UP Church

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         

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   

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 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