Today we are considering the will you share with God. This is not the
same as the ego’s idle wishes, out of which darkness and nothingness
arise. The will you share with God has all the power of creation in it.
The ego’s idle wishes are unshared, and therefore have no power at all.
Its wishes are not idle in the sense that they can make a world of
illusions in which your belief can be very strong. But they are idle
indeed in terms of creation. They make nothing that is real.
Idle wishes and grievances are partners or co-makers in picturing the
world you see. The wishes of the ego gave rise to it, and the ego’s need
for grievances, which are necessary to maintain it, peoples it with
figures that seem to attack you and call for “righteous” judgement. They
become the middlemen the ego employs to traffic in grievances and stand
between your awareness and your brothers’ reality. Beholding them, you
do not know your brothers nor your Self.
Your will is lost to you in this strange bartering, in which guilt is
traded back and forth, and grievances increase with each exchange. Can
such a world have been created by the will the Son of God shares with
his Father? Did God create disaster for His Son? Creation is the Will of
Both together. Would God create a world that kills Himself?
Today we will try once more to reach the world that is in accordance
with your will. The light is in it because it does not oppose the Will of
God. It is not Heaven, but the light of Heaven shines on it. Darkness
has vanished; the ego’s idle wishes have been withdrawn.
Yet the light which shines upon this world reflects your will, and so it
must be in you that we will look for it. Your picture of the world can
only mirror what is within. The source of neither light nor darkness can
be found without. Grievances darken your mind, and you look out on a
darkened world. Forgiveness lifts the darkness, reasserts your will, and
lets you look upon a world of light.
We have repeatedly emphasized that the barrier of grievances is easily
passed, and cannot stand between you and your salvation. The reason is
very simple. Do you really want to be in hell? Do you really want to
weep and suffer and die? Forget the ego’s arguments which
seek to prove all this is really Heaven. You know it is not so. You
cannot want this for yourself. There is a point beyond which illusions
cannot go.
Suffering is not happiness, and it is happiness you really want. Such is
your will in truth. And so salvation is your will as well. You want to
succeed in what we are trying to do today. We undertake it with your
blessing and your glad accord.
We will succeed today if you remember that you will salvation for
yourself. You will to accept God’s plan because you share in it. You have
no will that can really oppose it, and you do not want to do so.
Salvation is for you. Above all else you want the freedom to remember who
you really are.
Today it is the ego which stands powerless before your will. Your will is
free, and nothing can prevail against it. Therefore we undertake the
exercises for today in happy confidence, certain that we will find what
it is your will to find, and remember what it is your will to remember.
No idle wishes can detain us, nor deceive us with an illusion of
strength. Today let your will be done. And end forever the insane belief
that it is hell in place of Heaven that you choose.
We will begin our longer practice periods with the recognition that
God’s plan for salvation, and only His, is wholly in accord with your
will. It is not the purpose of an alien power, thrust upon you
unwillingly. It is the one purpose here on which you and your Father are
in perfect accord.
You will succeed today, the time appointed for the release of the Son of
God from hell and from all idle wishes. His will is now restored to his
awareness. He is willing this very day to look upon the light in him and
be saved.
After reminding yourself of this and determining to keep your will
clearly in mind, tell yourself with gentle firmness and quiet certainty:
“I will there be light. Let me behold the light that reflects God’s
Will and mine.”
Then let your will assert itself, joined with the power of God and
united with your Self. Put the rest of the practice period under Their
guidance. Join with Them as They lead the way.
In the shorter practice periods, again make a declaration of what you
really want. Say:
“I will there be light. Darkness is not my will.”
This should be repeated several times an hour. It is most important,
however, to apply today’s idea in this form immediately you are tempted
to hold a grievance of any kind. This will help you let your grievances
go, instead of cherishing them and hiding them in the darkness.