Workbook · Part II · What Is the Body?
Lesson 261
God is my refuge and security.
What this lesson is saying
Today’s idea is: “God is my refuge and security.” God is the refuge. Safety-plans can help the day. They cannot be the home.
Part II is shorter on the page and longer in the sitting. The argument is over. You say the idea, you wait, then you meet whoever is in front of you. Keep the essay “What Is the Body?” beside you until the next one is given. It is a sentence about you, not a new theory.
You do not have to feel it. Fear of sitting still, or of hearing a Voice, is often cultural. Note it. Listen anyway. Then the next person — or the next thought about yourself — is the application.
This is not saying
This is not a diploma and not a trance. Stay in your life. Eat. Rest. Help. The sitting is how you walk into the same work, home, and relationships with a mind that is not at war.
Why this can change a day
Loneliness, specialness, and attack all need God to be absent. Remembering you are accompanied changes how you treat a stranger, a partner, and the face in the glass — without a speech.
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
You notice you do not actually want to see — you want to be right. The day already feels decided.
What to do
Say the words as written: “God is my refuge and security.” Determination is a decision, not a mood. Make it. Badly is allowed. Then look at one actual face or one actual thing.
Toward yourself
A murder show, a takedown, entertainment that tastes like winning.
What to do
Say the words as written: “God is my refuge and security.” Notice the taste without self-loathing. Thoughts of attacking and of being attacked are the same thought. Look away. Then the next decent hour.
At work, at home, or in a situation
A stranger in a line, a driver, a voice on a phone — already judged in two seconds.
What to do
Say the words as written: “God is my refuge and security.” Two seconds is enough to glue a story. Take it off. They are still a person. Then go on.
Two voices in the same mind
Hear which one is running. Then today’s idea, on a real person — or on you.
Unloving thought
Seeing would cost the judgment. I am determined to win, not to see.
Jesus’s way
“God is my refuge and security.” This idea is a joining, not a theory. Receive it as much as you can. Then treat the next person as included.
Spalding · 2019 · episode #471
Jesus’s commentary for Lesson 261
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.
- Part II: after Tina reads, he asks you to sit with “God is my refuge and security,” then wait. Fear of hearing a Voice is named and not obeyed.
- Keep “What Is the Body?” as a sentence about you, not as a new theory. Sit. Then whoever you meet is the application.
How to sit today
Part II · Restoration of sight
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 and night with God; hourly remembrance; whenever you are tempted to forget the goal
- How long
- Part II does not consider time a matter of duration. Use as much as you need for the result you desire. Continue as long as makes you happy
- Through the day
- Hourly remembrance between the longer times. Call to God when you have need of Him.
- When shaken
- Instead of fighting temptation, call. Instead of judging, be still and let all things be healed.
How
- Say the day’s simple words of welcome — the idea and the prayer in the official lesson. Then wait for Him to take the step to you that He promised.
- Words mean little now. They are guides you do not depend on. Seek direct experience. Sit silently and wait upon your Father.
- Slowly read “What Is the Body?” and think about it a little while, preceding one of today’s holy instants. Continue that essay each day until the next one is given.
Longer sitting
Morning and night with God. No clock is set. Use as much time as you need for the result you want. Continue as long as makes you happy
- Today’s idea is: “God is my refuge and security.”
- Say the day’s simple words of welcome — the idea, then the short prayer printed in the official lesson.
- Then wait. Words mean little now. They are guides you do not depend on. Sit silently and wait upon your Father.
- Do not turn the waiting into another technique for getting answers.
- Slowly read “What Is the Body?” and think about it a little while, preceding one of today’s holy instants. Keep that essay until the next one is given.
Short / hourly
Hourly remembrance between the longer times
- A short return to today’s idea: “God is my refuge and security.”. Then a still moment.
When shaken
Whenever you are tempted to forget the goal
- Instead of fighting temptation, call. Instead of judging, be still and let all things be healed.
- Say, slowly: “God is my refuge and security.”
Do not turn the waiting into another technique for getting answers. The answers you already are can be noticed when the argument stops.
Keep the essay What Is the Body? beside you until the next “What Is” is given.
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
Part II pairs a short idea with a What Is essay. Today’s essay is What Is the Body?. Jesus through Tina uses “God is my refuge and security” as a sitting, not a speech: wait after the words. Fear of the inner Voice is cultural. Note the fear, then listen anyway.
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
A wanderer on Earth does not need a different lesson. She needs this one, done with her hands. Carla's whole archive is the proof: contact follows a life, it does not replace it.
Open stream