1. 1Today we are considering the will you share with God. 2This is not the same as the ego’s idle wishes, out of which darkness and nothingness arise. 3The will you share with God has all the power of creation in it. 4The ego’s idle wishes are unshared, and there­fore have no power at all. 5Its wishes are not idle in the sense that they can make a world of illusions in which your belief can be very strong. 6But they are idle indeed in terms of creation. 7They make nothing that is real.

2. 1Idle wishes and grievances are partners or co-makers in pictur­ing the world you see. 2The 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” judgment. 3These figures become the middlemen the ego employs to traffic in grievances. 4They stand between your aware­ness and your brothers’ reality. 5Beholding them, you do not know your brothers or your Self.

3. 1Your will is lost to you in this strange bartering, in which guilt is traded back and forth, and grievances increase with each exchange. 2Can such a world have been created by the Will the Son of God shares with his Father? 3Did God create disaster for His Son? 4Creation is the Will of Both together. 5Would God create a world that kills Himself?

4. 1Today we will try once more to reach the world that is in accordance with your will. 2The light is in it because it does not oppose the Will of God. 3It is not Heaven, but the light of Heaven shines on it. 4Darkness has vanished. 5The ego’s idle wishes have been withdrawn. 6Yet the light that shines upon this world reflects your will, and so it must be in you that we will look for it.

5. 1Your picture of the world can only mirror what is within. 2The source of neither light nor darkness can be found without. 3Grievances darken your mind, and you look out on a darkened world. 4Forgiveness lifts the darkness, reasserts your will, and lets you look upon a world of light. 5We have repeatedly emphasized that the barrier of grievances is easily passed, and cannot stand between you and your salvation. 6The reason is very simple. 7Do you really want to be in hell? 8Do you really want to weep and suffer and die?

6. 1Forget the ego’s arguments which seek to prove all this is really Heaven. 2You know it is not so. 3You cannot want this for yourself. 4There is a point beyond which illusions cannot go. 5Suffering is not happiness, and it is happiness you really want. 6Such is your will in truth. 7And so salvation is your will as well. 8You want to succeed in what we are trying to do today. 9We undertake it with your blessing and your glad accord.

7. 1We will succeed today if you remember that you want salvation for yourself. 2You want to accept God’s plan because you share in it. 3You have no will that can really oppose it, and you do not want to do so. 4Salvation is for you. 5Above all else, you want the freedom to remember Who you really are. 6Today it is the ego that stands powerless before your will. 7Your will is free, and nothing can prevail against it.

8. 1Therefore, 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. 2No idle wishes can detain us, nor deceive us with an illusion of strength. 3Today let your will be done, and end forever the insane belief that it is hell in place of Heaven that you choose.

9. 1We 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. 2It is not the purpose of an alien power, thrust upon you unwillingly. 3It is the one purpose here on which you and your Father are in perfect accord. 4You will succeed today, the time appointed for the release of the Son of God from hell and from all idle wishes. 5His will is now restored to his awareness. 6He is willing this very day to look upon the light in him and be saved.

10. 1After reminding yourself of this, and determining to keep your will clearly in mind, tell yourself with gentle firmness and quiet certainty:

2I will there be light. 3Let me behold the light that reflects God’s Will and mine.

4Then let your will assert itself, joined with the power of God and united with your Self. 5Put the rest of the practice period under Their guidance. 6Join with Them as They lead the way.

11. 1In the shorter practice periods, again make a declaration of what you really want. 2Say:

3I will there be light. 4Darkness is not my will.

5This should be repeated several times an hour. 6It is most impor­tant, however, to apply today’s idea in this form immediately you are tempted to hold a grievance of any kind. 7This will help you let your grievances go, instead of cherishing them and hiding them in darkness.