God's 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.
   Such 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 God's peace and joy, and you will learn
   a different way of looking at a gift.
   God's gifts will never lessen when they are
   given away. They but increase thereby.

   As Heaven's peace and joy intensify
   when you accept them as God's 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 God's 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 God's peace and joy as mine.
   
   Thus you prepare yourself to recognize
   God's 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 "God's 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 "God's 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 today
   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 God's 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 God's peace and joy as mine.

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:

We know that we have received the gifts of God when we give them. The idea that we can't know about what we have and what we are until we give and extend is central to the entire course teaching. In fact, Jesus says that reversing our view of giving is a "major learning goal this Course has set." (3.1) What is our idea of giving? Isn't it mostly about what we can get in return? In the world's perspective  giving is about loss and reciprocity. Don't we usually expect something back? If I am kind and generous to you, then I expect some kind of gratitude, kindness and generosity in return. Yet when we really understand that there is no need for reciprocity because we are only giving to ourselves, then we can experience true giving with no expectations.

"God's 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."(1.1-3) How do we accept God's peace and joy? We must recognize that if they are ours, then everyone must share in the peace and joy with us. These gifts are in everyone because they have been given to everyone by God and we all share in that oneness. The ego would have us believe that if we have peace and joy then we must have taken it. It is a belief in one or the other. If I am happy then someone else must lose. That is why we feel guilty when we feel happy and believe that it can't last. We feel we don't deserve to be happy. The ego is all about bargaining. It is about giving in order to get something in return.

It all started with the belief that our identity has been stolen from God and now we have our special unique self at His expense because there can't be me and God in oneness. So the thought of one or the other originated with this belief, which means both can't win. We take this thought system of one or the other into the illusion and with it is the sense that we have done something wrong so now we feel guilty. The original thought is not conscious in us, but the idea of feeling that somehow we are wrong, although we are not sure why, is there with everyone. Now any happiness we feel is tinged with guilt because we feel that someone must lose if we have gained. For example, if I feel happy that you are meeting my needs, and as a result I feel loved, it is because I expect you to sacrifice your happiness on my behalf. So my happiness is tinged with guilt. In the ego thought system, if we have it we must have stolen it, just like we stole God's gifts and hid in the world to escape His wrath. So it seems like peace and joy can't last without the feeling that we don't really deserve to have it. It is the idea that if we have it, then someone else must not.

This idea is really developed in Chapter 16 where Jesus talks about our special relationships. These are what he calls the "bargains made with guilt." (1.5) They are bargains made with guilt because in our special relationships, we give our gifts in exchange for those of the other. But we want something better than what we gave. Our special relationships are about trying to extract from the other a gift of greater value than the ones we give. We each want to give as little as possible to get as much as possible. And that is the basis for all of the conflict we experience in our relationships, based on bargaining that will best meet our needs. It is the basis for our misery and suffering. Healing requires that this be looked at with great honesty. Otherwise we exempt ourselves from this process, thinking others are like that, but not us.

"Each partner tries to sacrifice the self he does not want for one he thinks he would prefer. And he feels guilty for the "sin" of taking, and of giving nothing of value in return. How much value can he place upon a self that he would give away to get a "better" one?" (T. 16.V.7.5-7)
That is the reason we can't stand to be happy for long because our guilt says we don't deserve it. And with each bargain we make in our special relationships, our guilt is reinforced because we are constantly making bargains that serve our needs at the expense of our brothers, exchanging our gifts of little worth for ones where we hope to gain with each exchange. Thus, our belief that God had to lose for me to take His love and joy for myself is the basis for this continuing belief that we carry into the world. It is such a foundational belief in our lives and so deeply defended against that it makes it very challenging to see. But it is the foundation of everyone's lives here. Thus we must stay very vigilant regarding our motivations so we can bring them to awareness. We can't heal what we don't see. Applying these lessons in our daily lives is important to the undoing of this thought system."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." (2.3-4)

The ego wants to constantly prove to us that it is the source of our love and our life and not God. While we invest in its thought system, we will feel guilty when we experience peace and joy because these "gifts" come at someone's expense. But true giving entails no loss. "Accept God's peace and joy, and you will learn a different way of looking at a gift. God's gifts will never lessen when they are given away. They but increase thereby." (3.3-5) This is an authentic kind of giving because we give and know that in this giving we can't lose and we then won't feel guilty in receiving the gifts that we give. We are undoing the idea of giving to get. We are increasingly learning, through the application of the thought system Jesus is teaching, that all that we give is given to ourselves as lesson 126 reminds us. Every time we bring our specialness to awareness and are willing to release it for healing, we receive the miracle.

Now Jesus tells us that "giving has become a source of fear, and so you would avoid the only means by which you can receive. Accept God's peace and joy, and you will learn a different way of looking at a gift.  God's gifts will never lessen when they are given away.  They but increase thereby." (3.2-5) Our fear is that we will be punished for what we have stolen from God and are taking from our brothers in our self-serving bargains we try to make with everyone. Now we are called to bring the guilt, specialness, hate and fear in our minds to the altar of truth so we can experience the gifts of peace that are given us by God's infinite love for us.

So while the lesson says that God's joy grows with our acceptance of His joy and peace for ourselves (4.1) and that He is not complete until we do, this should not be taken literally. God's joy is complete now. Nothing is lacking in Him. But this is an expression of how much we should take to heart the importance for ourselves of accepting the fullness of God's Love for us. With that acceptance comes gratitude for the experience of the joy that we receive as we give with no expectations of anything in return.

Today we are asked to choose someone we think of as an enemy to whom we have denied peace and joy, forgetting that they are the same as us and "under the equal laws of God." (6.2) And in seeing differences with our brother, we have denied ourselves the same peace and joy that is in us both. But we can claim the peace and joy that we have denied ourselves. (6.4) We do so by recognizing that anything that we give our brother we give ourselves. Any attack we make on another is an attack on ourselves just as extending peace and joy is given to ourselves as we are one with our brother. And now we learn that how we see our brother is how we see ourselves and thus we are the same. This sameness is a reflection of the one Self that we are. We both have the same thought system of the ego and the same healing light within.

When we choose to take responsibility for our guilt by seeing that it is only ourselves that we are attacking, we can bring it back to our own minds and ask for help in releasing it. By bringing these projections to the Holy Spirit they are released from our minds. "Now we are ready to accept the gift of peace and joy that God has given us." (7.4) This allows us to experience the joy and peace that we have denied ourselves.  (7.5) Only by silencing the ego's voice of specialness will we hear the Voice of the Holy Spirit. In order to hear His Voice we need to look at all of the ways that we interfere. We do this when we express impatience, irritation, think unkindly of others, gossip about them, get frustrated and all of the other ways that we actually choose to throw our peace away. When any brother tempts us to throw away our peace and joy, it is because we want them to do so. We have actually chosen to throw our peace away and project that choice that we have made on them, making them responsible for our lack of peace. But we are now choosing to take responsibility for everything that seems to happen to us recognizing that we truly are not a victim of the world we see.

Today we choose to release our misperceptions and offer blessings instead so that we can receive the blessing for ourselves. Every one of our brothers deserves to receive this blessing from us with no exceptions. It is their "right under the equal laws of God."

Today we are called to look at who we are withholding blessing from and recognize that when we do we are only withholding it from ourselves. By cutting someone off from my love, I am cutting it off from myself. When I open my heart to my so called "enemies" by seeing their call for love and understanding, rather than focusing on their behavior, I am opening up to the gift of peace and joy that God is holding out for me. Thus I am opening myself to receive these gifts. So it is not something that we receive first and then give, but in fact we give in order to know that we have received. And it is not just affirming for ourselves that God's peace and joy are ours, but by letting go of the barriers that we are putting up to receiving these gifts. 

Our enemies are not really outside of us, but reflect our own inner hatred, which is projected on our brothers. So we are learning that to accept the gifts of God, we must first change our perception of our brothers. When we see others as different from ourselves, we are always trying to get, bargain, see ourselves as special, and ensure reciprocity. It is important to look at our motivations and be very, very honest in recognizing the guilt that these relationships entail.

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