Why Only God’s Plan for Salvation Will Work & Yours Will Not – ACIM Lesson 71

Lesson 71 in the Workbook of A Course in Miracles is “Only God’s Plan for Salvation Will Work.”

In this lesson we are taught that our (aka the ego’s) plan for “salvation” is getting everyone else in our lives to change, do what we think they should do, say what we want them to say, behave in accordance to what we believe is the right thing, and then we can be happy and at peace.

I’m paraphrasing here but Jesus in A Course in Miracles is essentially calling bullshit on that idea.

It is the credo of the ego’s thought system to “seek and do not find.” We go from one thing to another – if we can’t make people change then we find new people or situations. Or we remain in the same circumstances but continue the cycle of conflict, judgment, condemnation, blame, and guilt – so that we are never really happy.

In the practice of Lesson 71 we are asked to let go of the ego’s idea of salvation and ask what God’s plan is. And then we are instructed to listen.

The prayer is,

“What would you have me do? Where would you have me go? What would you have me say? And to whom?”
W-pI.71.9:3-5

We are told that if we’re willing to hear an answer, we’ll hear it.

We’re also told that,

“Holding grievances is the opposite of God’s plan for salvation, and only His plan will work.”
W-pI.71.10:3-4

Practicing the Course’s process of True Forgiveness enables us to let go of grievances and shift our perception from fear to love, so that we are in alignment with God’s plan for salvation. We are then able to be happy – regardless of what other people appear to be doing or what the situation appears to be.

And miraculously, the crazy paradox is that as we choose God’s plan for salvation over that of the ego and let go of our grievances we are not projecting them onto the world – and people and circumstances then do appear to change and life becomes more peaceful, loving, and joyful.