LESSON 87  MARCH 28
(73) "I will there be light."
(74) "There is no will but God's."
Practice instructions
Longer: Two times (once for each of the ideas), for about fifteen minutes.
 For three or four minutes, slowly read over the idea and comments (repeatedly if you wish) and think about them.
 Close your eyes and spend the remainder of the practice period listening for the message the Holy Spirit has for you. We can see this time of listening as having the following components:
1. Listen "quietly but attentively" (3:1)-listen in stillness and with all your attention.
2. Hold an attitude of confidence ("this message belongs to me"), desire ("I want this message"), and determination ("I'm determined to succeed").
3. Listening for ten minutes can easily be one big invitation to mind wandering, and so the majority of instruction for this exercise deals with this issue. For out-of-control mind wandering, go back and repeat the first phase. For more minor wandering, realize the distracting thoughts have no power and that your will has all the power, and then replace the thoughts with your will to succeed. Do so with firmness. "Do not allow your intent to waver" (4:1). "Refuse to be sidetracked" (5:2).
This is not mentioned in the instructions, but you may find it helpful to actually ask for the message, at the beginning and then periodically throughout. You may say, for instance, "What is Your message for me today?" You may even want to use this request as the specific vehicle for dispelling wandering thoughts.
Frequent reminders: Frequent.
Repeat the idea as a way of reaffirming your determination to succeed.
 First half of day: first lesson
 Second half of day: second lesson
Response to temptation: Whenever you are tempted to be upset.
Repeat some variation on the idea, modified to apply to this particular upset. 
 You may use one of the three "specific forms" (W-pI.rII.In.6:1) suggested after each lesson. Notice how they are directed at a specific upset. Virtually every one is aimed at an upsetting "this" or an upsetting "name."
 Or you may generate one of your own specific forms, by using a variation on the practice of letting related thoughts come. Simply lean back and let your mind come up with a sentence that applies the essence of the idea to your current upset. For examples, see the specific forms suggested after each lesson.
Commentary
Today's review deals with will-ours and God's, which are one.
The Course encourages us to make use of the power of our will. It constantly encourages us to choose again, and says that "the power of decision is your one remaining freedom as a prisoner of this world" (T-12.VII.9:1). We can will, or choose, that there be light. Naturally this accords with God's Will. You could say, I suppose, that our one true choice is to decide to agree with God's Will, and we must make this choice over and over until we realize there is no other will, and therefore, no actual choice except that between reality and illusion.
In the review of "There is no will but God's" there is an interesting summary of the progression of the ego's error:
 I believe there is another will besides God's. 
 Because of this I become afraid. 
 Because of fear, I try to attack. 
 Because I attack, I fear my own eternal safety (thinking God will attack me for being an attacker).
The solution is simply to recognize that none of this has occurred. Knock down the basic premise-realize there is no will but God's-and the rest of the progression disappears.
I like the way both ideas are applied to how I see the other people around me: "You stand with me in light, [name]" (2:3) and "It is God's Will you are His Son, [name], and mine as well" (4:3). One night in our study group in Sedona we were studying Chapter 14, section V, "The Circle of Atonement." The whole section is about seeing other people as within the circle of peace, seeing them as included, or seeing them standing with me in light, as it is put here. In that section Jesus urges us, "Stand quietly within this circle, and attract all tortured minds to join with you in the safety of its peace and holiness" (T-14.V.8:6). It says that this is "the only purpose to which my teaching calls you" (T-14.V.9:9).
Our only purpose here is to awaken everyone to the fact that they are included in God's peace and safety because there is no other will than His. Imagine mentally greeting everyone you meet today by saying, "You stand with me in light." What kind of effect would that have on you? Or on them? 
Lesson 109 says it has a profound effect, not just on people you actually meet, but on everyone in the world, even those who have passed on beyond the world, and those still to come to it:
Each hour that you take your rest today, a tired mind is suddenly made glad.	(6:1)
With each five minutes that you rest today, the world is nearer waking.	(7:1)
You rest within the peace of God today, and call upon your brothers from your rest to draw them to their rest, along with you. You will be faithful to your trust today, forgetting no one, bringing everyone into the boundless circle of your peace, the holy sanctuary where you rest. Open the temple doors and let them come from far across the world, and near as well; your distant brothers and your closest friends; bid them all enter here and rest with you.	(8:1-3)
You rest within the peace of God today, quiet and unafraid. Each brother comes to take his rest, and offer it to you. We rest together here, for thus our rest is made complete, and what we give today we have received already. Time is not the guardian of what we give today. We give to those unborn and those passed by, to every Thought of God, and to the Mind in which these Thoughts were born and where they rest. And we remind them of their resting place each time we tell ourselves, "I rest in God."	(9:1-6)