Universal Life Church Monastery of Massachusetts: December 2010

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

MARRIAGE: A prayer by Thomas Kemphis

A prayer by Thomas Kemphis

Praying for your marriage to be blessed and successful is very important. With two people living together, conflict will arise and prayer and help from God is necessary. Listen to a prayer by Thomas Kemphis regarding marriage.

“And may your love surmount every obstacle that comes your way!

May you have much joy and be the light of each other’s days.

May you always be in love and honor and cherish your relationship.
May you always see and encourage the best in each other.
May the challenges that life brings your way make your marriage grow stronger.
May you always be each other's best friend and greatest love."

This is a beautiful prayer that you can add to your prayers for your marriage and watch how God helps your marriage to flourish.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

WORK: Belief

To have a successful career, you not only have to develop a plan and work hard, but it is also important to visualize success. Jesus said that if we believe, we will receive whatever we ask for in prayer. (Matthew 21:22) Ask. Believe. Receive. It’s that simple.

Be encouraged here. Create your goals and have faith that you will achieve them. Actually visualize yourself with that new house, job, partner, or baby. Feel the excitement of the answered prayer beforehand. You must understand that nothing is impossible with God. (Luke 1:37)

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

HEALTH: Being cheerful

The human heart is an amazing organ and necessary for life. It continually pumps life through our bodies, beating about 100,000 times a day. Many things can affect the health of our hearts, such as stress and poor diet, but God tells us that it is good for us to have a cheerful heart and joy is medicine for our bodies. (Proverbs 17:22)

Having a positive and cheerful attitude is one key to abundant life. God tells us that being happy, or cheerful, is good for us spiritually and physically. With stress being so prevalent in our culture, it is important to remember to do things that make you laugh. Take time to watch funny movies or go out with friends and simply enjoy yourself. Manifest the motto: Live, laugh, love.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

LIFE: Positive expectations/Faith

“If you can believe it, you can achieve it!” Perhaps you’ve heard the previous phrase before. It may sound too good to be true, but there really is such power in having positive expectations. Living with an attitude of expectancy, or having faith as the bible describes it, can be beneficial and make a big difference in our day to day attitude.

The bible explains faith as the evidence of things not seen. It’s an expectation of what you want. Mark 11:24 reads, “…whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.”

Did you get that? It says ask, then believe, and then receive! You have to believe it first before it manifests. No matter what the circumstance is or what your physical eyes see, you must believe you’ve already got it. Faith is such a powerful force. If this is a struggle for you, begin small. Believe for something small and eagerly wait in expectation as it manifest. Like the growth of a seed into a giant tree, our faith can begin as a little seed and grow to become great faith if we are determined to be persistent.