March 22, 2021 – I PARTAKE OF THE NATURE OF GOD

MARCH 22 

I PARTAKE OF THE NATURE OF GOD   

The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.  Job 33:4

No one can doubt that God is perfect.  But Jesus said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”  And he had already located heaven within.  He also said, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven,” by which he meant that when we do the will of God, earth will be like heaven, that is, the without will be like the within, for the two really are one.  Therefore our claim, our affirmation, our prayer and our acceptance, our communion with the Infinite, should always be based on the realization that God is in and through His creation as well as around and about it.  When we make this claim we are not speaking from the standpoint of the little, isolated ego that we appear to be, but rather, we are acknowledging, accepting and agreeing with a perfection that already exists. You and I had nothing to do with the creation of this perfection – we did not think it up or plan it out or cause it to be. For this we should be profoundly grateful.  For the human mind is finite and limited.  Our claim, rather, is one of identifying ourselves with the Divine, recognizing Its Presence, and accepting Its action in our lives.

Realizing that God is all there is, that God is perfect, and that God is right where I am; I gratefully acknowledge and accept my own perfection.  Seeing and knowing myself as God must see and know me, I boldly claim the perfection of God to be my own perfection.  There is nothing separate from the Divine. I am one with It. I am one in It.  I am one of It.  It flows through me and is my life.  I am rooted in Its completion, Its wholeness.  God is my life and my life is God – there is nothing else.  Therefore anything that claims to be something else I repudiate, I deny.  I separate myself from everything that contradicts the nature of my being, and simply and sincerely, and with complete relaxation, accept that which God has given – myself. 

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

March 21, 2021 – I RELAX IN THE PEACE OF GOD

MARCH 21  

I RELAX IN THE PEACE OF GOD   

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:7

We often wonder if peace really exists anywhere.  In a world distraught with so much confusion and chaos we deeply need an inner, abiding sense of calm and tranquility.  Peace of mind really is what the world is searching after because without it we have only a sense of insecurity and loneliness.  Without peace, deep and abiding, there can be no happiness nor contentment, no sense of security, no confidence.  And yet, Jesus said, “My peace I give unto you,” and the Apostle said, “The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”  This means that in such degree as we attain peace, Christ, or the Anointed of Heaven, the true and Divine Sonship, makes itself known to us.  For He is not met through confusion, but only when the mind is tranquil, and, like an unruffled body of water, reflects the Divine images of peace and perfection.

Today I enter into the Peace of God.  My mind is stilled from all confusion, and I feel a deep and abiding inward poise.  Christ, the Son of the living God, the One Son begotten of the only God, is real to me.  I keep my mind stayed on this Divine inner Presence, and, letting every thought of discord slip away, I meet the Reality of myself, the eternal and changeless Truth about me, which is that I am the Son of God, I am one with Him forever more, within me, there is a voice that says: “Peace.  Be still and know that I am his God; God in me, around me and through me, the Divine Son forever incarnated and forever kept in the bosom of the Father.”  I glorify the name of this Son; I exalt his presence.  “I am that which thou art; thou art that which I am.”  And that which I am, and that which Thou art, is one and the same.

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

March 20, 2021 – I HONOR THE PRESENCE OF GOD

MARCH 20    

I HONOR THE PRESENCE OF GOD   

… If I honor myself, my honor is nothing: it is my Father that honoreth me… John 8:54

If I honor myself alone, not realizing that I am one with the Divine Presence, then I shall quickly exhaust the small portion of good that I, as a human being, can at any one moment contain.  But if I honor the Presence of God in me, of God around and through me, of God in and through everything, then I am indeed honoring the Presence of God, for One Spirit is over all, in all and through all, and One Presence is all. There can be no separation from this Presence, no apartness, no division.  It is one, complete and total, equally distributed and everywhere available.  To feel this Presence in things, in people and in human events, and to sense that it is all-inclusive, really is to honor God and to provide in one’s own self a place where the Divine can go forth anew into creation.

Today I am honoring the Presence of God.  I feel His beauty in the rose-tinted dawn and in the glow of the evening sunset.  In the rose I find the loveliness of His beauty.  In the mountains I see His Strength.  In the quiet of the evening I feel His Presence.  And throughout the night I know that this Presence overshadows me, therefore I sleep in peace and wake in joy and live in a consciousness of good.  Seeing God in others, I enter into companionship with the Divinity in all people.  In the outstretched hand, in the smile of recognition, and in the warm embrace of friends, I feel the One Presence, the One Power and the One Life.  And so I give thanks – with a song in my heart and with a joy unspeakable I give thanks to this Presence.  May I ever more embrace and be embraced by the love, the beauty and the goodness of God.

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

March 19, 2021 – I AM GOVERNED BY THE LAW OF GOD

MARCH 19   

I AM GOVERNED BY THE LAW OF GOD   

For I delight in the law of God, after the inward man:  Romans 7: 22

This scriptural passage tells us of all that we should have delight in living.  All creation is a manifestation of the delight of God – God seeing Himself in form, God experiencing Himself in His own actions, and God knowing Himself in us as us.  For the highest God and the innermost God is one God, and not two.  But the passage also suggests that in addition to delight, the enjoyment of realizing that we are alive and awake and aware, we are also subject to the exact law that must govern everything – the Law of the Lord that is perfect.  We are, then, to combine our idea of delight with the concept of law, for Love and Law are the two great realities of life – Love as the outpouring of the Spirit; Law as Divine Government.  Let us, then, find delight in the Law of the Lord which is perfect, as we say daily to ourselves:

I am one with the Infinite Spirit of Love, one with the outpouring of the Divine Life.  I am governed by the perfect Law of the inward man, made in the image and likeness of That which is pure, whole and perfect.  My whole life finds its impulsion in Love and all my actions are governed by the Law of Good.  As I meditate upon this perfect Law of God, I realize that it is operating in my affairs, in my body, in my mind and in my spirit.  I know that the Law of Good is absolute; it is complete; it is operating in and through me now, bringing about everything that is good, everything that is right, everything that is happy.  And since this Law must be perfect as well as exact, and since it must know how to bring everything about that is necessary to my good, I place my whole trust in it.  And so I say today, and every day: The perfect Law of Good is governing everything I think or do and all my relationships with others.  I delight in this Law and I delight in the Divinity within myself and all people.

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

March 18, 2021 – I AM WARMED BY THE LOVE OF GOD

MARCH 18   

I AM WARMED BY THE LOVE OF GOD   

Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God… I John 3:1

It has been truly said that love is the loadstone of life, the treasure of earth and the highest gift of heaven.  We all wish to feel that we are kept in the arms of love, protected by its shelter and warmed by its feeling.  But someone might ask, “How do we really know that ‘the universe rests on the shoulders of love?’” The answer is more simple that it might appear.  For instance, no one is ever harmed by love.  The more love there is in one’s life, the better off he is; while the opposite to love, which is hate and dislike, can actually consume a person mentally and destroy his health physically. If, then, love tends to build up while the opposite tends to destroy, we may be certain that there is a universal Reality to it; that we actually are immersed in an Infinite Love as well as a Divine Wisdom.  And we must learn to feel the presence of this Love and rely on it.  Therefore, let each say to themselves, daily:

I am one with the Love of God.  I am one in the Love of God with all people.  My love goes out to everyone and I know that it is returned from everyone.  Overlooking everything that might seem to deny this Divine beneficence, I trust that Infinite Love will guide and protect me in everything.  And I counsel my own soul to show forth this love in such a manner that it shall embrace and warm the heart of humanity, bringing confidence and trust and faith and hope to everyone it touches.  Daily I affirm that love governs all of humanity into pathways of peace and joy.  Daily I affirm that love goes before and makes the way plain and happy.  And daily I affirm that my own love is renewed and rekindled by that great and vast Love in which I am immersed, that Love which is God.

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

March 17, 2021 – I SEE WITH THE EYES OF GOD

MARCH 17         

I SEE WITH THE EYES OF GOD   

…one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.  John 9:25  

The ancients said that there is an “all-seeing eye” and that if we could cause our physical eyes to see with its vision we should be looking at things as they really are.  But is it not true that too often we see with a blurred vision because we are so confused mentally?  The all-seeing eye of God, by its very nature, being one and only, must forever see things as they really are.  This is why Jesus said to judge not according to appearances but to judge righteously.  We cannot expect to draw a pattern of this right seeing from the objective world of confusion or our inner thoughts of doubt and fear.  Therefore we are told to see and act according to “the pattern shewed to thee in the mount,” that is, we are to look and think independently of the confusion around us.  We are to view everything as we feel the Divine, Infinite and Perfect Being must know and understand Its own creation to be.  This is seeing with the eyes of God.

Today I am seeing with the eyes of the Divine.  I am looking at things in a perfect and direct way.  I am seeing through confusion to peace, through doubt to certainty, through fear to faith.  Quietly, then, I review myself, those around me, and  everything that occupies my attention, bringing to them all a broader vision, a deeper insight, a more complete perspective of the Infinite harmony which I know is back of, in and through everything that God has made.  I am keeping my eye single to this one truth – what God has done is good, therefore my experiences are good.  What God has created is wonderful; therefore I am surrounded with good.  In calm judgment, then, I sit quietly within myself and in my imagination look around and see everything according to the Divine Pattern.  As I do this everything I look upon shall become transformed and reborn.

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

March 16, 2021 – I AM ENDOWED WITH THE PERFECTION OF GOD

MARCH 16   

I AM ENDOWED WITH THE PERFECTION OF GOD   

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.  Matthew 5: 48

When Jesus said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven (within you) is perfect,” he was telling us that there is a Perfection at the center of all things, which, recognized, will spring into being.  We must learn to identify ourselves with this Perfection, to so accept it that it is real to us, and to so live that it may be expressed through us. Every organ, action and function of our physical body is rooted in spiritual Perfection, from which it draws its life.  If this were not true we could not be here.  No matter how imperfect the appearance may be, or painful or discordant, there is still an underlying Perfection, an inner Wholeness, a complete and perfect Life, which is God.

Therefore I say to my physical body: “Be ye therefore perfect because you already are perfect in the Divine sight.  There is One Life, that Life is God, that Life is my life now.  This Life circulates through me.  It animates my whole being.  I am one with its peace and wholeness.  There is no inaction in this Divine Life.  There is no stoppage nor hindrance nor obstruction to it.  And whatever may seem to be to the contrary is false, for I am identifying my physical body with the body of pure Spirit.  I am opening my mind as a channel for the realization of the Divine Presence.  I affirm it and accept it.  There is nothing in me that can deny or reject it.  Because God is perfect, I am perfect.”  Quietly I affirm and reaffirm these simple statements until they sink into my consciousness and become a habit pattern of thought which is no longer rejected.  With complete conviction I accept the wholeness of the Spirit and as I do so I identify myself and everything that I am with the harmony and the perfection and the wholeness of the Life of God. 

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

March 07, 2021 – I AM RICH WITH THE RICHNESS OF GOD

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 06, 2021 – I AM COMFORTED BY THE PROMISES OF GOD

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 05, 2021 – I SHARE THE GIFTS OF GOD

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