“Striving to be that which you can never be is the hell you have created.” …ACOL

To strive for something should not be confused with struggling, for they are not the same thing at all. But to strive for the impossible is something different again. To strive for the impossible eventually turns into a life-long struggle to reach that which can never be reached. And that’s what we humans do. We spend our lives striving to be something other than that which we are, which is a goal we can never reach. Therefore, our striving eventually turns into struggling which is the cause of the hell we have created for ourselves.

“You are complete only within God, where you endlessly abide.” …ACOL

What is it that we spend our whole lives striving to be and believing we’ll eventually be what we’re striving to be? The ego has convinced us that we’re loveless, alone and separate in the world and if we strive hard enough we can achieve completion and satisfaction in this separated state. So we spend our lives setting goals and striving for completion and satisfaction. But as everyone knows, whenever a goal is reached a sense of joy or pride may set in for a short while. But then, within a short time, a feeling of disappointment begins to arrive because no worldly goals will ever fill the void we all feel in our perceived states of separation from God.

“All feeling results from love or lack of love. There are no other reasons for the feelings that you experience.” …ACOL

If you view God as a separate entity way off in the sky somewhere and yourself as a physical body then there’s no alternative other then to believe that you’re separate from God.

If you’re separate from God then you’re also separate from Love, for God and Love are one and the same. Of course, this is an illusionary state that the ego has convinced you to believe about yourself. For as I have repeated many times throughout this site, nothing could be separate from God and exist. Nevertheless most believe themselves to be separate from God which attracts all the negative feelings needed to create a hell for themselves.

“You are no less your Self even though you do not realize that without love you would not exist.” …ACOL

It matters not what you believe about yourself when it comes to what you really are. For you are a Child of God and therefore, you will forever and always be an extension of pure Love.

What does matter when it comes to your beliefs about yourself is how you feel and how much happiness and joy you have in your life. As Jesus tells us in the quote prior to the last one, All feeling results from love or lack of love. There are no other reasons for the feelings that you experience.

This is where your striving needs to be paid attention to. If you’re experiencing negative feelings, which if held onto always create hellish conditions, then you’re striving to be that which you can never be. You’re striving to be separated from Love. Your striving therefore, has turned into a struggle and you’re struggling in a self-made hell. For that’s what hell is, a condition consisting of an illusionary lack of Love. It’s illusionary because in reality it’s an impossibility.

“God’s only thought is love. It is a thought without limit, endlessly creating.” …ACOL

The Course tells us that, the power of decision is your one remaining freedom as a prisoner of this world. This world is based in fear because it is made from fear or better said, a lack of Love. And whatever lacks Love is embroiled in fear, for without Love nothing remains but fear and fear is synonymous with hell and it always imprisons.

But your Creator has not abandoned you for Love cannot abandon Itself. Even though you may feel as though you’re deep into darkness and misery believing yourself to be lacking Love you have access to an escape. God has given you the mightiest Power that can be found in this world, the Power of decision. As the above image quote by Abraham-Hicks tells you, your choices of thought are not limited.

You can use this mighty Power at any time and change your striving. You can use it to stop struggling to be that which you can never be and strive to recognize your Self as your Father created you, which is an extension of pure Love.

“The Thought God holds of you is like a star, unchangeable in an eternal sky. So high in Heaven is it set that those outside of Heaven know not it is there.” …ACIM

As we learned from the quote prior to this one, God’s only thought is love. Therefore, the Thought He holds of you cannot be anything but pure Love. That’s what you are, a Thought of pure Love held eternally in God’s Mind. God’s Mind is the only Mind there is and is synonymous with Heaven and you’re a Thought of Love held within It.

You can use your Power of Decision and make the choice to strive to form a loving relationship with your Self. By doing so you’re forming a relationship with God’s Thought of Love. Once this relationship is formed all striving and struggling cease to be as you realize you’re one with everything in the universe.

“Let your worries come and let your worries go. Remember always that they simply do not matter except in terms of time…” …ACOL

What do we worry about that has one thing to do with anything other than the body and its comforts? And why do we worry so much about the body and its comforts? The simple truth is we worry about it because the ego has convinced us that the body is what we are. Even though we know and understand that the body cannot be anything other than temporary we do everything within our perceived power to hold onto it. In other words, we’re continuously striving to be that which we can never be, a physical being.

The above quote doesn’t tell us to try and stop worrying. It tells us to let our worries come. But it also tells us to let our worries go and remember always that they simply do not matter except in terms of time. In other words, worrying is inevitable as long as you believe you’re no more than the body which, like everything physical, is subject to the ravages of time.

“You see the flesh or recognize the Spirit. There is no compromise between the two. If one is real the other must be false, for what is real denies its opposite.” …ACIM

Right here lies the most important decision you’ll ever make. And make no mistake, it is a decision, as The Course says: “What you decide in this determines all you see and think is real and hold as true.”

If you believe you’re a physical body then you’ve made the decision to see the flesh. And the Course tells us what the consequences of this decision are: “If you choose flesh, you never will escape the body as your own reality, for you have chosen that you want it so.”

But do not let this bother you for all decisions can be reversed, as the Course says: “Choose once again if you would take your place among the saviors of the world, or would remain in hell and hold your brothers there.”

I’m going to close this post with another quote from A Course in Miracles: “But choose the Spirit, and all Heaven bends to touch your eyes and bless your holy sight, that you may see the world of flesh no more except to heal and comfort and to bless.”

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Thank you for visiting this site – I Am truly Grateful

“If you choose to see the body, you behold a world of separation, unrelated things, and happenings that make no sense at all.” …ACIM