PART I
LESSON 105. God's peace and joy are mine.
W-105.1. God's peace and joy are yours. 2 Today we will accept them, knowing they belong to us. 3 And we will try to understand these gifts increase as we receive them. 4 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. 5 Such are not gifts, but bargains made with guilt. 6 The truly given gift entails no loss. 7 It is impossible that one can gain because another loses. 8 This implies a limit and an insufficiency.
W-105.2. No gift is given thus. 2 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. 3 This strange distortion of what giving means pervades all levels of the world you see. 4 It strips all meaning from the gifts you give, and leaves you nothing in the ones you take.
W-105.3. A major learning goal this course has set is to reverse your view of giving, so you can receive. 2 For giving has become a source of fear, and so you would avoid the only means by which you can receive. 3 Accept God's peace and joy, and you will learn a different way of looking at a gift. 4 God's gifts will never lessen when they are given away. 5 They but increase thereby.
W-105.4. 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. 2 True giving is creation. 3 It extends the limitless to the unlimited, eternity to timelessness, and love unto itself. 4 It adds to all that is complete already, not in simple terms of adding more, for that implies that it was less before. 5 It adds by letting what cannot contain itself fulfill its aim of giving everything it has away, securing it forever for itself.
W-105.5. Today accept God's peace and joy as yours. 2 Let Him complete Himself as He defines completion. 3 You will understand that what completes Him must complete His Son as well. 4 He cannot give through loss. 5 No more can you. 6 Receive His gift of joy and peace today, and He will thank you for your gift to Him.
W-105.6. Today our practice periods will start a little differently. 2 Begin today by thinking of those brothers who have been denied by you the peace and joy that are their right under the equal laws of God. 3 Here you denied them to yourself. 4 And here you must return to claim them as your own.
W-105.7. Think of your "enemies" a little while, and tell each one, as he occurs to you:
2 My brother, peace and joy I offer you, That I may have God's peace and joy as mine.
3 Thus you prepare yourself to recognize God's gifts to you, and let your mind be free of all that would prevent success today. 4 Now are you ready to accept the gift of peace and joy that God has given you. 5 Now are you ready to experience the joy and peace you have denied yourself. 6 Now you can say, "God's peace and joy are mine," for you have given what you would receive.
W-105.8. You must succeed today, if you prepare your mind as we suggest. 2 For you have let all bars to peace and joy be lifted up, and what is yours can come to you at last. 3 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.
W-105.9. Spend your five minutes thus with Him each time you can today, but do not think that less is worthless when you cannot give Him more. 2 At least remember hourly to say the words which call to Him to give you what He wills to give, and wills you to receive. 3 Determine not to interfere today with what He wills. 4 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. 5 Then bless your brother thankfully, and say:
6 My brother, peace and joy I offer you, That I may have God's peace and joy as mine.