Many people have struggled with finding a groove in their prayer life. You start to wonder when the Lord will make way for you to commit to prayer and be disciplined for longer than two weeks, but He has yet to come through. In reality, we’re the ones who need to make the time and commit to our prayer schedule.
When you make time for prayer in your schedule, commit to it in your heart, and take that scary first step, God takes care of the rest and pours His grace for us to respond. Once you come closer to His heart, that’s where you’ll find your home. You’ll find a Father who loves you, accepts you for who you are, and longs for you.
These devotions are meant to walk you through rediscovering your value, worth, and identity in the Lord’s eyes. He’s waiting for you and desires to have a relationship with you. All you have to do is say yes to His call. Here are some inspiring devotions for Catholic women.
The Spirit of truth will guide you into all the truth – John 16:12-15
Dating can be challenging, especially as you get older. After a trail of disappointments, you feel like you’ve finally met “the one,” only to realize that he isn’t the one for you either. It can be especially heartbreaking when a family member points out how the person you love so much isn’t the one for you. You start thinking about how you wanted to prove to your family that you could date the right guy and how you tried to pick a nice guy so you could believe that you were a nice girl.
The post-break-up months may be brutal, but they need to happen for you to move past depending on a man to affirm your value as a child of God. The Holy Spirit guided the truth you heard from your family members. In your life, someone may have spoken the truth to you, a reality that you knew but tried to avoid or felt that you couldn’t cope with. However, God has bestowed a new worth on us through His love for us. He sent the Holy Spirit to guide us and declare what will come. When you discover the truth and leave behind what isn’t for you, whether a bad boyfriend or a draining work environment, you get to step into a new habit rooted in the truth that your identity comes from Him.
Love one another as I have loved you – John 15:12
As women, some of us are the never say no kind of friend. Boundaries within our friendships don’t exist. Maybe it’s because we were raised to believe that saying “no” was rude, or we should focus on being the best friend possible. So, when one of our friends tells us no, we take it personally, feeling like they weren’t a real friend. However, we have to realize that their boundaries differ from ours. Mistakenly, we measure our friendship by one incident instead of the many years you’ve been close.
You give to your friends, but you also count every time you give, with the hidden motivation to seek affirmation from your friends of your lovability. However, John 15:13 says, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Laying down your life doesn’t always mean dying for your friends, but it can mean loving without counting. It also means giving without looking for the comfort of affirmation that you’re the best at being a friend. When Jesus invited His apostles to love each other as He loved them, we get a peek at what His love looked like in friendship.
Do whatever he tells you – John 2:3-11
In our romantic relationships, sometimes we feel like emotional manipulation is the only way we’ll get what we want. Amid our disagreements, we start crying because that will force our significant other to see that we’re the hurt party, and they’ll give in to our demands. However, we soon realize that emotional manipulation, no matter how effective in the short-term, leaves long-term resentment and creates terrible communication habits. However, disagreements don’t mean that our spouses don’t value us enough to agree with us. Some have to learn to untether their spouses’ love for them from his catering to us. He can love you and disagree with you. Sometimes we have to work through the problem while being open to the possibility of not getting what we want.
At the wedding feast of Cana, the Blessed Virgin Mary approached her son Jesus and said, “Do what he tells you.” She didn’t lay the guilt on Him to make water into wine by crying and emotionally manipulating Him. She trusted that Jesus would take care of the situation she had pointed out. Let Jesus remind you that He loves you and wants to help you. Let Him teach you how to ask, trust, and release what happens.
I will give you rest – Matthew 11:28-30
Women carry the emotional weight of work around our necks. We have expectations that aren’t met in our working lives. Even if it’s a problematic coworker, a challenging economy, or the bad luck of the draw, we’ll always find a way to blame ourselves. Perhaps you think you could do more and therefore be better. Is our identity tied up in our performance? We have to unpack this idea that we are our credentials and accolades. Instead, we need to be held by the Lord and told we are loved because of who we are, not what we do.
Jesus invites us to come to Him for rest, those who are “weary and carrying heavy burdens.” He doesn’t want us to go to Him with a pep talk on how to lean in or a to-do list. He promises we will find rest for our souls. We can integrate the gospel into our daily work at home or in the office. If we’re failing at excelling in the workplace based on a perception of what we should be achieving, but we love those around us, we’re succeeding at the real work.
Remember that you are a beloved daughter of God, and never forget it. If you do, as sometimes the world can cause our assurance in Our Father’s heart to fade, come back. Come back to these devotions and your rootedness in His love. Your Father will be waiting for you with open arms.
