Lesson 104. I seek but what belongs to me in truth.

Lesson 104. I seek but what belongs to me in truth.

(1) 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 that has instead
received the gifts it made where His belong, as substitutes for them.

(2) 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 that are
our own in truth. His are the gifts that we inherited before time was, and that
will still be ours when time has passed into eternity. His are the gifts that
are within us now, for they are timeless. And we need not wait to have them.
They belong to us today.

(3) Therefore, we choose 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 that offer other gifts and other goals
made of illusions, witnessed to by them, and sought for only in a world of
dreams.

(4) 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.

(5) 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.<

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lesson 104. I seek but what belongs to me in truth.

(1) 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 that has instead
received the gifts it made where His belong, as substitutes for them.

(2) 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 that are
our own in truth. His are the gifts that we inherited before time was, and that
will still be ours when time has passed into eternity. His are the gifts that
are within us now, for they are timeless. And we need not wait to have them.
They belong to us today.

(3) Therefore, we choose 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 that offer other gifts and other goals
made of illusions, witnessed to by them, and sought for only in a world of
dreams.

(4) 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.

(5) 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.<

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The commentary on this lesson is an excerpt from Kenneth Wapnick's eight volume
series of
books, called: "Journey Through the Workbook of A Course in Miracles," which can
be purchased at the following site:??~ M. Street
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lesson 104. "I seek but what belongs to me in truth."

*As Jesus continues his theme of happiness, he speaks to us specifically about
letting go of what the ego has told us is the truth, for only real truth will
make us happy.*

(1:1) "Today's idea continues with the thought that joy and peace are not but
idle dreams."

*It can be tempting when working with A Course in Miracles to believe that when
Jesus talks about our peace, joy, and happiness, they are idle words that sound
pretty, but do not work. However, they do not work because we do not want them
to. If we were truly peaceful, joyful and happy, we would no longer be the
miserable and victimized selves we thought we were. Thus we are attracted to
finding guilt in others, reinforcing its presence in ourselves and proving we
are right and Jesus is wrong.*

(1:2-5) "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 that has
instead received the gifts it made where His belong, as substitutes for them."

*The condition -- "Yet must there be a place made ready" -- is not something God
ordains, a condition to which we must adhere otherwise He will not love us. The
fact is we cannot know we are God's beloved child whose sins are undone as long
as we cherish the gifts we made. In other words, responsibility comes back to
us, a theme enunciated over and over in this lesson. It is short, but what comes
through repeatedly in the lesson is that in order for us to experience the
truth, we have first to let go of what we believed was the truth. A Course in
Miracles is thus helping us restore to the mind its power to have chosen against
God, realize the mistake, and then correct it by choosing Jesus as our teacher.
His love teaches us to bring our illusory self-image to the truth of what we
are: God's holy Son.

Jesus continues with the same thought:*

(2:1) "Today we would remove all meaningless and self-made gifts which we have
placed upon the holy altar where God's gifts belong."

*Jesus cannot give us God's gifts of love until we first give him ours of sin,
guilt, and specialness. We exchange the gifts we made for the love he holds out
to us. He cannot take them from our hands, for it is our responsibility to give
them to him. That is why forgiveness is not something we do, anymore than
forgiveness is something that Jesus does; we do it together. This means we must
bring to him -- in the language again of the closing pages of the text -- our
"secret sins and hidden hates" (T-31.VIII.9:2). Another lovely passage from "The
Gifts of God" express Jesus' call:

"Open your hands, and give all things to me that you have held against your
holiness and kept as slander on the Son of God ... Give me these worthless
things the instant that you see them through my eyes and understand their cost
... I take them from you gladly, laying them beside the gifts of God that He has
placed upon the altar to His Son. And these I give to you to take the place of
those you give to me in mercy on yourself. These are the gifts I ask, and only
these. For as you lay them by you, reach to me, and I can come as savior then to
you. The gifts of God are in my hands, to give to anyone who would exchange the
world for Heaven. You need only call my name ask me to accept the gift of pain
from willing hands that would be laid in mine. ... In my hands is everything you
want and need and hoped to find among the shabby toys of earth. I take them all
from you and they are gone. And shining in the place where once they stood there
is a gateway to another world through which we enter in the Name of God." (The
Gifts of God, pp.118,119).

The remainder of this paragraph is an elaboration of God's gifts to us, held for
us by Jesus' love:*

(3:1) "Therefore, we choose 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."

*Jesus again emphasizes the role of our minds to choose. The focus is not on the
wonderful gifts, for these mean nothing if we do not know we can choose them.
The purpose of A Course in Miracles is to help us choose these gifts by choosing
against the ego's shabby substitutes. The words describing these gifts are
lovely and comforting, but they are of no help as long as we are unaware of our
fear. Jesus thus reminds us that we are afraid of love, and he teaches that it
is the attraction to this fear, born of the need to preserve our individuality,
that keeps the gifts of God separate from us. Once aware of this decision to be
afraid, we can undo our mistake and choose again, reflecting the recognition
that our will and God's are one.*

(3:2-4) "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 that offer other gifts and other goals
made of illusions, witnessed to by them, and sought for only in a world of
dreams."

*Remember, Jesus does not say he will take our conflicts away from us. Rather,
we have to lay them aside, which means looking at our need to be in conflict and
pain: guilty, angry, and depressed. These are the ego's secret attraction, and
it is our responsibility to choose attractions different from those of
specialness, the "other gifts" offered by the world. Now we choose to practice
the exercises that will restore to our awareness the true gifts of joy and peace
-- our inheritance -- that happily wait for us.

Jesus continues by reiterating the same point.*

(4:1) "All this we lay aside, and seek instead that which is truly ours, as we
ask to recognize what God has given us."

*The only way I meaningfully ask for help in recognizing God's loving gift is to
say I am willing to let go of the specialness I put in its stead. That is what
Jesus means later in the workbook when he speaks about the peace of God: "To say
these words is nothing. But to mean these words is everything." (W.PI.185.1.1-2)
If I am serious about wanting to be with Jesus and his love, I must be willing
to set aside the demands of my specialness. Or certainly, as an early step, I
have to be willing to recognize these <are> the demands of specialness, the
purpose of which is to keep Heaven's love away. This ensures I do not deceive
myself by thinking I really want Jesus' love. I could say to him, for example:
"I do not want your love yet; perhaps tomorrow, but for now I want my
specialness. It comes first." At least that is an honest statement, which means
there will be no guilt. Without guilt I leave open my mind's door for Jesus to
enter and help me. He says the same thing in the next sentence.*

(4:2) "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."

*The altar is our minds. Whenever Jesus uses this term, think of it as the
decision maker, which can choose to have its mind be an altar that drips with
blood -- when it chooses to worship the ego -- or one the radiates the love and
light of God when it chooses Jesus as its teacher. He is thus asking us to clear
our minds by bringing to him the clutter -- our belief in sin, guilt, secrecy,
and shame -- so that the light of his love can shine it away. Thus do our minds,
cleansed of sin, become the holy reminders of the joyous light of Christ that is
our true and only reality:

"The holiest of altars is set where once sin was 'believed to be. And here
does every light of Heaven come, to be rekindled and increased in joy. For here
is what was lost restored to them, and all their radiance made whole again."
(T.26.IV.3.6).*

(4:3-4) "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."

*Jesus tells us once again that in order to have the gifts of God and to accept
His love and truth, we need to let go of everything else we have wished for. We
cannot have love without letting go of our investment in fear, suffering, and
specialness.

Jesus closes the lesson repeating what he has already said six, seven, and eight
times in this very short lesson:*

(5:1-2) "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 have the power to lose sight of these gifts by being attracted to be the
gift of specialness. Yet the power is also ours to clear from our minds the
ego's impediments to the truth. Thus we dedicated this day to the practice that
will bring the time ever closer when the irrevocable choice for peace and joy
will be made.*

(5:3-5) "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.<"

*When we are tempted during the day not to be joyful and peaceful, rather than
blame ourselves or anyone else, we should realize instead: "I am attracted to
feeling upset because I do not want to remember the glorious truth of Who I am.
The glitter of my individuality is the cause of my distress." When we look at
the situation clearly, it will make no sense at all. The original choice to be
an individual, the ego told us, was to make us happy, yet we now see that the
ego's thought system did not make us happy at all; quite the contrary. Our eyes
open, we see the causal connection between our decision and our misery: feeling
upset is the <effect>, and the belief that being on our own would make happy is
the <cause>. We are aware at last that our choice for the ego reflected the
insane thinking that prevented us from looking for the other Teacher. Thus we
are grateful for having been wrong and learning there is One Who is right, as we
gladly claim the gifts of joy and peace that are our true inheritance as God's
Son.*

Love and Blessings,

Lyn Johnson

719-369-1822

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Lesson 104. I seek but what belongs to me in truth.