Tag Archives: joy

Daily Lesson

105: God’s peace and joy are mine

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Lesson 105 “Godʹs peace and joy are mine.”

Godʹs peace and joy are yours. Today we will accept. them, knowing they belong to us. And we will try to understand these gifts increase as we receive them. They are not like to the gifts the world can give, in which the giver loses as he gives the gift; the taker is the richer by his loss. These are not gifts, but bargains made with guilt. The truly given gift entails no loss. It is impossible that one can gain because another loses. This implies a limit and an insufficiency.

No gift is given thus. Such “gifts” are but a bid for a more valuable return; a loan with interest to be paid in full; a temporary lending, meant to be a pledge of debt to be repaid with more than was received by him who took the gift. This strange distortion of what giving means pervades all levels of the world you see. It strips all meaning from the gifts you give, and leaves you nothing in the ones you take.

A major learning goal this course has set is to reverse your view of giving, so you can receive. For giving has become a source of fear, and so you would avoid the only means by which you can receive. Accept Godʹs peace and joy, and you will learn a different way of looking at a gift. Godʹs gifts will never lessen when they are given away. They but increase thereby. As Heavenʹs peace and joy intensify when you accept them as Godʹs gift to you, so does the joy of your Creator grow when you accept His joy and peace as yours.

True giving is creation. It extends the limitless to the unlimited, eternity to timelessness, and love unto itself. It adds to all that is complete already, not in simple terms of adding more, for that implies that it was less before. It adds by letting what cannot contain itself fulfill its aim of giving everything it has away, securing it forever for itself.

Today accept Godʹs peace and joy as yours. Let Him complete Himself as He defines completion. You will understand that what completes Him must complete His Son as well. He cannot give through loss. No more can you. Receive His gift of joy and peace today, and He will thank you for your gift to Him.

Today our practice periods will start a little differently. Begin today by thinking of those brothers who have been denied by you the peace and joy which are their right under the equal laws of God. Here you denied them to yourself. And here you must return, to claim them as your own. Think of your “enemies” a little while, and tell each one as he occurs to you:

“My brother, peace and joy I offer you, That I may have Godʹs peace and joy as mine.”

Thus you prepare yourself to recognize Godʹs gifts to you, and let your mind be free of all that would prevent success today. Now are you ready to accept the gift of peace and joy which God has given you. Now are you ready to experience the joy and peace you have denied yourself. Now you can say “Godʹs peace and joy are mine,” for you have given what you would receive.

You must succeed today if you prepare your mind as we suggest, for you have let all bars to peace and joy be lifted up, and what is yours can come to you at last. So tell yourself “Godʹs peace and joy are mine,” and close your eyes a while, and let His Voice assure you that the words you speak are true.

Spend your five minutes thus with Him each time you can today, but do not think that less is worthless when you cannot give Him more. At least remember hourly to say the words which call on Him to give you what He wills to give, and wills you to receive.

Determine not to interfere today with what He wills. And if a brother seems to tempt you to deny Godʹs gift to him, see it as but another chance to let yourself receive the gifts of God as yours. Then bless your brother thankfully, and say:

“My brother, peace and joy I offer you, That I may have Godʹs peace and joy as mine.”

Lesson 105
Daily Lesson

104: I seek but what belongs to me in truth

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Lesson 104 “I seek but what belongs to me in truth.”

Todayʹs idea continues with the thought that joy and peace are not but idle dreams. They are your right, because of what you are. They come to you from God, Who cannot fail to give you what He wills. Yet must there be a place made ready to receive His gifts. They are not welcomed gladly by a mind which has instead received the gifts it made where His belong, as substitutes for them.

Today we would remove all meaningless and self‐made gifts which we have placed upon the holy altar where Godʹs gifts belong. These are the gifts which are our own in truth. These are the gifts which we inherited before time was, and which will still be ours when time has passed into eternity. These are the gifts which are within us now, for they are timeless. And we need not wait to have them. They belong to us today. Therefore we will to have them now, and know in choosing them in place of what we made, we but unite our will with what God wills, and recognize the same as being One.

Our longer practice periods today, the hourly five minutes given to the truth for your salvation, should begin with this:

“I seek but what belongs to me in truth.” And joy and peace are my inheritance.”

Then lay aside the conflicts of the world which offer other gifts and other goals made of illusions, witnessed to by them, and sought for only in a world of dreams.

All this we lay aside, and seek instead that which is truly ours, as we ask to recognize what God has given us. We clear a holy place within our minds before His altar, where His gifts of peace and joy are welcome, and to which we come to find what has been given us by Him. We come in confidence today, aware that what belongs to us in truth is what He gives. And we would wish for nothing else, for nothing else belongs to us in truth.

So do we clear the way for Him today by simply recognizing that His Will is done already, and that joy and peace belong to us as His eternal gifts. We will not let ourselves lose sight of them between the times we come to seek for them where He has laid them. This reminder will we bring to mind as often as we can:

“I seek but what belongs to me in truth. Godʹs gifts of joy and peace are all I want.”

Lesson 104
Daily Lesson

100: My part is essential to God’s plan for salvation

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Lesson 100 “My part is essential to Godʹs plan for salvation.”

Just as Godʹs Son completes his Father, so your part in it completes your Fatherʹs plan.  Salvation must reverse the mad belief in separate thoughts and separate bodies which lead separate lives and go their separate ways.  One function shared by separate minds unites them in one purpose, for each one is equally essential to them all.

Godʹs Will for you is perfect happiness.  Why should you choose to go against His Will?  The part that He has saved for you to take in working out His plan is given you that you might be restored to what He wills.  This part is as essential to His plan as to your happiness.  Your joy must be complete to let His plan be understood by those to whom He sends you.  They will see their function in your shining face, and hear God calling to them in your happy laugh.

You are indeed essential to Godʹs plan.  Without your joy His joy is incomplete.  Without your smile the world cannot be saved.   While you are sad the light which God Himself appointed as the means to save the world is dim and lusterless.  And no‐one laughs because all laughter can but echo yours.  You are indeed essential to Godʹs plan.   Just as your light increases every light that shines in Heaven, so your joy on earth calls to all minds to let their sorrows go, and take their place beside you in Godʹs plan.

Godʹs messengers are joyous, and their joy heals sorrow and despair.  They are the proof that God wills perfect happiness for all who will accept their Fatherʹs gifts as theirs.  We will not let ourselves be sad today.  For if we do, we fail to take the part that is essential to Godʹs plan, as well as to our vision.  Sadness is the sign that you would play another part, instead of what has been assigned to you by God.  Thus do you fail to show the world how great the happiness He wills for you.  And so you do not recognize that it is yours.

Today we will attempt to understand joy is our function here.   If you are sad your part is unfulfilled, and all the world is thus deprived of joy, along with you.  God asks that you be happy, so the world can see how much He loves His Son, and wills no sorrow rises to abate his joy; no fear besets him to disturb his peace.   You are Godʹs messenger today.  You bring His happiness to all you look upon; His peace to everyone who looks on you, and sees His message in your happy face.

We will prepare ourselves for this today in our five minute practice periods, by feeling happiness arise in us according to our Fatherʹs will and ours.  Begin the exercises with the thought todayʹs idea contains.  Then realize your part is to be happy.  Only this is asked of you or anyone who wants to take his place among Godʹs messengers.

Think what this means.  You have indeed been wrong in your belief that sacrifice is asked.  You but receive according to Godʹs plan, and never lose or sacrifice or die.  Now let us try to find that joy which proves to us and all the world Godʹs Will for us.  It is your function that you find it here, and that you find it now.  For this you came.  Let this one be the day that you succeed!

 Look deep within you, undismayed by all the little thoughts and foolish goals you pass as you ascend to meet the Christ in you.  He will be there.  And you can reach Him now.  What could you rather look upon in place of Him who waits that you may look on Him?  What little thought has power to hold you back?   What foolish goal can keep you from success when He Who calls to you is God Himself?

He will be there.  You are essential to His plan.  You are His messenger today, and you must find what He would have you give.   Do not forget the idea for today between your longer practice periods.  It is your Self who calls to you today.  And it is Him you answer every time you tell yourself you are essential to Godʹs plan for the salvation of the world.

Lesson 100
Daily Lesson

93: Light and joy and peace abide in me

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Lesson 93 “Light and joy and peace abide in me.”

You think you are the home of evil, darkness and sin. You think if anyone could see the truth about you he would be repelled, recoiling from you as if from a poisonous snake. You think if what is true about you were revealed to you, you would be struck with horror so intense that you would rush to death by your own hand, living on after seeing this being impossible.

These are beliefs so firmly fixed that it is difficult to help you see that they are based on nothing. That you have made mistakes is obvious. That you have sought salvation in strange ways; have been deceived, deceiving and afraid of foolish fantasies and savage dreams; and have bowed down to idols made of dust; all this is true by what you now believe.

Today we question this, not from the point of view of what you think, but from a very different reference point, from which such idle thoughts are meaningless. These thoughts are not according to Godʹs Will. These weird beliefs He does not share with you. This is enough to prove that they are wrong, but you do not perceive that this is so.

Why would you not be overjoyed to be assured that all the evil which you think you did was never done, that all your “sins” are nothing; that you are as pure and holy as you were created, and that light and joy and peace abide in you? Your image of yourself cannot withstand the Will of God. You think that this is death, but it is life. You think you are destroyed, but you are saved.

The self you made is not the Son of God. Therefore this self does not exist at all. And anything it seems to do and think means nothing. It is neither bad nor good. It is unreal, and nothing more than that. It does not battle with the Son of God. It does not hurt him, nor attack his peace. It has not changed creation, nor reduced eternal sinlessness to sin and love to hate. What power can this self you made possess, when it would contradict the Will of God?

Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. Over and over this must be repeated until it is accepted. It is true. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. Nothing can touch it, nor can change what God created as eternal. The self you made, evil and full of sin, is meaningless. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God, and light and joy and peace abide in you.

Salvation requires the acceptance of but one thought; you are as God created you, not what you made of yourself. Whatever evil you may think you did, you are as God created you. Whatever mistakes you made, the truth about you is unchanged. Creation is eternal and unalterable. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God. You are and will forever be exactly as you were created. Light and joy and peace abide in you because God put them there.

In our longer exercise periods today, which would be most profitable if done for the first five minutes of every waking hour, we will begin by stating the truth about our creation:

“Light and joy and peace abide in me. My sinlessness is guaranteed by God.”

Then put away your foolish self‐images, and spend the rest of the practice period in trying to experience what God has given you, in place of what you have decreed for yourself.

You are what God created, or what you made. One Self is true; the other is not there. Try to experience the unity of your One Self. Try to appreciate Its holiness and the Love from Which It was created. Try not to interfere with the Self Which God created as you by hiding Its majesty behind the tiny idols of evil and sinfulness you have made to replace It. Let It come into Its own. Here you are; This is you. And light and joy and peace abide in you because this is so.

You may not be willing or even able to use the first five minutes of each hour for these exercises. Try, however, to do so when you can. At least remember to repeat these thoughts each hour:

“Light and joy and peace abide in me. My sinlessness is guaranteed by God.”

Then try to devote at least a minute or so to closing your eyes and realizing that this is a statement of the truth about you.

If a situation arises which seems to be disturbing, quickly dispel the illusion of fear by repeating these thoughts again. Should you be tempted to become angry with someone, tell him silently:

“Light and joy and peace abide in you. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God.”

You can do much for the worldʹs salvation today. You can do much today to bring you closer to the part in salvation which God has assigned to you. And you can do much today to bring the conviction to your mind that the idea for the day is true indeed.

Lesson 93
Daily Lesson

Lesson 82

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63. “The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness.”

My forgiveness is the means by which the light of the world finds expression through me. My forgiveness is the means by which I become aware of the light of the world in me. My forgiveness is the means by which the world is healed, together with myself. Let me, then, forgive the world that it may be healed along with me.

Suggestions for specific forms for applying this idea are:

“Let peace extend from my mind to yours, (name)”

“I share the light of the world with you, (name)”

“Through my forgiveness I can see this as it is.”

64. “Let me not forget my function.”

I would not forget my function because I would remember my Self. I cannot fulfill my function by forgetting. And unless I fulfill my function, I will not experience the joy that God intends for me.

Suitable specific forms of this idea include:

“Let me not use this to hide my function from me.”

“I would use this as an opportunity to fulfill my function.”

“This may threaten my ego, but cannot change my function in any way.”

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