Author's Note

You belong to a blessed generation of people. Like many, you are opening to God as your Creator and to the inner spiritual powers he has instilled within you. These powers arise from your natural attributes as God’s child, and you can learn to use them to improve your life and affect our world for good. Our Heavenly Father is eager to pour blessings upon you of love, understanding, abundance, and joy. These will come as your spirit is ready and able to receive them. If you desire to be better in tune with your inner spirit and with God, this book can be a wonderful tool. It is designed to connect your spirit to knowledge that it is already familiar with, to awaken it to the higher principles learned before coming to earth. Using this book daily with prayer and meditation will develop your spirit, comfort your mind, and add beauty and health to your countenance and body.

Suggestions for Using This Book

This book is best read every day to become a part of your daily habit. Whether you choose the morning, midday, or evening is not important. However, I recommend that you find a time and a place free from interruptions and distractions. You deserve this special time to yourself to balance your busy routine with moments of solitude, introspection, and prayer. This book is designed to be easy to hold and to take with you wherever you go. You may wish to start with the current date or read from the beginning. Or you may want to simply open to a page at random and read, letting the Spirit guide your choice for that day. When you make daily study and prayer your habit, your spirit remains open to God, and he can more readily respond. You will feel his nearness, and you will notice yourself becoming happier, more at peace, more loving, and more confident in facing the challenges of life.

You might choose to share your daily readings with a friend or loved one. If time or situation does not allow for that in person, I have found that sharing over the phone can be fulfilling. Fellowship in study and prayer enhances your spiritual energy and adds strength to your combined prayers.

The Quotations

As you read the quotations, read them purposefully, and contemplate the words. Consider how they might apply to your current circumstances in life. Look for perspectives or principles that are new to you. If a phrase or idea stands out, focus on it, and learn its meaning for you. Should you not understand my perspectives as I have written them here, pray and ask for God’s wisdom and understanding. In stillness, open your mind and heart to listen for the inner voice leading you to greater understanding. For further study, you may want to follow the quote’s reference to the original book and read more about the topic there. You may also want to look at the index for quotes on similar subjects.

The Bible Verses

In reading the Bible verses, study their connections to the theme for that day. Be open to meanings, which may add new perspective to your traditional Bible learning. After my near-death experience, the Bible became a great lifesaver for me—more so than anyone could imagine. The Bible became my daily breath, my nearness to God, and a touchstone for my soul. Meanings that had been hidden or unclear to me before, suddenly became clear. As I applied what I learned in the spirit world, I felt excitement and surges of energy that held me captive to the Bible. I was amazed that, while I had read the Bible many times from cover to cover, I had never really understood it at all! With the knowledge and understanding that I received in heaven, the Bible came alive to me for the first time. Its writings were more heartfelt, more substantial, and more comprehendible. I could see that I had taken the Bible too literally and without spirit before. I still read and re-read it with delight! I have studied it and underlined so many verses that I had to purchase a new book just for unobstructed reading!

While it is not my purpose or desire to compare Embraced By The Light or my other writings to the Bible for scripture comparison, I most assuredly and prayerfully consider the Bible as my second source—next to God and what he has blessed me to experience and to know—as a measuring stick for all that I share. When aligned with his Spirit, I find nothing lacking, and I am at peace.

The Prayers

The prayers I offer here are not intended to be completed prayers. They are a beginning place and suggest, perhaps, where to begin your own prayer for the day. The prayers in this book also add depth to the principles that precede them in the quote and scripture verse. They are purposeful, to bless you with information to meditate on, and to encourage an openness of mind and heart. I encourage you to pursue your own thoughts, quests, and desires of God. After reading the words of my prayer, continue to pray, adding your own words for as long as the Spirit leads you. I generally close my prayers by saying, “I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ,” and then end by saying, “Amen.” I do this as an affirmation of my faith and its direction. Let your spirit suggest the appropriate closing for you. The Father already knows what you believe, so choosing your words is more for yourself then it is for him. He listens to your heart. There is no one way to pray, nor is there one way to tell the Father you must close for now.

How you sit, stand or kneel while you pray is a matter of choice and circumstance. You can pray by thought or spoken word. Although, there is added strength in speaking out loud if you are not yet proficient in focusing your thoughts or projecting your energy in them. However, all prayers from the heart are effective. God hears them. There is simply no one perfect way to come to the Father. Just come as you are, invite his Spirit and be open, accepting, and willing to listen to his direction and encouragement for you. You will feel his presence and his love grow in you as you continue to seek him.

The Affirmations

The phrases at the bottom of each page affirm and give positive personal focus. It is best to speak these affirmations out loud, feeling the truth and energy of the words as you repeat them a few times. Memorize those that seem particularly important for you. You may wish to write them and place them where you can read them and be reminded throughout the day. Repetition imbeds these affirming words deep into your spirit and consciousness. They will penetrate to become a part of you, surfacing during moments when you need their strength and reminder.

In heaven I learned that our words create unseen yet very real energies which ripple inward and outward. They carry power to influence and change our environment, our circumstances, our patterns of behavior, our habits of thought, even our very beings. Words spoken in prayer carry these same energies. We are creators, like God is. We are his children and carry within us his attributes. He has created the universe to respond to our words and to support them according to our will. Though God’s will is supreme, he allows us the growth experience of using free will to create and influence aspects of our own lives. Speaking inspired words of prayer and affirmation instructs and trains our will, reinforcing us in Godly directions and bringing us closer to alignment with his perfect will.

May God bless you in your daily study and walk with him. May he bless your life with his great wisdom as you continue to learn of him and seek understanding of his will for you.

—Betty J. Eadie