Library of Christ Mind Teachings
ACIM Original Edition
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44 Anything in this world that you believe is good and valuable and
worth striving for can hurt you and will do so. Not because it has the
power to hurt, but just because you have denied it is but an illusion
and made it real. And it is real to you. It is not nothing and
through its perceived reality has entered all the world of sick
illusions. All belief in sin, in power of attack, in hurt and harm, in
sacrifice and death has come to you. For no one can make one illusion
real and still escape the rest. For who can choose to keep the ones
which he prefers and find the safety that the truth alone can give? Who
can believe illusions are the same and still maintain that even one is
best?
45 Lead not your little lives in solitude with one illusion as your only
friend. This is no friendship worthy of God’s Son, nor one with which he
could remain content. Yet God has given him a better Friend in Whom all
power in earth and Heaven rests. The one illusion that you think is
friend obscures His grace and majesty from you and keeps His
friendship and forgiveness from your welcoming embrace. Without Him you
are friendless. Seek not another friend to take His place. There is
no other friend. What God appointed has no substitute, for what illusion
can replace the truth?
46 Who dwells with shadows is alone indeed, and loneliness is not the
Will of God. Would you allow one shadow to usurp the throne that God
appointed for your Friend if you but realized its emptiness has left
yours empty and unoccupied? Make no illusion friend, for if you do, it
can but take the place of Him whom God has called your Friend. And it is
He who is your only Friend in truth. He brings you gifts that are not
of this world, and only He to whom they have been given can make sure
that you receive them. He will place them on your throne when you make
room for Him on His.