Workbook · Part I
Lesson 168
Your grace is given me. I claim it now.
What this lesson is saying
Today’s idea is: “Your grace is given me. I claim it now.” In ordinary English: Grace is already given. Claim it. Claiming is not arrogance. It is stopping the stall of unworthiness.
Giving and receiving are the same motion in this teaching. What you offer someone — a blessing, a ranking, a withheld kindness — is what you keep. The insult comes home. The blessing comes home. Give the thing you would like to live in.
You do not have to believe it first. You use the words on one real judgment — of someone, of yourself, of a situation — and then you take the next ordinary step.
This is not saying
This is not a bargain: I will be kind so they will change. It is not keeping score. It is noticing that the mind you use on them is the mind you have to sit in.
Why this can change a day
Relationships stall when we wait to receive first. This lesson makes the first move local: patience, a clean word, attention, a dropped case. That is how the day stops being a ledger.
In your day
Same idea, three ordinary places — a relationship or encounter, the case against yourself, and a situation at work or at home. You do not need a special mood.
With someone
A task looks like a verdict on you — if this fails, I am that.
What to do
Say the words as written: “Your grace is given me. I claim it now.” Begin the task as if you had not already lost. The idea is not a substitute for the work. It is a substitute for using the work as a self.
Toward yourself
You glare, even silently, in a line or a meeting, as if seeing were private.
What to do
Say the words as written: “Your grace is given me. I claim it now.” The look you give is received. Soften it. That is the whole practice. Then speak if speech is needed.
At work, at home, or in a situation
A photo, a birthday, a glance at a hand — aging as doom.
What to do
Say the words as written: “Your grace is given me. I claim it now.” Care for the body. Do not make the photo into God, and do not punish it. Identity is not the glass.
Two voices in the same mind
Hear which one is running. Then today’s idea, on a real person — or on you.
Unloving thought
The outcome is my identity. I have already lost, or I must force a win. Seeing can wait.
Jesus’s way
“Your grace is given me. I claim it now.” Give the thing you want: patience, a clean word, attention. Giving is how you find out you had it. Do not keep a debt.
Spalding · 2019 · episode #372
Jesus’s commentary for Lesson 168
Tina reads the official workbook lesson first. Then she channels. The video is the source. The notes below are study notes of that sitting — not a transcript, and not A Year of Forgiveness.
After the reading
In the video · Jesus speaking
This is the channeled portion — after Tina has read the lesson. Study notes of that sitting. Not a transcript.
- I claim it now.” The holy instant is a frequency you consent to, not a trophy.
- If fear of listening arises, that fear is the belief, not the Voice.
- After Tina reads Lesson 168, the channeling is living “Your grace is given me. I claim it now.” He will not let it stay a slogan. Use these words. Do not swap them for a thought you like better.
How to sit today
Part I · Grace
The idea is above. This is the one sitting this number asks — how often, how long, and the words. Not a second lesson.
- How often
- Morning sitting as Lesson 153 began it, plus hourly remembrance, plus when you are tempted to forget
- How long
- Five minutes is the least you give the morning sitting. Ten is better; fifteen better still. The evening pair matches. Hourly: even a minute if that is all you can offer
- Through the day
- When the hour strikes, remember. When you can, give more than a minute.
- When shaken
- When the day’s idea is the medicine, use it on the actual situation, not later in a chair.
- If you forget
- A lapse is not a failure story. Resume. Guilt about missing is another idle thought.
How
- Lesson 168 keeps the form begun in Lesson 153. Sit without armor. Read the idea (and the prayer if the lesson gives one). Then wait. Defenselessness is the method, not a mood.
- Do not throw the day away because an hour was forgotten. Return at the next hour.
Longer sitting
Two extended sittings — fifteen minutes twice is the standard for this stretch
- Today’s idea is: “Your grace is given me. I claim it now.”
- Read the idea (and the prayer or specific form the official lesson gives). Spend the sitting in that idea.
- Say, slowly: “Your grace is given me. I claim it now.”
- Let related thoughts come. Return to the idea when the mind wanders. Give the rest of the day to remembering it.
Short / hourly
A reminder on the hour — even a minute if that is all you have
- Say, slowly: “Your grace is given me. I claim it now.”
When shaken
When the day’s idea is the medicine, use it on the actual situation, not later in a chair
- Say, slowly: “Your grace is given me. I claim it now.”
These scripts follow the workbook’s own method for this number — duration, frequency, and the sentences it asks you to use. They are a study paraphrase, not a replacement. Read the official lesson at acim.org and follow any wording it gives that is more specific than this card.
Words you may not know
Full glossaryCourse words do not mean what church, psychology, or ordinary English usually mean. These notes are for this lesson — tap a word.
Other voices — Tina, Ra, Carla
Short notes from the four streams. The teaching above is the lesson. These are doors if you want them.
Spalding
“Your grace is given me. I claim it now.” The holy instant is a frequency you consent to, not a trophy. Wait. If fear of listening arises, that fear is the belief, not the Voice. Note it. Return.
Watch this lesson’s commentaryRa
This lesson is practice in polarizing with the person in front of you. Service to others is not a slogan. It is whether you treat them as the same being you are.
Open streamRueckert
Q'uo's usual counsel fits: tune, then serve the one in front of you. The Confederation does not need you to become impressive. It needs you to become kind without performance.
Open stream