UP Church

MAY 9   

TODAY I AM FILLED WITH CONFIDENCE AND A SENSE OF SECURITY BECAUSE I AM ACTIVELY AWARE OF THE PRESENCE OF SPIRIT WITHIN ME   

For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.    Psalm 91:11

Deep within each of us there is a place of calm, of peace and security, where trouble and accident do not occur, where Truth and Love reign supreme and good is the only power.  It is to this place that daily we go in the silence of our own minds to commune with the Spirit that is both around us and within us.  Truly this is our Father within, our heaven immediately available and always responsive to our approach.  In our meditation we seek to make the presence of this Spirit more real to us, more immediate and more personal.  And as we do this an inward sense of calm comes over the mind, a feeling of security and safety which every human being needs.

I know that all the power there is and all the presence there is, is Love, the living Spirit Almighty.  I know that Love is divine protection and I know that I am governed, guided and guarded into the pathways of peace and joy, and security.  I know that this is true of all people.  This is what I believe about everyone.  This is what exists for the whole world.  This is my prayer of acceptance today, and every day.  I feel myself safe in the keeping of Divine Love and Infinite Power.  I feel the soft enveloping presence of the living Spirit.

I know there is no confusion or doubt in the Mind of God, God’s Mind is the only mind there is.  This mind is my mind now, directing everything I do, guarding every movement I make.  For all my ways are ways of blessedness, and all my paths are peace.  I trust, I rest, I live and move and have my being in that which is complete, perfect, divine, whole and happy.    

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

MAY 8   

A GREAT PEACE OF MIND, A DEEP SENSE OF BELONGING, A COMPLETE REALIZATION THAT GOD IS RIGHT WHERE I AM, FILLS MY MIND TODAY

Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.    Proverbs 3:17

When we meditate on spiritual thoughts we are affirming the Presence of God in, around and through us. It is this close and immediate feeling of the Divine Presence, actively stated, that gives power to our words.  The words of themselves would have no power without this deep feeling back of them.  It is because we do believe in a Power greater that we are that we can have this feeling, this inner conviction, this sense of certainty which all spiritual teachers have told us is necessary to effective prayer.  Effective prayer is an acknowledgment of the Presence and the Power of Good.  It is an acknowledgment of this Presence as close to us and this Power as acting on our acceptance.

I know that there is a Power greater than I am.  I know that there is a Love that casts out all fear.  I know that there is a faith which overcomes all obstructions.  I am now entering into this love.  I am now using this faith.  I now have complete confidence in God, the living, loving Spirit.

I believe that the Spirit within me, which is God, makes perfect and happy the way before me.  I enter into conscious union with everything that lives.  I commune with the Spirit in all people and in all things.  I feel an intimate relationship to the Presence and the Power which controls everything.  I put my whole trust in God.  I know that the Spirit will gently lead me, wisely counsel me.  I know that the Love which envelopes everything flows through me to everyone, and with It there goes a confidence, a sense of joy and freedom, a buoyant enthusiasm for living, a zest for life.  And there comes back to me today everything that makes life worthwhile – everything that is good, beautiful and true.     

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

MAY 7           

TODAY I FEEL THE CERTAINTY OF FAITH COMING INTO ACTION IN EVERYTHING I DO, SAY OR THINK   

Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee …    Job 22:28  

Faith acts like a law because it is a law.  It is the law of spiritual Mind in action.  When we realize this we no longer feel that we must have faith in ourselves, as isolated human beings, but rather, as human beings included in the great Law of life.  Then we can rest in complete confidence that our words are the presence and the power and the activity of the Spirit in us.  All sense of making things happen, holding thoughts or concentration of the mind are put aside, and with quiet, childlike acceptance we make known our requests with thanksgiving.

God and I are one.  Nothing can separate me from the Father.  All that I am, and all that I do, is the Divine Presence expressing Itself through me.  The thoughts I think and the words I speak are life and truth.  They are life and truth because God speaks them through me.  Of myself I give no authority to my prayer, but the child of God in me knows that the authority of the Father brings the words that I speak to pass.

I speak the word of health for my body, my feelings and my thoughts, knowing that the Father within is the Power which brings this wholeness into complete being.  I speak the word of Divine guidance and the wisdom of the universe wells up as a beacon to lead me into paths of right-use-ness, to make straight and clear my everyday paths.  I speak the word of joy and the Father within frees me from loneliness and sadness.  I speak the word of peace to the world and know that the Peace of God reaches into the hearts and minds of the people of all nations.

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

MAY 6   

I AM AWARE THAT GOD RECOGNIZES ME AS THE DIVINE PERSON HE INTENDED ME TO BE AND I ACCEPT MY INHERITANCE OF WHOLENESS TODAY   

Ye shall have a song, as in the night … and gladness of heart, as when one goeth with a pipe … into the mountain of the Lord …    Isaiah 30:29

Let us see if we cannot take the pipe of faith and go into the mountain of the Lord, which is the secret place of the Most High within us, and let the whole pipeline of our lives flow from that perfect Spirit which is at the center of everything.

I am one with the infinite and perfect Spirit, the Giver of all good and perfect gifts.  I open my mind and my heart, and, indeed, my whole body, to the inflow of this Divine Presence.  I know that this living Presence is in every cell of my body and every function of my being.  I now accept this Divine Presence as the health of my body, here and now.  I accept It as that which looses from me all that is unlike the perfect expression of Life.  There is no doubt or fear in my mind that rejects in any way all that God is, right here and right now.

My conscious – acceptance of the fullness of the Presence of God, through joy and love, flows out to bless those whom I would help, those with whom I would share this inner joy.  I decree that whomsoever I would bring into the scope of my thought is now blessed and healed through the Presence of Good which is within.  The radiance of joy in my own heart brings happiness into the lives of those about me.  The abundance which prospers me supplies everyone around me with the good things of life. The light which warms the center of my own being so shines forth that all may find guidance and warmth and comfort in its rays.  This is the fount from which spring the living waters.  I drink, and shall not thirst again.  And even as I drank, I hand the chalice of my faith to all.    

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

MAY 5    

I AM AT HOME IN THE UNIVERSE WHEREVER I MAY BE, ONE WITH GOD, ONE WITH PEOPLE, ONE WITH THAT ABIDING FAITH THAT KNOWS NO FEAR   

And all things that are mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them.    John 17:10 (E.R.V)

This meditation is an all-inclusive prayer because it includes ourselves and others.  It is truly doing unto others what we would they should do unto us and establishes a unity between ourselves and those around us, a feeling that we all are some part of the Kingdom of Good.  This all-inclusive prayer, then, is one which expands our consciousness of the True Self and at the same times blesses those around us.

Believing that there is a Divine Presence closer to me than my very breath, and realizing that I live in the one perfect Spirit, and knowing that the God around and the God within me is one God, I say: My Father, which art in heaven within me, hallowed be Thy name.  Thy Kingdom is come now, and I accept it.  Looking about me, I say to all people: Your Father, which is in your heaven within you, hallowed be His name, for you are one with Him forever more.  There is one Life, that Life is God, that Life is your life now – and that Life is perfect.

Looking upon the circumstances which surround me, I bless them even as Jesus blessed the bread and broke it, and even as the loaves and fishes multiplied in the outstretched and upturned hand of his love, so I know that everything in my experience that is good is multiplied and increased.  Even as I feel the increase pressing into my own experience, I give it out, with no thought of return that it may feed and bless and multiply the good of others, these others who are some part of me because God is in them and in me, and we are in each other.   

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

MAY 4   

TODAY, AS A CHILD, I ENTER INTO THE GLADNESS OF LIVING, TRUSTING IN THE ETERNAL GOODNESS   

Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down… and running over, shall men give into your bosom…  

  Luke 6:38

Who would not be as a child again?  Who would not again have the simple faith and childlike trust that somehow or other we seem to lose on the pathway of human experience?  Things crowd in upon us until we lose one of the greatest of all gifts – the simple, spontaneous joy of living and a trust in the power of Good which alone is able, ready and willing to meet all our needs.  Let us, then, again return to the place of assurance that comes with the simplicity of faith.

I now command the multitude of doubts and fears that crowd into my mind to be quiet, while the Divine miracle takes place in my life.  I let every good I possess become multiplied as Divine Love acts upon my faith to bring into my experience everything necessary to my well-being.  I know that this Divine Good includes all things that are necessary – food and shelter, love and friendship, and the accomplishment of every right purpose.

And so my faith, the faith of the little child in me, rises with expectancy to meet the new day, comes in joy to accept the bounty of heaven.  With the faith of a little child I place my human hand in the invisible Hand of the All-sustaining Good and I let the miracle of life and love take place.  I break my bread, with thanks, and distribute such good as I have to everyone I meet.  I say of my own household and the households of all others:  “God bless the four corners of this house, and be the lintel blest, and bless the bed and bless the board, and bless each place of rest.  And bless the door that opens wide to stranger as to kin, and bless each crystal windowpane that lets the sunlight in.”  

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

MAY 3   

TODAY I SEEK AND FIND NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-EXPRESSION THROUGH MY FAITH IN THE POWER OF GOD    

…the darkness hideth not from thee… the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.   

Psalm 139:12

To be effective, prayer must be affirmative, but it is not enough merely to affirm the presence of God.  We must add to this realization the thought that Divine Intelligence is acting in and through us now.  Prayer is not a wishful or wistful wishing, nor is it an escape from objective reality.  To be lost merely in our prayers might terminate in an unconscious desire to escape the activities of life.  Therefore we affirm that Divine Intelligence not only knows what to do, it impels us to act on Its knowing.

I am handing my life and affairs over to Divine Intelligence, to the Power that knows how to do anything.  I am doing this in complete acceptance.  Gratefully, and with deep peace, with complete conviction, I am receiving the All-good into my experience.  I know there is nothing in me that can doubt either this Divine Goodness or the operation of Its Law in my affairs.  I believe that everything necessary to the fulfillment of every good desire is now in full operation, that all the circumstances in my life are tending to bring it about.

If there is anything I ought to do about this I shall receive the impression to act.  I shall receive guidance, and I shall be impelled to act intelligently.  Therefore, I have a complete sense of ease and assurance.  I look forward joyfully as I anticipate the good which is to come into my life.  I believe that all who are now praying with me will receive the answer to their desires from the same source.  My faith goes out to them even as their faith reaches back to me.  For I believe that out of the great Good in which we all live there will surely come to each one of us an answer to their particular need.

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