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:

God's Will for you is perfect happiness. Go deep within to the source of that happiness. Choose His Will rather than your own. His Will is to know who we are as the one Self and the condition of that Self is happiness. Happiness is natural. To be restored by His grace to our true nature of perfect happiness is our goal. Our part is essential to His plan for our happiness. Jesus tells us that our joy must be complete to let His plan be understood by those to whom He sends us. They will see their function in our shining faces, and hear God calling to them in our happy laughter. Feel this happiness, this joy, this laughter coming from deep within you, which is available in the holy instant. We are reminded today that happiness is in us and always present. It is not something we have to look for. If we don't experience it, it is only because we are blocking it with our false thoughts that we tenaciously hold in the belief that we are right about the way we are seeing. Question those thoughts today by being willing to look at them and bringing them to the truth where they can dissolve in the nothingness that they are.

"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 God's plan. God's 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 Father's gifts as theirs." (W.P.I.100.4. 3-4)

Release your sadness today. "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." (W.P.l.100.5.3) Joy is your function here. "If you are sad, your part is unfulfilled, and all the world is thus deprived of joy, along with you." (W.P.l.100.6.2)

We all have hidden areas of our minds that sabotage our happiness. They include dark stories that provide the main scripts for our lives, strategies that we have for compensating for pain, failure and guilt that we hold onto, places of self attack and self hatred, or they may be part of the metaphors and stories that come from deeper levels of our minds (past lives), or idols, which are substitutes for God that we worship such as drugs, money, lust, power, romance, suffering, illness and martyrdom. Clearly it is our misinformed, convoluted way of trying to find happiness and compensate for our pain. These ego strategies all have a purpose in our lives. But while they aim for happiness and safety in the world, they only bring us pain, which is kept hidden from our awareness. The purpose they all serve is to keep us invested in the world and in specialness, but they fail to bring us happiness.

We first need to uncover and discover our mistaken strategies so we can make a new choice. We think our strategies are protecting us and will get us what we want but they lead to heartbreak. The ego is threatened at having its strategies unveiled. We can see this in the defensive strategies we undertake to protect ourselves. What is required is to be open to looking at these strategies as an observer of them without judging ourselves. The ego is invested in our not looking. Looking at the ego strategies breaks the sacred bond that we have made with it. It tells us not to look but Jesus is showing us that we can break this sacred covenant that we have with the ego to serve it. And this is very important to our happiness. It requires commitment and willingness to watching our thoughts so that we can bring them to the Holy Spirit so they can be released. Behind these thoughts that we defend so vigorously is our happiness.

True happiness is not about making ourselves happy or manufacturing an emotion, or trying to have a positive attitude. Nor is our happiness based on things going well in our external life. It is an inner condition of the truth that is in our right minds. It is a reflection of God's Love. And yes, that reflection does change how we perceive external conditions.

So where does our suffering come from if not from God? It comes from another will. A will that believes it has separated from God. It is the ego but the ego is not real. It has no power. We made it up and with the help of the Holy Spirit, it can be released. When we externalize it we think it is the devil and that we are possessed. And in fact, we are possessed by the ego, until we choose otherwise. Our ego is only strong because of our belief in it. It lives on borrowed time. When the decision-making mind withdraws belief from the ego, it no longer exists. It is about withdrawing investment in our thoughts.

The reason that the ego has developed strategies that it keeps hidden from our awareness is because, for the ego to continue to have power in our lives, it needs to keep us unaware of this undying, "intense and burning love for God." (T. 13.III) It can't allow us to discover this love, for that will be its demise. What is the demise of the ego is our awakening to our Self, the reality of who we really are, changeless, limitless and eternally happy.

Again, let's review briefly the instructions we are given for our practice. Twice a day for five minutes each time and preferably longer, the first thing in the morning and last thing at night We take time in meditation to reflect on the lessons: "God's Will for me is perfect happiness. God's Will is perfect happiness for me. And I can suffer but from the belief there is another will apart from His;" and

"I share God's Will for happiness for me. I share my Father's Will for me, His Son. What He has given me is all I want. What He has given me is all there is."

Now "begin to think about them (these ideas) while letting your mind relate them to your needs, seeming problems and all your concerns." (5.3) We are basically letting related thoughts come to address any need or problem or concern that we bring to this practice. Be willing to look at the thoughts that are blocking your happiness and bring them to the light of Truth. Now let the thoughts come up from your right mind without your effort simply allowing them to emerge. They are providing you guidance for your problem in light of this lesson. We are being provided with wisdom in how to perceive any need, problem or concern we bring to this practice. As the thoughts come up for me, I find that it is like a form of self talk, when the lesson is being given more meaning as a result of the related thoughts.

Do this practice with the faith that your mind will use the ideas wisely, "being helped in its decisions by the One Who gave the thoughts to you." (6.3) "The means the Holy Spirit uses will not fail." (6.4)

Again remember to bring the idea to any perceived needs, problems or concerns that come up during the day. Whenever you are not at peace, apply the idea to any upsets that come up.

Today you might want to watch for times when you are missing the practices and deceiving yourself about the other activities and goals that you are finding more important, recognizing that this is resistance. This requires a lot of honesty. He says that the goals we serve with great attention in our lives offer us nothing while practicing can offer us everything. How much do we buy this? Doing the lessons diligently can put us on "more solid ground, with firmer footsteps and with stronger faith." (12.3)

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