To gain the most from A Course in Miracles Lesson Insights, we recommend
that you read the corresponding lesson in the Workbook of the Second or
Third Edition of A Course in Miracles published by the Foundation for Inner Peace.
“God’s peace and joy are mine.”
God’s peace and joy extend forever. God’s peace and joy extend to me and through me. If I don’t experience God’s peace and joy, I have put up a barrier to its extending through me.
The Holy Spirit will help me remove the barriers to my extending peace and joy if I let Him. The Holy Spirit shines a light on all my barriers to peace and joy and helps me see that they are not real. The Holy Spirit helps me see that the barrier is not what I want and is meaningless.
I cannot receive God’s peace and joy unless I am willing to extend it or give it away. That is the way God’s gifts work. They increase through extension. Today my practice is to extend God’s peace and joy so that I will remember that they are mine. As I learn to connect with the peace and joy in everyone, I will learn that they are mine. Giving is receiving.
Today’s practice is a practice of accepting God’s gift of happiness. Doing this exercise all through the day is the way to accept happiness as mine. It is a way of seeing a forgiven world. I cannot truly offer peace and joy to my brother if I am holding a grievance. And I cannot accept peace and joy in me while I am holding a grievance.
Forgiveness is a central theme of the Course. Today’s exercise is another way of moving toward seeing a forgiven world. When I look upon a brother I have judged, one I might call ‘enemy,’ and I offer peace and joy to that brother, I am releasing him from that judgment and releasing myself at the same time.
In the beginning of this practice, I may say the words with halfhearted belief. I may understand the truth, but still have reservations about the worthiness of the other to receive those gifts. Yet each time I practice, I open the door a little wider to the acceptance that these gifts in truth do belong to everyone. Everyone deserves them without exception. It is God’s Will and therefore must be mine as well, for I share God’s Will for my happiness and the happiness of all the world. I will practice today. I want to remember that everyone, including me, deserves all of God’s joy and peace.
As I did the lesson, I came up against a barrier with a couple of people and felt guilty that I was having trouble with them. I don’t know why it is that I tend to always think I am the only person to have these problems and that there must be something especially unworthy about me that I can’t do them. (OH, wow! Maybe that’s it. Maybe it is just another way to feel special. I am uniquely unworthy. More unworthy than anyone else. Now how is that for foolish. No wonder Jesus refers to the ego thought system as insane.) I will keep working at it throughout the day and trust that Holy Spirit is working with me.
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