(Please note this is a selection of devotionals from throughout the year. The book includes one for each and every day!)

JANUARY 12

Universal Law of GIVING AND RECEIVING

II Corinthians 9:7 — Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Only by giving are you able to receive more than you already have.

—Jim Rohn

We may all know this law and this verse! Our moms taught us as children to give to our siblings, to give to the needy, to bring our offerings each week at Sunday school. What I don’t remember were any lessons on giving as part of the universal laws: that the more you give, the more you will get back. A wise elder once said that you cannot outgive God. Go ahead and try!

Wherever you go and whomever you encounter today, try bringing them a gift: a compliment, a flower, or a prayer. Feel the positive energy that you get back in return. Try giving a larger than usual donation to a charity you care about; you will be blessed beyond measure by the overwhelming response of joy and true gratitude you get back from that charity. Are you getting money back? No, you have put into the world joy, gratitude, and amazement. I guarantee this is indeed a fulfillment of the Law of Giving and Receiving.

Today’s Affirmation: Today I will begin the process of circulating joy, wealth, and affluence in my life and in the lives of others.

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FEBRUARY 22

Universal Law of DIVINE ONENESS

Luke 17:21 KJV — For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

infinite \ ˈin-fə-nət \ adj. Limitless or endless in space, extent, or size; impossible to measure or calculate.

God in us. A thought that takes a bit of time and meditation to wrap our arms around. It’s like looking out over the Grand Canyon—you are amazed by its vastness, but at the same time, it can be difficult to truly comprehend. It stretches to the end of the horizon, over a mile deep, formed more than five million years ago. Now try to think of that entire canyon existing within yourself! And yet still, God’s infinite nature is even more vast. Too impossible to measure or calculate.

Instead of imagining that whole canyon inside yourself, imagine you are the canyon. You are the trees and the sky and the river that runs through it. You are part of everything because God is everything, and we are all part of God. That is divine oneness. When you realize there is no barrier between you and the heavens, that is when God can begin to renew you. And your soul, your inner self, is as eternal as God’s wisdom is infinite. 

Today’s Affirmation: I am divinely guided, sanctified, and living an amazing life full of divine abundance.

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MARCH 12

Principle of Success and Wealth: DECISION

Proverbs 3:5–6 — Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.

When someone makes a decision, he is really diving into a strong current that will carry him to places he never dreamed of when he first made the decision.

—Paulo Coelho

A student asks his teacher, “I have so many ideas and things to do, how do I make more time in which to do them?” His teacher holds up an hourglass and points to the neck where the sand goes through slowly. “This is the only time you have . . . right now! This minute you will never have again, and you cannot change what you did with the minutes that just passed.”

Sometimes we can spend so much time chasing a million different dreams and ideas, we don’t even realize that we’re just treading water, wasting our time. We can be busy all day but never get anything done! If this sounds like you, it’s time to make a decision. The truth is you wonʼt find lasting success until your heart and soul are focused on your one burning desire. Listen. Focus. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and you will find the direction that you are meant to go.

You can never get back the time you’ve lost, so focus on this very moment, and every moment going forward. When you finally commit to your passionate desire, you are diving into a current that will carry you to places you’ve never dreamed! 

Today’s Affirmation: I think through all of my options quickly and carefully; I trust in the Lord with all my heart.

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APRIL 15

Universal Law of CORRESPONDENCE

Luke 12:15 — And he said to them, ‘Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.’

The Law of Correspondence will always reflect in your outer world what is going on in your inner world (subconscious). When you are connected to your divine oneness through prayer, study, and meditation you are communicating with your subconscious, looking for a true wealth that nourishes you from within. Let’s read a bit from Eckhart Tolle, author of the all-time bestselling book, The Power of Now:

Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of being and the deep, unshakeable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth. They are looking for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment, for validation, security, love, while they have a treasure within that not only includes all those things but is infinitely greater than anything the world can offer.

If your goal is only to achieve material wealth on this earthly plane, you will always be a beggar, endlessly looking for scraps of pleasure or fulfillment. You must first find that inner spiritual wealth which will then allow your outside world to correspond to the richness of your inner world. An abundance of possessions is not synonymous with wealth and abundance of the spirit. But you can have both if you start with the latter. 

Today’s Affirmation: I am full of radiant joy as I put my hope in God. I am wealthy in all ways, spiritual and material. 

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MAY 18

Principle of Success and Wealth: DESIRE

Proverbs 19:2 — Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way.

The intensity of your desire governs the power with which the force is delivered. —Walter Lippman

Desire, burning desire. I ran across the incredible and inspiring true story of Legson Kayira this morning. Born in a poor, rural village in Malawi, he was inspired by two books given to him by missionaries: The Bible and Pilgrimʼs Progress. At age sixteen, he left barefoot with those two books, five days of food, a blanket, and an axe to walk 2,500 miles. His goal? To get to America to get an education like his heroes. He recorded the journey in his bestselling book, I Will Try. His burning desire to get an American education and leave a life of poverty is summed up in his book: “I learned I was not, as most Africans believed, the victim of my circumstances, but the master of them.”

Our scripture today reminds us that burning desire doesn’t live in a vacuum. It tells us that the other principles of success should also be hard at work in our lives. Yes, we need desire, but we need specialized knowledge, organized planning, and the power of decision to make that desire a reality. Legson Kayira realized this truth on his long journey to get an education that would lift him out of poverty.

So what is your burning desire, and what knowledge do you need to achieve it?

Today’s Affirmation: I will not allow my circumstances to dictate my success. I am the master of my own future.

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OCTOBER 22

Principle of Success and Wealth: PERSISTENCE

Hebrews 12:1 CEB — So then, with endurance, let’s also run the race that is laid out in front of us. . . . Let’s throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up.

First forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you’re inspired or not. Habit will help you finish and polish your stories. Inspiration won’t. Habit is persistence in practice.

—Octavia Butler

Persistence in practice: what a perfect description. Habits are solidified in our subconscious and operate without conscious thought, so they are ideal for developing persistence. But how do we turn our persistence into a habit? We start small. We do a little bit every day. When you make your big goals and your organized plan to achieve your dream, it can often seem overwhelming. When you want to run a marathon, you don’t just leave the house and run 26.2 miles. You start small. You run three miles, then maybe five. You do a little bit every day. And when you run every morning—or write another chapter in your book every morning—you are building that habit. That habit that tells you you’re not going to give up. The habit that will be there even when you’re tired and don’t feel like running, even when you just aren’t feeling the inspiration. Even when you try something and fail. Failing is not fatal, it’s just a step toward the ultimate goal. God will be in your corner and your good habits will guarantee you will get up again.

Today’s Affirmation: Every day I keep moving forward; every day I take action toward my goals.

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DECEMBER 8

Principle of Success and Wealth: IMAGINATION

Ecclesiastes 3:11 NIV — He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Imagination is the creative force. Imagination creates reality.

—Wilhelm Richard Wagner

Wagner was a German composer, music theorist, and essayist, most well-known for composing the battle anthem, “Ride of the Valkyries” that has been featured numerous times in American pop culture. However, his true gift to music was his complex operas, later termed “music dramas,” in which all the music and dramatic elements of the opera were fused together. In terms of the power of imagination, nothing strikes me so much as a composer imagining every piece of a massive orchestra. Closing his eyes and envisioning hundreds of different instruments: violins, violas, cellos, flutes, piccolos, clarinets, trombones, saxophones, and cymbals all the way down to the tiny triangle. In addition to that, Wagner was also imagining the drama, the story, the characters, and he even wrote the lyrics, unlike most composers in his day. What a truly incredible thing to imagine him imagining! For out of nothing to come such vast complexity. And as he imagined it, so it was. His imagination created reality. God has set eternity in the hearts of men, vast enough to imagine such incredible things, and yet we still cannot fathom what he has done from beginning to end.  

Today’s Affirmation: God has set eternity in my heart and is helping me imagine the most abundant life.