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Dynamics for Living
Forgiveness
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[Dynamics for Living]
[Charles Fillmore's Works] [Unity on the Web Home Page]
FORGIVENESS is a process of giving up the false for the
true; erasing sin and error from the mind and body. It is
closely related to repentance, which is a turning from
belief in sin to belief in God and righteousness. A sin is
the falling short of divine law. True forgiveness is only
established through renewing of the mind and body with
thoughts and words of Truth.
Forgiveness really means the giving up of something you
should not do. Jesus said that man has power to forgive
sin. Repentance and forgiveness are the only means that man
has of
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getting out of sin and its effect and coming into harmony
with the law.
Repentance
Repentance is a reversal of mind and heart in the direction
of the All-Good. When we repent, we break with human
thought and ascend into a spiritual thought realm, the
kingdom of God.
The Greek word metanoia is translated "repentance," which
has been interpreted to mean an admission to God of sorrow
for past sin and a resolve to be good in the future. The
field of action for that which has been assumed to be
goodness in the sight of God has nearly always been in
conduct.
There is always hope for the repentant sinner. A repentant
state of mind is an exceeding good state for one who has
been on the error side. If you find yourself suffering the
result of transgressed law, begin at once a righteous
repentance. As soon as you repent and recognize that the
way of Spirit is the way of pleasantness, your sins are
forgiven you, and you are made whole and well.
Law
The law is Truth. Truth is all that is good. There is no
power or no reality in sin. If sin were real and enduring,
like goodness and Truth, it could not be forgiven but
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would hold its victim forever. Our first work in the
demonstration is to contact God. Therefore, we must forgive
all men their transgressions. Through the divine law of
forgiveness we cleanse our mind so that the Father can
forgive us.
Man can do everything with the thoughts of his mind. They
are absolutely under his control. He can direct them. He
can coerce them. He can hush them or crush them. He can
dissolve one thought and put another in its stead. There is
no other place in the universe where man has mastery. The
dominion that is his by divine right is over his own
thoughts, only. When man apprehends this and begins to
exercise that dominion, he begins to open the way to
God--the only door to God--through mind and thought.
Law of Dissolving
How can you expect to forgive your transgressions before
you have first forgiven others their transgressions? One of
the laws of mind is that one belief must be dissolved
before another can take its place. If you have in mind a
thought that someone has wronged you, you cannot let in the
cleansing power of Spirit until you have dissolved and cast
out the belief of the wrong.
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You may be wondering why you do not get spiritual
illumination as others do. What kind of thoughts fill your
mind? Have you by forgiving your debtors made room in your
life for spiritual blessings, or is your mind filled with
thoughts of resentment against this one, and a feeling that
you have been slighted by that one? Jesus recognized this
infallible law of mind.
Thoughts have substance and form. They may easily be taken
to be permanent by one who lacks spiritual discernment.
They bring forth fruit according to the seed ideas planted
into the mind. They are not enduring unless founded in
Spirit.
The question is not "How guilty is that man," but "How do I
stand in the sight of the Father as to my ideas about his
guilt?" Reform yourself first. That means very much more to
one who enjoys an understanding of mind and its laws than
it does to the ordinary individual.
He who knows not himself wholly, but just his superficial,
external personality, thinks that he is reformed when he
conforms to moral and municipal laws. He may be filled with
self-righteousness and may daily lift his voice in prayer,
thanking God that he is not as other men are; but he has
not forgiven men their transgressions. He looks upon every
man who does not conform to his understanding of morality,
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religion, or finances as a transgressor, and thanks God for
his own supposed insight and keenness. But he is not at
peace. There is something lacking. God does not talk to him
"face to face," because the mind, where God and man meet,
is darkened by the murky belief that other men are sinners.
God is too pure to behold iniquity, so our first work of
reform is to forgive all men their transgressions. Through
this forgiving act on our part, the Father can enter with
forgiveness of our transgressions.
Forgiving All
Our forgiving "all men" includes ourself. You must also
forgive yourself. Let the finger of denial erase every sin
or "falling short" that you have charged up against
yourself. Pay your debt by saying to that part of yourself
which you think has fallen short: "See, you are well! sin
no more, that nothing worse befall you." Then "loose him,
and let him go."
Treat sin as a mental transgression, instead of considering
it as a moral defection. Deny in thought all tendency to
the error way and hold yourself firmly to the Christ
Spirit, which is your divine self. Part company forever
with the "accusing conscience." Those who have resolved to
sin no more have nothing in common with guilt.
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Forgiving Debts
Deny that any man or woman owes you anything. If necessary,
go over your list of names separately and sincerely forgive
the thought of debt which you have been attaching to each
person named. More bills may be collected in this way than
in any other, for many of these people will pay what they
owe when you send them this forgiving thought.
Let the law of plenty work itself out in you and in your
affairs. This is the way the Father forgives your debts:
not by canceling them on His books but by erasing them from
His mind. He remembers them no more against you when you
deny their reality. The Father is the every-where-present
Spirit in which all that appears has its origin. God's love
sees you always well, happy, and abundantly provided for.
God's wisdom demands that order and right relation exist in
your mind before it may become manifest in your affairs as
abundance. His love would give you your every desire, but
His wisdom ordains that you forgive your debtors before
your debts are forgiven.
To remedy any state of limited finances or ill health that
has been brought about by worry, one must begin by
eliminating the worry that is the original cause. One must
free one's mind from the burden before the debt can be paid.
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Many people have found that the statement "I owe no man
anything but love" has helped them greatly to counteract
this thought of debt. As they used the words their minds
were opened to an inflow of divine love and they faithfully
cooperated with the divine law of forgiveness in thought,
word, and deed. They built up such a strong consciousness
of the healing and enriching power of God's love that they
could live and work peacefully and profitably with their
associates. Thus renewed constantly in health, in faith,
and in integrity, they were able to meet every obligation
that came to them.
The statement "I owe no man anything but love" does not
mean that we can disclaim owing our creditors money or try
to evade the payment of obligations we have incurred. The
thing denied is the burdensome thought of debt or of lack.
The work of paying debts is an inner work having nothing to
do with the debts already owed but with the wrong thoughts
that produced them. When one holds to the right ideas,
burdensome debts will not be contracted.
Love
Your thoughts should at all times be worthy of your highest
self, your fellow man, and God. The thoughts that most
frequently work ill to you and your associates are thoughts
of criticism and condemnation. Fill
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your mind with thoughts of divine love, justice, peace, and
forgiveness. This will pay your debts of love, which are
the only debts you really owe. Then see how quickly and
easily and naturally all your outer debts will be paid and
all inharmonies of mind, body, and affairs will smooth out
at the same time. Nothing will so quickly enrich your mind
and free it from every thought of lack as the realization
of divine love. Divine love will free you quickly and
perfectly from the burden of debt and heal you of your
physical infirmities, often caused by depression, worry,
and financial fear. Love will bring your own to you. Adjust
all misunderstandings and make your life and affairs
healthy, happy, harmonious, and free, as they should be.
Love indeed is the "fulfilling of the law."
In the kingdom of Truth and reality, ideas are the coin of
the realm. You can use the new ideas that divine wisdom is
now quickening in your mind and start this very moment to
pay your debts.
Freedom
Begin by thanking God for your freedom from debt-burden
thought. This is an important step in breaking the shackles
of debt. Debt is soon vanquished when wisdom and good
judgment are in control.
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Begin to free yourself at once by doing all that is
possible with the means you have and as you proceed in this
spirit the way will open for you to do more; for through
the avenues of Spirit more means will come to you and every
obligation will be met.
No one can understand how forgiveness sets free the
sin-bound soul and the sick body unless he studies mind and
has some understanding of its laws. There is a universal
thought substance in which thought builds whatever man
wills.
Change
There must be inner growth that is a fuller consciousness
of the new life which comes with the entering into the
kingdom of Christ. There is a foundation for a worldwide
movement in behalf of purer men and better things for all.
There is something back of it all, and the old conditions,
diseases, and limitations must pass away. The time is now
ripe for entering into this kingdom, this attainment of the
spiritual side of life, this growing of a new body; and
every one of us can enter in if only we will do so.
In all actual transformation of mind and body a dissolving,
breaking-up process necessarily takes place, because
thought force and substance have been built into the errors
that
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appear. In each individual these errors have the power that
man has given them by his thought concerning them. These
thought structures must be broken up and eliminated from
consciousness.
The simplest, most direct, and most effective method is to
withdraw from them the life and substance that have been
going to feed them, and to let them shrivel away into their
own nothingness. This withdrawal is best accomplished by
denial and forgiveness of the power and reality of evil and
the affirmation of the allness of Spirit.
Nothing is destroyed, because "nothing cannot be destroyed.
The change that takes place is merely a transference of
power from an error belief to faith in the Truth, through
the recognition that God is good and is all that in reality
exists.
To get the actual overcoming power of Christ we must
appreciate life and enter into it thankfully and heartily.
The abundant life is always present. When we recognize it
and open our consciousness to it, it comes flowing into
mind and body with a mighty quickening, healing power that
renews, transforms, and changes.
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[Dynamics for Living]
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