“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”

So wrote spiritual speaker and author Marianne Williamson in her bestselling 1996 book, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles.” This week, she continues to inspire with a new book, A Year of Miracles: Daily Devotions and Reflections, a collection of 365 affirmations for each day of 2014.

We’re excerpting Williamson’s first seven devotions at Parade.com. Check back at this link each day for the next week for a new reflection.

Day 1
The universe is conspiring in every moment to bring me happiness and peace. 
The universe is not random but intentional. It reflects the will of God, the cosmic Thought driving all things toward greater perfection.

My ego mind—my own self-hatred masquerading as self-love—would point me always in the direction of fear, luring me toward the blaming thought, the attack or defense, the perception of guilt in myself or others. Its goal is my suffering, or the hell of my own illusions.

The spirit within leads only to joy, as it inspires me to see the love in everyone and the possibilities for divine perfection that lie inherent in all things. The universe itself is the handwriting of God, as He constantly creates and recreates the perfection that He is. Within that perfection I have my true being, and within my true being I am happy and at peace.

Day 2
Forgiveness sets me free of pain. 
We don’t forgive someone for their sake; we forgive them for the sake of our own peace of mind. Any attack on another person is an attack upon ourselves, for in the spiritual universe there is only one of us here. What I think about anyone I’m thinking about myself.

All of us are joined in the oneness of God’s love. Only love is real and only love has power; everything else is a mortal illusion. Any thought of guilt is a dream I am dreaming, and I am on the earth to awaken.

Forgiveness is my salvation from pain. If I believe in the reality of what “you did to me,” then I will feel as though the consequences of what you did to me are real. By “overlooking,” I will “overcome.” The question becomes this: Where do I put my faith? Do I put my faith in something loveless that someone did to me, or in the eternal love that lies beyond and corrects all things? To the extent that I withdraw my attachment to what you did, I will no longer be at the effect of what you did. I have decided to put my faith elsewhere. That is the miracle of forgiveness. Love will have the final say in any situation, as long as I open my heart to love.

Day 3
There can be no darkness where I provide the light.
Light is to darkness what love is to fear; in the absence of one, the other disappears. All the darkness in my life – the fears, neuroses, dysfunctions and diseases – are not so much a thing as the absence of a thing. They represent not the presence of a problem but rather the absence of the Answer. And the Answer is love. All fearful manifestations disappear in the presence of love.

Today I make a stand against darkness, knowing that love will save me from the painful delusions that occupy my mind. As I myself surrender my mind to love, and dedicate myself to the Light of True Being, then love will cast out my fears and light will cast out all darkness.

Day 4
God goes with me everywhere, because God is in my mind.
God is not outside me, but lives within my heart. He lives in my mind, as I live in His. There is nothing I can do, and nowhere I can go, that can separate me from God.

Believing in a separation between myself and God is at the core of all my problems. For no such separation exists. I am not alone, for God is always with me.

There is no problem that God cannot solve. He guides me to right thought and action whenever I request it. He parts all waters and calms all storms, through His spirit that lives within me.

Day 5
In the spiritual universe only love is real, and nothing else exists. 
While the appearances of the three-dimensional world would deceive me into the false belief that there are powers more powerful than the Will of God, in fact only love is the kingdom, the power and the glory. My physical senses are useful tools, but they are not the arbiters of ultimate truth. Only the love in my heart is the knower of all things.

The world has trained me to believe in the illusions of fear and separation, and to disbelieve in the truth that lies beyond them. Today I make a stand for truth, as I extend my perceptions beyond what my senses reveal to me, to what I know to be true in my heart. I commit to the realization that only love is real, and I recognize the ultimate non-existence of anything else. This way I gain the power of a miracle-worker, a channel for God in His will that only love prevail.

Day 6
We cannot save the world without God’s help, but He can’t save the world without ours. We need His love; He needs our hands and feet. Today I give Him mine.
A love that hovers above the earth, however well intentioned, is not enough to save the world. It is the willing heart and the love embodied that carry with them miraculous authority to turn darkness into light.

God cannot do for us what He cannot do through us, and today I pray that He works through me. May I be used for a higher purpose, as I surrender to Him my hands and feet, my thoughts and behavior. May they reflect His love. May angels guide me, that I might do the part assigned me to help heal the world.

Day 7
The universe knows how to organize itself. Today I stand back and let it come to me.
Divine organization is inherent in all things. The larger plan is not mine to know and not mine to create; it is simply mind to follow. As a cell contains a natural intelligence by which it fosters the healthy functioning of the body, I too have natural intelligence that fosters the perfect unfolding of my life. My natural intelligence is love, and as long as I cleave to that and that only, all things good and true and peaceful will find their way to me.