Today's 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 God's gifts belong.
   His are the gifts which are our own in truth.
   His are the gifts which we inherited
   before time was, and which will still be ours
   when time has passed into eternity.
   His 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 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.
    God's gifts of joy and peace are all I want.   

 

Quotes in this article are from Foundation for Inner Peace edition; To locate the same quotes in the 'Original Edition', use this link:  http://www.jcim.net/acim_us/Acim.php    
Sarah's Commentary:

Isn't it interesting how we spend our lives seeking for happiness, wanting to be free of conflict, wanting peace, joy, love and yet we already have within us everything that we seek? So why is peace, love and joy not a consistent experience in our lives? The answer is that we are constantly choosing against what is in our best interests. We continue to side with the ego that tells us that our lot in life is to suffer because of our sin against God and thus we don't welcome the love and peace. "They are not welcomed gladly by a mind that has instead received the gifts it made where His belong, as substitutes for them." (1.5)   We make plans and goals believing they will bring us the happiness we seek but, in fact, all they offer is more guilt, which reinforces separation from God. Of course the ego hides this from our awareness, urging us to keep seeking for substitutes for God, but these are substitutes that will never satisfy us. They are "meaningless and self made gifts" (2.1) that we have put in the place where God's gifts belong that are already given and lie dormant until we access this place in the mind.  The only thing that will fill the emptiness that we try to fill with idols in the world is the experience of the love that we are.

Imagine having everything that you believe is important in your life. You have all the money, all the power, all the recognition, all the stuff that you are seeking.  Yet if you lack real contentment, real peace and joy that wells up from deep within, then what do you really have? Yet the things of this world are what we strive for that we think will bring us fulfillment and so we resist God's gifts. In fact we are afraid of them. But everyone eventually comes to the recognition that the things we have made to substitute for His gifts do not deliver on their promise. Does that mean we must give up our cherished goals? No, they will just drop away when we recognize that we have been wrong in believing that they are where our happiness is. And that recognition comes with the experience of true happiness that comes from God.

This lesson reminds us that as long as we clutter up the holy place within our minds with our own "gifts", there will be no room there for us to discover those gifts given to us by God. "Yet must there be a place made ready to receive His gifts." (1.4) We must "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." (4.2)

How do we do that? He instructs us to: 1) lay aside the conflicts of the world, (3.4) all those things that clutter the altar of our mind, which include our secret sins, our guilt, shame, fear, sadness, desires, specialness and unworthiness.  2) choose to have His gifts "in place of what we made." (3.1) 3) Recognize that our will is the same as God's. We truly want the same thing as He wants for us. We must "unite our will with what God wills and recognize the same as being one." (3.1) And finally 4) affirm  that joy and peace are our inheritance given to us "before time was."  (2.2)  We have always had these gifts. Jesus said, "before Abraham was I am." Like the words of the song:  "I am as I am, as sent me."   We have always been.  Nothing we can ever do can change the truth of who we are "as sent me."  Not that we are actually sent anywhere, only that we can't change who we are. That is what the Atonement principle says, that we can't change the truth about ourselves although we can stay unaware of this truth as long as we choose. When we are ready, and only then, will we open our hearts and minds to this truth. We need to give it welcome. It will never be thrust on us. We need to loosen our commitment to our way and recognize that there truly is a better way. What is needed is willingness, and willingness comes only when we see that our way does not work and we finally admit that we have been wrong.

So if these gifts of love, true freedom, eternal life are with us now, then what Jesus is telling us here is that we don't have to wait for them, which is contrary to what the ego tells us. It says that God's love is in the future and we must suffer here and atone for our sins to receive the gifts of Heaven in the hereafter. Thus we believe that we have to pay the price first. Clearly this is not what Jesus is teaching us in the course. It is our fear that is keeping us from God's Love that we can have now. We can choose to have His gifts now in the place of what we have made. But as long as we think we need our pain, our anger, our depression and our own way, and that it will buy us something of value in the future, then we are actively choosing against these gifts. Our investment in fear, suffering and specialness is what we must look at with great honesty.

Jesus says that nothing else belongs to us except peace and joy. Our other seeming possessions are nothing. When we realize our natural inheritance we will "wish for nothing else." (4.4) What else could we want?  Why would we want to suffer? There is no need to seek these gifts of joy and peace, we already have them! But we don't consistently experience them. Because what we have made in this dream has taken the place of these gifts. Yet, we can reclaim them anytime that we choose by clearing the way for them through forgiveness.  And once we do, peace and joy extend through us.

We have all probably experienced at some time in our lives being in a room with someone who  radiates joy and peace. I remember my first and only visit with Chief Dan George many years ago. I had read about him and he was a hero to me. I was very excited about meeting him and very nervous. Yet as he held both my hands as I knelt in front of the chair where he was sitting, and he looked into my eyes, I dissolved in tears. It was a beautiful joining where there was no need to fill the space with words. He just radiated such peace and certainty about who he was. Since then I have had other experiences like this but this one I will forever treasure. The joining can be so powerful that it sometimes can bring up a level of fear. We fear this kind of intimacy because we want to maintain our boundaries. We want to maintain our separation.   Recognizing this discomfort and fear is the recognition of our fear of true joining. We believe that our safety lies in separation.  Yet each time we join in peace and love, we experience His presence, which offers such a beautiful healing gift. And each time we are in the presence of the Christ, we are reminded that that is what we are, One Self united with our Creator all the same with no separate interests. "I seek but what belongs to me in truth." (3.1)

With all of the focus on understanding the lessons, which is important of course, we sometimes lose the intent of practice and application throughout the day. Practice is essential if the lesson is to take hold in our experience. And there is no question that if we are doing the practice as per the lesson instructions, it takes tremendous vigilance. The extent to which we invest in practice, gives us some sense of the extent of our dedication to the truth at this point in our lives. It also shows us our resistance/fear. We are urged not to fight the ego, not to fight ourselves. It is just another opportunity to look at our fear and bring it to the light of truth Do not judge or condemn yourself when you find resistance strong. Just notice it and ask for help to find your way to more willingness. We are asked not to fight ourselves as this will not release resistance but, in fact, only strengthen it. That is why Jesus demonstrates such patience with us and we must be patient with ourselves.

Recognize today that nothing need change in your world. It is all perfect for your awakening when used as an opportunity to accept and to forgive. All that you need to do is to choose to release your interpretations of outside events and ask Him to decide for you how to see everything and everyone. Everything is perfect for our awakening when we choose to use our day as a classroom for this purpose. Everything is for our best and highest interests. So today when I am tempted not to be joyful, not to be peaceful, blame others or myself for anything, think I know what would make me happy, I remember that these things have actually only brought me misery. I choose to give up the ego's counsel as to where my happiness lies, and instead remember that the only way is to look inside for the Teacher that will help me shine away what I have been believing when I bring these beliefs to the light of truth and thus clear a space in my mind for His gifts. If I am tempted to be upset by anything today, I am willing to see that it is my resistance to remembering the truth of who I am.

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