MARCH 31   

I AM JOYFUL IN THE JOY OF GOD   

Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. 

Acts 2:28

Emerson says that prayer is the proclamation of a joyful and a beholding soul.  And throughout the Bible we find so many references to the joy of God and the gladness that we should have in His Presence.  How can we help being glad and filled with joy if we believe that the Presence and the Power back of everything is one perfect Life, forever giving of Itself, forever flowing through us in wondrous light and power.  Jesus said that if the multitude did not break forth in song, the very stones would be compelled to, by which he meant that all nature is alive and awake and aware with the Divine presence, and that all nature and everything in life responds to the song of the heart.

Therefore, today I am filled with joy.  Let every sense of depression or heaviness depart from my mind, and let my soul be lifted up in song to the Giver of all life and to the joy of living.  Joy shall accompany me like a companion and happiness shall be to me as a comrade.  There is a song in my heart, singing unto the Creator of all things, and there is an invisible chorus responding through everything in nature, through every person I meet, for today I am meeting everything with joy and happiness, with song and laughter, with the gladness of the heart.  I proclaim this day to be one of happiness, of gladness of the heart.  I proclaim this day to be one of happiness, of thanksgiving and of praise to the Most High God, to the Divine Presence that inhabits eternity and finds a dwelling place in my own soul.  Today I express joy and gratitude to this inner Presence, and this Presence in which I am enveloped is one living Spirit of color and responsiveness – my Father, in my heaven, and my Father in every other person’s heaven – the Author of joy, of peace and wholeness.

Taken from “ 365 Days of Richer Living” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker

MARCH 30   

I AM ENRICHED BY THE ABUNDANCE OF GOD   

… prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 

Malachi 3:10

What a promise this is!  As though the Divine were issuing a challenge to the human and saying, “Perhaps things are better than they appear to be. Have you ever really tried having confidence in the Spirit?  Have you ever experimented with your own mind to see if you could come to a place where you really believe there is good enough to go around?”  It is as though the prophet were telling us that even the Divine Bounty itself, lavish and extravagant as it must be, waits ours acceptance.  Possibly we have been holding our bowl of acceptance and our chalice of life upside down so that even the fruit and the wine of the Spirit cannot be poured into it.  Yet the windows of heaven must be forever be open.

Today I open the windows of my soul that the windows of heaven may pour into my experience a blessing greater that I am able to receive.  Nor would I withhold this blessing from others, for as surely as it comes to me, just so surely shall it go forth multiplied and increased to heal and help, to bless and enrich and gladden others.  Today my faith, my hope, my expectancy, look up and out and behold a limitless love giving of itself to everything; an infinite peace enveloping all.  And behind it all, and around it and through it, a joy forever singing a song of happiness and fulfillment. This is my day, this is my heaven, this is my life, this is my God.  In Him will I put my trust.  

Taken from “ 365 Days of Richer Living” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker

MARCH 29        

I AM VITALIZED BY THE STRENGTH OF GOD

…I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength. 

Isaiah 49: 5

If God is all the life that there is, then this life contains the only energy there is.  If we are really hooked up with the eternal, everlasting and perfect Energy, then we should never become weary at all.  And when we have an enthusiastic and glad outlook on life we seldom do become weary.  Therefore we must convince ourselves that we are vitalized by the strength of God and we must do something to ourselves which makes it certain that this infinite Energy shall increasingly flow through us.  It is up to us to make the decision, to follow the course of affirmative thinking, prayer and meditation which shall continually keep this stream of Divine Energy flowing through our minds, our bodies and our affairs, animating everything we do with the vitality that knows no weariness.

Today I am energized by the vitality of the living Spirit.  All the Power that there is, all the Energy and Vitality that there is, is mine, and all the enthusiasm for life, the glad expectation of the more yet to be, and all the gratitude for what has been and now is.  Every weight or burden of thought or feeling falls from me and I am lifted up into the atmosphere of that Energy, that Vitality which knows only the joy of its own being and the strength of its own being.  I am one with all this – vitalized, energized and magnetized by the living Spirit.  This Energy is never depleted, it is never lessened.  All of it is present right where I am; all the enthusiasm for life is right where I am, and all the joy in living is right where I am.  Everything within me, then, today and every day, responds to the thought that “I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, and my God shall be my strength.”

Taken from “ 365 Days of Richer Living” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker

MARCH 28   

I IMBIBE NEW IDEAS FROM THE CREATIVITY OF GOD 

…The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.  

John 5:19

Emerson tells us that the Ancient of Days is in the latest invention.  In other words, since God is all there is, the only Presence, the only Power and the only Mind or Intelligence, when we conceive a new idea we are thinking directly from the creativity of God.  It is not our isolated, limited human personality that projects this new idea.  We are merely the instrument through which this projection takes place.  But we are in partnership with the Projector.  God really is in the latest invention, in the newest song, in the latest novel, in the last picture that was painted, and in that feeling which we have of new and greater and better things to come.  For God is all there is – there is nothing else besides.  God is both the inventor of the game and those who play in it, the author and actor, the singer and the song.

Today I imbibe new ideas from the creativity of God.  My whole consciousness is alive and awake and aware.  It is impregnated with Divine ideas and shall bear fruit after the image of the impression conceived within it and the Divine imprint made upon it. Today, then, I expect new ways of doing things; I expect to meet new people, form new friendships; I expect more good that I have ever experienced before, and today I expect from myself a more gentle approach to life, a more kindly feeling, a more beneficent impulse.  New thoughts, new ideas, new people, new situations, new ways of doing things and a new influx of the Divine shall make this day perfect, glad and an expression of limitless bounty from the storehouse of the Infinite Good.

Taken from “ 365 Days of Richer Living” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker

MARCH 27   

I EXPERIENCE THE WHOLENESS OF GOD  

For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.  But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 

I Corinthians 13: 9 – 10

How true it is that we do see as through a glass, darkly, or only in part.  But to all of us there come fleeting moments when our inward vision is opened and we seem to look out upon a newer and broader horizon.  The Apostle tells us that when that which is perfect shall come, then that which is in part shall be done away.  What he really is saying is that we are all at a certain place in our evolution but that there is a complete certainty before us.  We shall continuously expand and experience more and more of that Life which already is perfect.  But there is no reason why this awakening shall not come now.  For we are not really waiting on God – God is waiting on us.  “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.”  All nature waits our recognition and even the Divine Spirit must wait our cooperation with It.

Today my eyes are open more widely and I look out upon a broader horizon.  Across all the experiences I may have had which were limited or unpleasant; I now see the rosy hue of a new dawn.  Letting go of that that which is little, I now enter into a larger concept of life.  Dropping all fear, I entertain faith.  Realizing that every form of uncertainty is seeing only in part, I open my spiritual eyes to that which is wholeness.  And even as I do this, the limitation, the fear and the doubt slip away from my experience, taking their departure in quietness and in peace as I turn to that which is greater and better and fuller of eternal life, of happiness and of peace.  Today my eyes are open to the breadth and the height and the depth of that Life which is good, and the Law which is perfect.

Taken from “ 365 Days of Richer Living” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker

MARCH 26   

I LIVE IN THE LIFE OF GOD   

…as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.  

John 5:26

All life is One Life.  Just as every physical substance known derives from one universal energy, so there is but one Life Principle, which is God, in which we all live from which infinite Source our individual lives are drawn.  If this one Life is present everywhere, It is also within us.  To say that the Life of God is the only life there is, means that my life is not only in God and of God and from God – it is God, in and through me.  If this were not true I would have a life separate from God, which is unthinkable and impossible.  But if it is true that the Life of God is my life now, how wrongly I must have been thinking about this life.  I have judged it falsely and condemned it unnecessarily and in every way, shape and manner, in my ignorance, have denied the very thing I should be affirming.

There is one Life, that Life is God, that Life is my life now.  In Him I live and move and have my being, and He lives in me and moves through me.  I deny, then, that there is any life separate from Good, and I affirm that every organ, action and function of my physical body is animated by the Divine Life which created and sustains it.  It is this Life that is circulating through me now, in happiness, in harmony and with perfect rhythm.  I am one with the Whole, therefore I say to my mind: “You are to live and think and feel this truth until it is spontaneous and natural.  And when you say, ‘God is my life,’ you are to know that the entire life of the Divine and Perfect presence is now flowing through you.”  I affirm this today – the Life of God is the only life there is; that Life is my life now, complete and perfect.

Taken from “ 365 Days of Richer Living” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker

MARCH 25 2015   

I AM CLEANED BY THE PURITY OF GOD   

Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity…

Habakkuk 1: 13

When the prophet said that God is of too pure eye to behold evil and cannot look on iniquity, he was proclaiming one of the most profound concepts the human mind has ever entertained.  For he was really saying that God, who is the originator of all things and the first principle of all life, can never experience evil, nor see it, nor know it.  “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.”  What could be plainer or more evident than that he was saying that God neither creates nor experiences evil; that we are cleaned by the purity of God.  Suppose we liken this purity of God to a clear stream of water which knows no impurity and in which we bathe.  The very act of our entering the stream purifies us without contaminating the stream itself.  And so it is in our relationship with the Divine, who is free from all evil, and the Law of Good that knows no limitation.

Today I enter into the stream of pure Life, knowing that as I bathe in the spiritual waters of perfection, my whole being is cleaned, purified and made whole.  Today I turn from all evil, from every sense of limitation, of fear or uncertainty, and bathe in the waters of freedom, purifying myself from the belief or experience of want or need.  Today, as I bathe in the waters of pure Spirit, I loose every negation of the past.  I am cleaned of all fear of the future.  I am purified from all uncertainty in the present.  I enter a new, a complete and a perfect Life, here and now.  Today is God’s day.  I shall rejoice in it.  I shall sing a song unto that which is beyond all evil.

Taken from “ 365 Days of Richer Living” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker

MARCH 24         

I AM SECURE IN THE EVERLASTING ARMS OF GOD   

The eternal God is thy refuse, and underneath are the everlasting arms. 

Deuteronomy 33: 27

The everlasting arms suggest Divine protection, complete certainty, and the assurance that all is well with the soul.  And how could it be otherwise since the spirit of man is God.  Therefore, when we say that we are secure in the everlasting arms of God, we are realizing that our spirit, being one with His, and never separated from its Source, must be, and is, as secure as God.  It is this inward sense of our union with the Whole that binds us back to the eternal Presence and gives us the joy of knowing that there is nothing to be afraid of, either out of the past, from the present, or in the future.

I am secure in the everlasting arms of God.  I feel the Divine Presence in, around and through me, and all people.  A great sense of calm and peace flows through my whole being, in confidence and in light.  Realizing that there is no separation between the Spirit within me and the Spirit which God is, and knowing that there is but one Spirit, which is God-in-me and God-in-everything, I feel confidence and safety and security in that Presence which evermore wraps itself around me and flows through me.  I am indeed secure today in the everlasting arms of good, of peace, of joy and of life.  I am secure in the consciousness that today, and every day, I shall be guided and guarded and protected.  And I am secure in the consciousness that all people are protected by the same Divine Presence, governed by the same Law of Good, and guided by the same Infinite love.  I am one with all, both visible and Invisible; one with the seen and the Unseen; one with God and one with man.  I bless this unity.

Taken from “ 365 Days of Richer Living” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker

MARCH 23   

I AM HAPPY IN THE HARMONY OF GOD   

Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit… And there are diversities of operation, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. 

I Corinthians 12: 4, 6

We do not all have the same gifts because no two people are ever alike.  Nature never reproduces anything identically.  And there are diversities of operations.  We are all engaged in different types and sorts of activities which express the unique individualization which each one of us is.  But it is the same God working in all of us. This is one of the most terrific concepts we could entertain – that out of all the variations of life, the infinite variety of color and form and people – the rosebud, the elephant, the snow-capped mountain, the tiny mouse in the field – one Power is working in and through us now, not as big or little, or hard or easy, but merely as spontaneous self-expression.  Back of our smallest act is the strength of the universe.  Behind all our thoughts is the Infinite Thinker.  Diffused through every human activity is the Divine Presence.

Today I am realizing that all my thoughts are formulated in the Divine Mind; all my actions are sustained by the Infinite Energy; all the Power there is and all the Presence there is, is right where I am.  Therefore I open the channels of my thought to the influx of this Divine Presence which is now doing something unique and different through me.  I feel the impact of this Presence in my own mind.  I sense Its feeling and imagination in my own thinking.  I see It operating through all my actions.  And since there is no big nor little, everything becomes important because everything is the self-expression of That within me which doeth all things well.  Therefore I surrender myself completely to that one Power that one All-knowing Mind, that one Presence, which is beauty and love and peace and joy.

Taken from “ 365 Days of Richer Living” by Ernest Holmes and Raymond Charles Barker