"Thy Will (not mine) be done," when truly embraced, will create the opening for Spirit to reveal a realm of choices and opportunities impossible for us to know from our small, defended ego-driven selves. Here are a few testimonials from 5 GIFTS students:

? "By releasing the illusory idea that I control Life, I free myself to select from a multiplied number of choices which the Universe offers."

? "While I used to view surrender as an act of giving up, I now perceive it as an act of giving over."

? "It is a conscious choice to allow the power and presence of God to live Its life as me."

? "God would not want me to be something my heart did not want."

Imagine allowing the sweet Divine Presence within to live your life! Imagine the choices open to you then. Imagine the ease and grace of each moment of each day. Imagine the relief you would feel if you really knew that you aren't alone . . . that you don't have to do it all yourself . . . and that within you is a "Knower," guiding you, directing you, maintaining you and sustaining you. Imagine surrendering into that Wise, Holy Self. That is SWEET SURRENDER!

When we SURRENDER to the Power and Presence of God Within, the synonyms for SURRENDER take on a whole new meaning.

Yield: To SURRENDER is to yield to the flow of Life rather than oppose it.

Relinquish: To SURRENDER is to let go of resistance to accepting what is, to allow ourselves to choose differently.

Resign: To SURRENDER is to reassign our little selves to the service of our Holy Selves and to the guidance S/He offers. We are resigning ourselves to more of the Goodness of God.

Submit: To SURRENDER is to submit our will to the Divine Will of God within us. We are submitting our inner ear to listening to the Still Small Voice that is forever offering Its inspiration to us.

In the words of a 5 GIFTS graduate,

Be sure to render it all to God . . . Sure to Render . . . Surrender.

When we give the GIFT of SURRENDER, it expresses in our lives as the quality of Trust. Usually we are called on to SURRENDER our way of believing and/or doing things when we are out of options and have nowhere else to turn. When the pain is too great, when what we've thought would work fails time after time, and when the resistance to change is so strong that our bodies are stiff and tight and our emotions are beyond frazzled, we find ourselves with no other choice than to give up and turn it over. To make that choice is to be at the headwaters of the River of Trust. Surrendering to the Power and Presence of God Within allows us to float freely on the Wisdom of the Holy Self, guided by the internal voice of Intuition and powered by the winds of the Love of God, to the shores of infinite possibility.

I SURRENDER TO THE POWER AND PRESENCE OF GOD WITHIN ME!