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.
