Category: Daily Prayer

JULY 22     

I HAVE ILLUMINATION

Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, everlasting doors; and the king of glory shall come in.  Psalm 4:27

The gates represent the place in our consciousness where the Divine flows into the human.  The light which artists painted around the saints represents the light of Heaven.  Illumination or cosmic consciousness is a reality.  This is what Jesus referred to when he said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

As the dawn of illumination breaks and the shadows of evil flee, the hills of God are touched with the glow of Divine rays.  I wake to the thought that I am one with all life.  I lift mine eyes to the sky and sing with the joy of one who beholds the Eternal Presence in everything.

Today I lift up my consciousness to the light and I know the King of Glory will come in.  Today I keep this inner light, this Candle of the Lord, trimmed and burning, for I know that the bridegroom, which is Christ, my true Self, will enter my consciousness.  I know that there is a Divine radiance emanating from everything.  I know that in this light which emanates from the very center of everything there is no darkness at all.  In this light, I see the light.

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

JULY 21 

I GIVE FREELY

Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over.  Luke 6:38

We all wish to receive, but how many of us desire to give?  If, as Jesus intimated, receiving is the other end of giving, then the more we give, the more we shall receive.  ‘Who loses his life shall find it.”  We should give the best we have to each other and to the world.  This gift of Life, a conscious letting go of all the tight strings of our being, a loosening of the Divine gifts within us.  Only when we have learned to give all shall we be in a position to receive all. 

God “prepares a table before me in the presence of mine enemies, … my cup runneth over.”  Realizing that the table of the Lord is ever spread with the bounty of the Eternal Givingness, and knowing that my inner Shepherd attends my every need, I realize that my cup of joys runs over with the gifts of Life.  Unhesitatingly, I give to others.  I share my kingdom with all.

Today I give myself unstintingly to Life. I unloose the wellsprings of my being and make a complete deliverance of the self to Life.  This I do with joy, withholding nothing.  I shall not do this with any hope of reward, but in the glad joy for the opportunity to increase my own livingness.  Everything that I have belongs to the world.  Giving, I shall receive the world back into my own consciousness.  

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

JULY 20

I FORGIVE

I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions … For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.  Isaiah 44:22, 65:17

Whatever the mistakes of yesterday may have been, today is a new creation.  Turning from the errors of the past and no longer carrying with us the sorrows and mistakes of yesterday, today we may enter into a new experience.  But it is only when we forgive everyone that we may feel certain that the weight of condemnation is lifted from our own consciousness.  We should refuse to carry the negations of yesterday into the positive atmosphere of today, for today the world is made new in our experience.

When we criticize another person we are apt to become involved in his psychological reactions.  This does not help the person we censure but draws us into the confusion which we are observing.  We must recognize that each person is a law unto himself within the Cosmic Law.  Each person has the right to his own ideas and beliefs.  We cannot understand a person’s actions until we know the beliefs which are motivating him.  Only from the inner self can motives be explained.

Today I loose all condemnation. I judge not and I am judged only by the Law of Good.  There is no animosity, no criticism, no hatred.  I shall behold the face of love, of beauty and of peace in the Spirit and that there is nothing that opposes this blessing or denies this Divine givingness.

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

JULY 19

I HAVE TRUE UNDERSTANDING

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.  Proverbs 4:7

As all Scriptures tell us, true spiritual understanding comes from a perception of the Divine Unity back of all things.  Knowledge is of the intellect; wisdom and understanding are of the heart.  Those who have had true spiritual understanding  have always taught us of the unity of good; that we are one in essence with the Spirit.  They have told us that the unreal never has been; that the Real never has ceased to be.

“I will not leave thee nor forsake thee.”  Our divine nature never deserts us.  Like the prodigal son, we may wander into far countries of despair, but the Divinity within us ever gently urges us back to the center of our true being; It ever reminds us if its presence.

Today I permit my spiritual understanding to penetrate everything which seems opposed to good.  Back of all variety, I perceive the One Cause, the One Presence, the One Purpose.  Today I align myself with this Divine Presence that runs through everything.  I open the gates of my consciousness with enthusiasm and through recognition and acknowledgment, permit the Spirit of Wholeness, the Spirit of Oneness, to flow through me.  I know there is one God, one Spiritual Man, one perfect Law, and one eternal Life.

JULY 18     

I USE DIVINE LAW

Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass.  Psalm 37:5

It is written that the Law of the Lord is perfect; therefore, when we commit our ways unto the Lord, we automatically are using this perfect law even in the most trivial things of life.  To this Law there is neither great nor small.  It is always responding to us by corresponding with our mental attitude toward it.  Our mental attitudes can be consciously controlled; therefore we can always make conscious use of the Law of Good.

The Law of Mind brings all ideas into expression according to man’s thought; therefore, we know that our positive vision brings right action on all our affairs.  We do not try to influence people nor attempt to bend them to our will.  But we do know that what we sustain in our consciousness will be established in our experience.  When we know that God action is right, and depend on God action and not on personalities, whatever is necessary to the fulfillment of our vision will be included in our experience.

Today I have faith in the Law of God.  Today I guard my thinking, consciously endeavoring to think affirmatively and with faith.  I believe that the Law of the Lord will bring every good and perfect thing to me and will bless everyone whom I hold in consciousness.  Knowing that the Law of Good operates through my word, I speak this word with implicit confidence, with complete acceptance, and with absolute abandonment to good.

JULY 17        

CHRIST IN ME

Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.  Ephesians 4:13

The Bible tells us the real man is Christ.  This Christ is the perfect, invisible Presence back of, in and through every living soul.  Just as there is but one God or First Cause, so there is but one Man, the manifestation of the Divine Spirit in and through all people.  Throughout the ages this Christ has come with some degree of clarity to those who have meditated long and earnestly upon the nature of the Divinity that is in everything.

I acknowledge this True Self, knowing that It will instantly supply me with whatsoever things I need.  I consciously re-enter the kingdom of heaven within me.  I sit at a table of the Lord and partake of the divine banquet, the wine of Spirit and the bread of Life.  I know that the master at the table is my own indwelling Christ, that part of me which is perfect in God, that immortal Self which is birthless, deathless and changeless.  I know that my host is God, the living Spirit Almighty.  I live, move and have my being in this Divine Presence.

Today I permit Christ to be born in my consciousness.  Today I realize that Christ is the universal Son appearing through every deed of goodness, truth or love.  As I unveil the Christ in my own nature, I know that the countenance of the same Christ will be revealed to me through others.  I enter into my Divine inheritance through the recognition of my union with the supreme Spirit.

JULY 16         

I HAVE SYMPATHY

          My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.  I John 3:18

Humanity and Divinity will be identical when we recognize Divinity in humanity.  We must learn to see through the apparent, to judge not according to appearances, to realize that at the center of every man’s soul God is enthroned.  Sympathy and compassion are the ties that bind us together in mutual understanding and in the unified attempt to uncover the Divinity in each other.  Sympathy is the most gentle of all human virtues, for it is the outpouring of the Divine givingness through man.

Today I extend the hand of sympathy to everyone I meet.  I permit my inward vision to penetrate every apparent obstruction, every obstinate attempt to cover up the Divine, every ignorant misuse of the Law of Good.  I withdraw the veil that hides my real self and in so doing, unveil the Reality in others.  Today I love as never before.  I draw close to the Spirit in everything and everyone.

I know that God’s action is right action and that all things work together for good in my experience.  My word shall objectify itself as co-operation, sympathy and love.  I am not afraid to make demands upon myself.  I recognize the harmonious Self which I am, and I know that this Self will find its perfect expression.  I am receptive to new and greater ideas of good for myself and others.

JULY 15

MY OWN COMMUNION

My delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law doth he meditate day and night.  Psalm 1:2

There is always a silent communion going on between the individual soul and the invisible Presence.  This communion should become a conscious union of the self with the Over-Self, of the mind with the Spirit, of the personal with the Universal.  As the artist communes with the essence of beauty and gives birth to form so our minds should commune with the Divine Presence.

Today I commune with the Spirit.  I see the Spirit manifest.  In everyone I meet I shall commune with the Living Christ, the Divine Presence in him, sensing Its perfection, realizing Its beauty, and being consciously aware of its love.  Today I hold silent communion with that invisible Presence which peoples the world with the manifestations of its light and its love.

I declare the Presence of Spirit; I worship the God within me. Knowing that the Lord is in His holy temple, and that everything on earth is subject to His will, I bless the place where I now stand.  This attitude of blessing sheds a new light on my environment and I see beauties hitherto hidden. Even the commonplace takes on a new glow, and I hear “… a voice out of heaven, saying, Behold, the tabernacles of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people.” 

JULY 14 

I HAVE FAITH

The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God.  Galatians 2:20

Faith is more than an objective statement.  We do not have perfect faith while any subjective contradictions deny the affirmation of our lips.  This is what the Bible means when it says we must know in our heart. Heart symbolizes the innermost center of the being.  When the intellect is no longer contradicted by our emotional reactions, by unconscious doubts and fears, then the word of our mouth will immediately bear fruit.

Today I have faith that my word shall not return unto me void.  Today I surrender myself completely to this faith, for I know that there is a creative Spirit which gives substance to this faith and which will provide the evidence of this substance in actual fact.  I expect, then, to meet my good, and I rejoice in the anticipation of this good.  I know that my faith operates through an immutable Law and that there is no possibility whatsoever of its failing.

My faith leads me into complete self-expression.  It awakens inner spiritual forces that have the power to do anything.  My faith transcends the limitations of fear, of physical pain, and of mental depression.  My faith leads me into the pathway of righteousness.  My faith unites every experience I have with the Eternal.  My faith in God reflects itself unto everyone I meet, thereby making practical my faith in man.

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

JULY 13

I HAVE DIVINE GUIDANCE

Be strong and have good courage … for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.  Deuteronomy 31:6

We all wish to know that the Divine Presence goes before us and we all have a right to feel this assurance.  Every man is a unique presentation of the Divine Mind, a separate, without being a separated, entity in the universal Spirit.  Every man is, as Emerson said, “dear to the heart of God.”  We should all develop an increasing consciousness that we are protected and guided in everything we do, say or think.

I know that new and wonderful ideas will come into my consciousness today and that I shall be compelled to act upon them intelligently.  I am assured of Divine Guidance; I feel that it will be impossible for me to make any mistake; that even though I should start to move falsely, my movement will be corrected.  I feel as though I am being constantly watched over and protected.

Today I know that the Spirit goes before me, making plain my way.  I feel that everything I do shall be prospered and I fully accept that I am in partnership with the Infinite.  It is my desire that only good shall go from me, therefore I have a right to expect that only good shall return to me.  I live under the government of Good and am guided by the Spirit of God.  This I affirm; this I accept.

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