UP Church

MARCH 11   

I AM RADIANT WITH THE HEALTH OF GOD   

Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily… Isaiah 58:8

Whatever we identify ourselves with we tend to become.  Whatever we think about gradually becomes a subconscious pattern, always tending to manifest itself in our experience.  Therefore we should endeavor to identify our physical bodies with the spiritual Reality which is the very substance and essence of the physical being.  We do not deny the physical body, but rather, affirm that every organ and action and function of the body is radiant with the perfection of God.  There is an inner life of complete perfection which exists at the center of everything; otherwise, nothing could be.  We should identify ourselves with this perfect pattern of our being, claiming its reality in our experience, and continuously knowing that we are animated by the Living Spirit.

Today I identify my body with the action of God, the radiant Life of the Divine Being.  Today I identify my physical body with my spiritual body, claiming that they are one and the same.  Therefore I see that every organ, every action and every function of my body belongs to the rhythm of Life, and is a part of the radiant Presence of the Living Spirit.  There is one Divine Circulation flowing through everything – flowing through me right now.  There is one infinite Rhythm at the center of everything.  I am a part of this perfect Whole.  There is perfect circulation, perfect assimilation and perfect elimination.  There is perfection in every part of my being, and wholeness and completeness.  This physical body is a temple of the Living Spirit which animates it, sustains it, rebuilds it, after the image of its own perfection, and keeps it in perfect health, in perfect harmony, in perfect wholeness.

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

MARCH 10  

I GIVE THANKS FOR THE BLESSINGS OF GOD   

And he … took the five loaves, and two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude. 

Matthew 14:19

Have you and I had the faith to bless that which perhaps seemed so very small – a loaf of bread and a fish – and to expect it to become multiplied in our experience to such an extent that it would not only bless us but also bless everyone around us?  We cannot help but believe that as Jesus broke the bread and blessed it, in his own mind he saw it multiplied and growing and flowing out to those around him.  This is an example we should follow – to bless what we have, recognizing that it flows from a limitless source; we are merely using it and distributing it.  There is always more.  The limitless resources of the Spirit are at our command. The power of the Infinite is at our disposal.  We have as much to use as we know how to take.  But the taking is a thing of the thought, the will, the imagination. It is a thing of an inward feeling or interior awareness in that place where the mind has unified itself with the Living Spirit.

Today I bless everything I have.  I bless everyone around me; I bless the events that transpire in my life, the conditions and situations with which I am surrounded.  I bless everything that goes out and everything that comes in. I acknowledge an increase of right action in everything I do, say or think.  I bless myself and others, for we are all partakers of the same Divine Nature, all living in the One Mind, all animated by the same Presence, all sustained by the One Power.  “Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.”  In joy and in love my blessing rests on everything.  In confidence and in peace the blessing of God rests upon me.

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

MARCH 9   

I WITNESS EVERYWHERE THE BEAUTY OF GOD   

And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us…

Psalm 90:17

I believe it was Plato who said that God is love, truth and beauty.  It has always seemed wonderful to me that one of the world’s greatest thinkers should have included beauty as a necessary part of the Divine nature.  How evident this beauty is everywhere we look!  How wonderful is the landscape, the sunset or the color of the desert at dawn. How beautiful is the daffodil in its sweet simplicity.  And what majestic beauty and strength in the mountain and the wave.  Everything is rooted in beauty.  Beauty is harmony and right proportion.  It is symmetry and charm and grace and loveliness.  Surely we should identify ourselves with this terrific beauty that pours its warmth and color over everything and seems to be at the very root of our being.

Recognizing beauty in everything and knowing that God is the very essence of this beauty, I include myself, my personality, my individuality, my whole being, in this beauty.  I am some part of an infinite harmony, a terrific loveliness, a universal flow of warmth and color and givingness.  I claim all this as my own, not because of any particular merits I personally possess, but rather, because of the necessity of its being true.  I shall no longer think of myself as separate from this beauty or different from it.  Therefore today, to law, to order, to love, to power, I shall add this other thought – Divine Beauty is everywhere.  In this beauty I am beautiful.  In this infinite warmth and color I live and have my being.  Its beauty flows through every act, its charm and grace manifest in every movement, in every thought, imparting itself in love to everyone I meet.  Today I see beauty in others – the charm, the grace, the presence of the living Spirit.

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

I SPEAK THE TRUTH OF GOD   

MARCH 8   

I SPEAK THE TRUTH OF GOD   

He that speaketh truth sheweth forth righteousness…the lip of truth shall be established forever.  Proverbs 12; 17–19

We all wish to speak the Truth, but have we realized that every time we make a claim about ourselves that is different from the claim we would make about God, we are falling into the error of denying the Divine Presence in our experience? God is Truth and Truth is God.  We also are included in this divine and perfect unity.  Therefore, every claim we make about God, the Living Spirit, should equally be made about ourselves because we live and move and have our being in this infinite Truth or Presence.  To say that we are poor or sick or weak or unhappy, is to deny God.  God is not poor, God is not sick, God is not weak, God is not unhappy.  We must, then, make every endeavor, in simplicity and in truth, to identify our personal lives with that One Life which forever more proclaims: “I am that I am,” or, “I am and that and this and everything else I also am.”  There is nothing separate from this one I Am.

Today I say to myself: I am one with the Truth of God.  I speak this Truth and proclaim it to be the reality of my experience in what I call “little” and in what I call “big.”  In the simplest and the most complex things I recognize the one Truth – changeless, permanent and eternally manifesting Itself.  Therefore I know the Truth about myself.  I know the Truth about everything I do.  I know the Truth about everyone I meet.  I know the Truth about every situation I find myself in.   This Truth is not only perfection, it is also power.  It is not only presence, it is also action.  Therefore, the Truth and the Power and the Presence and the Action of the Living Spirit flow through everything I do, say and think.  I do know the Truth, and the Truth I know frees me and keeps me free.

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

MARCH 7   

I AM RICH WITH THE RICHNESS OF GOD   

…every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills…for the world is mine, and the fullness thereof. 

Psalm 50:10, 12

How beautiful was the thought of Jesus when he told us to “consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Jesus was telling us to identify ourselves with the abundance of nature, the constant outpouring of the divine Life in goodness, in riches, in everything that makes for happiness and wholeness and success.  God cannot fail.  The Divine will never fail us if we have implicit confidence in It.  But if we are so caught with fear and doubt and uncertainty that it becomes necessary for us to take time every day to reaffirm our union with the great out-flowing givingness of Life.  This is the purpose of prayer and meditation. It is natural that we should wish the more abundant life.  It is right that we should accept it.  God has already made the gift; it is up to us to receive it.

Today I receive this goodness.  Today everything that I am and have is increased by it.  I identify everything I do with success.  I think affirmatively, and in all my prayers I accept abundance.  Whatever I need, whenever I need it, for as long as I need it, will be at hand.  I no longer see negation or delay or stagnation in my affairs, but rather, claim that the action of the Living Spirit prospers everything I do, increases every good I possess, and through me brings gladness and joy, happiness and success to everyone I meet.  Everything I think about shall be animated by the Divine Presence, sustained by the infinite Power, and multiplied by the Divine Goodness.

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

MARCH 6   

I AM COMFORTED BY THE PROMISES OF GOD   

Blessed be the Lord…there hath not failed one word of his good promises. 

I Kings 8:56

The Bible is filled with Divine Promises, revealed through the spiritual intuition of great souls.  We are promised long life and happiness, riches and abundance, health and success.  The Bible contains more promises than any other book ever written and tells us to accept the fact that these promises are not vague, uncertain things.  More particularly it tells us that these promises are fulfilled right now, in the day in which we live.  “Beloved, now are we the sons of God.”  We need not wait to enter into the fulfillment of these promises.  They are eternally given and wait only on our acceptance.  This acceptance is a mental as well as a spiritual act; it is the mind accepting its highest hope in complete confidence, placing its entire reliance on a Power greater than itself.

Today I accept the Divine Promises.  I accept them with the simplicity of a child, with the joy of one who receives his good in grateful acknowledgement of “the all-sustaining beauty.”  I accept Divine guidance watching over me.  I accept the beauty and the peace of this Presence.  I accept happiness and success.  I accept health and wholeness.  I accept love and friendship.  I realize that what rightfully belongs to me as rightfully belongs to everyone else.  Therefore I promise myself and all others to live as though the Kingdom of God were at hand for all people.  I accept a good beyond my fondest imagination, beyond my greatest dream, knowing that this good which I accept will flow through me into complete expression.  He shall give to me even more abundantly that I have asked, for the promises of God are as certain as life, as immutable as law, as personal as the air I breathe.  Today I accept my good.  

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

MARCH 5   

I SHARE THE GIFTS OF GOD   

I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. 

Revelation 21:6

What a wonderful thought this is, that the very fountain of Life flows open and free; that the gifts of heaven and earth are so bountifully bestowed upon all who receive them.  But there is another thought for us to consider. If God, or Life, has already made the gift, then even God, the Supreme and Perfect One, must wait our acceptance of this gift.  Perhaps we err in that we do not expect to share the gifts of God.  Perhaps we are bound by the thought that we are not yet good enough to accept the gifts of the Kingdom of Good, or that we have not developed spiritually enough to appreciate them.  Too often we feel that these gifts are withheld and so we do not live in an enthusiastic and confident expectation of sharing with the Infinite.  What a wonderful thought this is to actually share with the Infinite in the boundless gifts of Life!

Today I consciously share in the gifts of Life.  I open my whole thought and my whole being to the Divine influx.  I empty myself of everything that denies this good I so fervently desire.  I establish my mind in expectancy, a feeling that all the good there is must belong to everyone who will take it.  I am receiving the Divine gift right now.  I am entering into the spiritual inheritance which Life has willed that every person should possess.  Today I am seeing the gift of Life coming to me from every source, and even as it comes into my outstretched hands, uplifted to receive it, I enjoy the gift and pass it on.  Freely I give everything I have, blessing the gift as it passes through me to others, that it may be multiplied in their experience and in God’s good way come back again to me.

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

MARCH 4   

I AM FREE WITH THE FREEDOM OF GOD   

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. 

Galatians 5:1

We all wish to be free, but at the same time we should realize that liberty is not license.  To say that we are free with the freedom of God does not mean that we are free to do that which contradicts the Divine nature.  We are free only in that freedom which God is – the freedom to be alive, to enjoy living, to enter into the activities of everyday living with enthusiasm and interest.  We are free to love and be loved. We are free to give full and complete expression to every capacity we possess, provided this freedom harms no one and hurts no thing.  This is freedom enough because if we were free to do that which is destructive we should ultimately destroy ourselves.  And, in so doing, we would not only deny but would defame the nature of Divinity itself.  Therefore we always pray, “Thy will be done,” but within this will we know there is scope enough for self-expression – plenty of room to move around and express life to its fullest.

I am free with the freedom of God.  Today I manifest this freedom in joy.  I think of it with deep gratitude to the Giver of all life and with a deep inward sense of my union with the Whole. In my own will and imagination I see myself free, complete and perfect.  I feel back to the center of my being, which is God, and affirm that His freedom is my freedom.  And I include my own physical body in this freedom as well as every activity in which I am engaged.  I expand my consciousness and invite new experiences, knowing that they shall be created for me by the same Power that makes everything.  I enter into this freedom with complete abandonment, with the feeling that all things are working out well, and with the deep and sincere desire to so live that my freedom shall be imparted to others, that we all may feel that we are in partnership with the Infinite.

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

MARCH 3    

I AM HELD IN THE GOODNESS OF GOD

… and God, even our Father, which hath loved us… comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work. 

II Thessalonians 2: 16-17

If we assume an all-powerful or infinite Presence and Power back of, within and through everything – as we must – then we should realize that this Power or Presence, which is God, could not possibly operate against Itself without destroying Itself.  We know of no energy in nature that can destroy itself.  This means that the Power back of everything actually is good, or, as Jesus said, “There is none good save one, which is God.”  We need not worry about this or wonder about it or ask questions about it. It is self-evident that goodness alone can endure forever.  Good is a synonym for God.  Good and God mean the same thing. Therefore, the final truth and absolute reality about all things is that God is good.  And since God is the Divine Presence right where we are, good is right where we are and ever available to us.  But we must recognize and claim this good if we are to use it.

Today I know that my good is at hand.  I see this good in persons and places and things.  Nothing but goodness can go from me, and nothing but goodness can return to me.  There is nothing unlike goodness in my experience.  There is nothing but kindness, nothing but generosity.  My whole inner being responds to this goodness, recognizes it everywhere.  Feeling it everywhere, seeing it everywhere, I am enveloped in it.  And even as I draw this goodness to me and become saturated with it, it flows out in every direction, blessing everything it touches, helping everyone, bringing wholeness and happiness to everyone.  “His goodness endureth forever,” and I endure forever.  In joy, then, I awake to every new day; in joy I rest in the eternal goodness, and evermore there is a song in my heart as it overflows with the acknowledgment of good.

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