LESSON 194 I place the future in the Hands of God.

1. 1Today’s idea takes another step toward quick salvation, and a giant stride it is indeed! 2So great the distance is that it encompasses, it sets you down just short of Heaven, with the goal in sight and obstacles behind. 3Your foot has reached the lawns that welcome you to Heaven’s gate; the quiet place of peace, where you await with certainty the final step of God. 4How far are we progressing now from earth! 5How close are we approaching to our goal! 6How short the journey still to be pursued!

2. 1Accept today’s idea, and you have passed all anxiety, all pits of hell, all blackness of depression, thoughts of sin, and devastation brought about by guilt. 2Accept today’s idea, and you have re­leased the world from all imprisonment by loosening the heavy chains that locked the door to freedom on it. 3You are saved, and your salvation thus becomes the gift you give the world, because you have received.

3. 1In no one instant is depression felt, or pain experienced or loss perceived. 2In no one instant sorrow can be set upon a throne, and worshipped faithfully. 3In no one instant can one even die. 4And so each instant given unto God in passing, with the next one given Him already, is a time of your release from sadness, pain and even death itself.

4. 1God holds your future as He holds your past and present. 2They are one to Him, and so they should be one to you. 3Yet in this world, the temporal progression still seems real. 4And so you are not asked to understand the lack of sequence really found in time. 5You are but asked to let the future go, and place it in God’s Hands. 6And you will see by your experience that you have laid the past and present in His Hands as well, because the past will punish you no more, and future dread will now be meaningless.

5. 1Release the future. 2For the past is gone, and what is present, freed from its bequest of grief and misery, of pain and loss, becomes the instant in which time escapes the bondage of illusions where it runs its pitiless, inevitable course. 3Then is each instant which was slave to time transformed into a holy instant, when the light that was kept hidden in God’s Son is freed to bless the world. 4Now is he free, and all his glory shines upon a world made free with him, to share his holiness.

6. 1If you can see the lesson for today as the deliverance it really is, you will not hesitate to give as much consistent effort as you can, to make it be a part of you. 2As it becomes a thought that rules your mind, a habit in your problem-solving repertoire, a way of quick reaction to temptation, you extend your learning to the world. 3And as you learn to see salvation in all things, so will the world perceive that it is saved.

7. 1What worry can beset the one who gives his future to the lov­ing Hands of God? 2What can he suffer? 3What can cause him pain, or bring experience of loss to him? 4What can he fear? 5And what can he regard except with love? 6For he who has escaped all fear of future pain has found his way to present peace, and certainty of care the world can never threaten. 7He is sure that his perception may be faulty, but will never lack correction. 8He is free to choose again when he has been deceived; to change his mind when he has made mistakes.

8. 1Place, then, your future in the Hands of God. 2For thus you call the memory of Him to come again, replacing all your thoughts of sin and evil with the truth of love. 3Think you the world could fail to gain thereby, and every living creature not respond with healed perception? 4Who entrusts himself to God has also placed the world within the Hands to which he has himself appealed for comfort and security. 5He lays aside the sick illusions of the world along with his, and offers peace to both.

9. 1Now are we saved indeed. 2For in God’s Hands we rest untroubled, sure that only good can come to us. 3If we forget, we will be gently reassured. 4If we accept an unforgiving thought, it will be soon replaced by love’s reflection. 5And if we are tempted to attack, we will appeal to Him Who guards our rest to make the choice for us that leaves temptation far behind. 6No longer is the world our enemy, for we have chosen that we be its friend.