Episode 24
24 | Feeling Stuck in Your Season? 3 Ways to Move Forward with God Today with Your Personal Purpose
Feel like you're in a season that feels slow, confusing, or like nothing is shifting?
You're not alone! In today’s chat, we’re diving into three powerful ways to partner with God and break free from that feeling of being paused. I know how frustrating it can be to feel like you’re praying for clarity but hearing nothing but silence.
That's why I'm sharing my journey and walking you through three practical, God-center ways to take action with Him even during this season of uncertainty and silence.
Grab your notebook, get cozy, and let’s figure out how to ignite your purpose together—because trust me, God’s got a plan for you, and it’s time to start living it out!
I pray that this episode blesses and encourages you!
Michelle
Next Steps:
✨ Deepen Your Journey, Join the Catholic Moms Community Here
✨ Receive Weekly Encouragement and Action Steps to Help You Move Forward with God: Subscribe to the Ignite Circle: The Inner Flame Here
✨ Feedback or Questions? Contact me at hello@michellebrannam.com
Listen to Related Episode:
13 | Before the Clarity: Learning to Trust God When You Don’t See the Plan
15 | How to trust that God has a plan for you: 3 Practical Ways
Scripture Referenced to:
Luke 1:26-38
Matthew 2: 19-23
Transcript
And this helped me to focus on my goal, which was uncovering my purpose at the time as well, helping me to focus my mind and grow closer to him at the same time.
Speaker A:Have you ever felt like you're stuck in the same season?
Speaker A:You're praying the same prayers, you're asking God for clarity, but you're hearing only silence.
Speaker A:Maybe you're doing all the right things, but life feels paused.
Speaker A:In today's episode, I'm sharing three powerful ways you can partner with God today to move forward.
Speaker A:Even if you don't have the full picture yet.
Speaker A:Grab your notebook and pen, I know you have one, and let's dive in.
Speaker A:Are you ready to break free from feeling stuck, gain clarity and take intentional steps towards discovering your unique purpose, all while following God's guidance to become the person that he created you to be?
Speaker A:If so, you are in the right place.
Speaker A:Hi, I'm Michelle, a mom, wife, Catholic discernment mentor and spiritual coach.
Speaker A:I've been where you are, feeling lost and uncertain about my purpose.
Speaker A:But through a Catholic based strategy of discernment, I found clarity, confidently embraced my calling and learned to hear God's voice in my life.
Speaker A:And now I want to help you do the same.
Speaker A:Grab your pen, get your notebook and get comfy, open your heart and mind and invite God in.
Speaker A:It's time to ignite your purpose and start living the life God created you for.
Speaker A:Let's do this.
Speaker A:So as I was reflecting back on what to talk about to help you with on covering your purpose, these three powerful ways to help you move forward today with your personal purpose.
Speaker A:This is what came up for me when my reflecting and reflecting back with I knew that in order to find my purpose being, I must surrender the timing and the outcome of what my purpose was.
Speaker A:So to help me with surrendering, I prayed the Surrender Novena.
Speaker A:I'd seen a lot of questions coming up in Facebook groups about surrendering, how to just surrender.
Speaker A:And then in my prayer app, the surrender novena popped up.
Speaker A:So I really start diving into the surrender novena and I did that two times back to back because I really heard God talking to me during this novena.
Speaker A:So it's very powerful.
Speaker A:So in this season of my life, not knowing my purpose as I set as a new mom and starting to question my purpose, I realized that surrender to God was an important part of the process.
Speaker A:I didn't know what was next or, you know, what God had in store for me.
Speaker A:One of the things holding me back was surrendering complete control of everything I have to have Everything proper in order.
Speaker A:I want to know what's going on in the future, what potentially could go right, what could go wrong.
Speaker A:And that's for me to help organize and help my prepare myself so I can achieve what I'm set out to do.
Speaker A:So this was very hard for me was surrendering the timing and the outcome of my purpose because I just wanted to dive in.
Speaker A:And a lot of times I get stuck in doing something and I can lose track of time.
Speaker A:So this is an example of how surrendering was very hard.
Speaker A:And this also, I'll come back to this in the second point because this will tie in as well with me personally.
Speaker A:And when I did the surrender novena and realized that I have to work on surrendering.
Speaker A:And there are still some times where I find myself struggling to surrender all areas of my life still today.
Speaker A:So this is ongoing struggle as well.
Speaker A:But this helped me shift my mindset from taking now and having control of the outcome to shifting it to let go of the outcome and just let God take control.
Speaker A:Because God's plan unfolds in his time, not ours.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:But that doesn't mean you're stuck.
Speaker A:So no matter how bad you want to know the entire plan, which is me, that God has for you, it is God's timing.
Speaker A:It is God's timing for you to know the whole full picture of the plan.
Speaker A:But I didn't allow this to prevent me from moving forward.
Speaker A:And I don't want this to keep holding you back and being stuck and not moving forward to uncovering your purpose.
Speaker A:Because surrendering it doesn't mean waiting without action.
Speaker A:It means you're walking in faith while you're trusting the the results to Him.
Speaker A:Which leads me to the second way that you can move forward with God today is journaling with God to discover what's already inside of you.
Speaker A:Like I've always reminded you to take daily action in every episode.
Speaker A:That is one of the things that I always try to do is take daily action.
Speaker A:And in the sitting down and journaling and self reflecting on myself, this was sitting down quietly in a quiet place without distractions.
Speaker A:I would pull out my journal and one of the questions to uncover my unique purpose was what are my passions?
Speaker A:What do I love to do?
Speaker A:I invited God in in this process to help me call to mind any thoughts or memories in the past that would help me uncover his purpose for me.
Speaker A:Because it is a clue and a larger picture of what the unique purpose is you're created for to help you serve others.
Speaker A:It's not the Only clue that I find out there a lot of times people are misguided in is what's your passion?
Speaker A:What do you love?
Speaker A:Well, then that's automatically what your purpose is or what you should be doing.
Speaker A:And that's not true.
Speaker A:One of the things you can do is grab your journal and ask, Lord, what are the things you put in me that light me up?
Speaker A:What are my passions that you created me for?
Speaker A:And don't rush this process.
Speaker A:I know I've said it before in another episode.
Speaker A:I recommend that you don't rush this process as well as you generally reflect on the clue and uncovering your purpose of what what are your passions?
Speaker A:What do you love to do?
Speaker A:But don't stay stuck in this step.
Speaker A:I don't mean like reflect and journal on this for like a month.
Speaker A:I would say to journal, reflect at least a week, possibly two.
Speaker A:To really not rush the process and to help the Holy Spirit to guide you during this process.
Speaker A:So you want to grab out your journal.
Speaker A:You want to find your quiet space with little to no distractions, free of the kids interrupting you.
Speaker A:This may be getting up before your kids wake up, or maybe it's a time right after your kids have fallen asleep.
Speaker A:And for me, this was when I would do mine before I had my daughter, I would sit and I would reflect in the evening.
Speaker A:And then I would sometimes, depending on how my day is, when I actually had my daughter, I would either reflect in the evenings when she was sleeping, or I would just get up in the morning and I would reflect when she was sleeping.
Speaker A:For me, my best thinking is right before I fall asleep.
Speaker A:So that's where I'm more focused and I'm more alert.
Speaker A:And that is where I do my best journaling and guided with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker A:And that's where he meets me because he knows I'm more awake and more alert in the evenings than opposing to the morning, even when I get up early in the morning, hours before the kids now wake up.
Speaker A:So you want to spend time with the Lord, even though you may not hear him and he is silent, he's always near you and present during this process.
Speaker A:And you may feel that you cannot hear him, but he is near you.
Speaker A:He's wanting you to take a small action in faith, like we previously spoke about.
Speaker A:He still needs you to spend time with Him.
Speaker A:And I would spend time in prayer and conversation with him.
Speaker A:And I would partner up with him during the morning mindset routine where inviting him in the process during this time.
Speaker A:And this helped me to focus on My goal, which was uncovering my purpose at the time as well, helping me to focus my mind and grow closer to him at the same time.
Speaker A:So this was journaling, inviting God in the process, and incorporating several types of prayer into the process.
Speaker A:And it helped me to focus and stay driven on my goal, which was uncovering my purpose so that I may live it out.
Speaker A:Journaling is a beautiful thing when we invite God in the process to help you grow closer to him, to grow closer in holiness, and to live out your purpose here on earth that you may join him in heaven.
Speaker A:So journaling with God deepens your clarity, your identity and and your purpose.
Speaker A:And the third step is asking for daily clarity, not the whole plan.
Speaker A:The third way to help you move forward with God is to ask daily for clarity and not uncover the whole plan.
Speaker A:Listening and reflecting One time from Father Mike Schmidt's homilies, this really hit home with me.
Speaker A:I was wanting to see the whole plan from God and I was not asking what he wanted me to do right now.
Speaker A:What step was he wanting me to take right now?
Speaker A:This was the wrong approach to take and I wasn't aware of it.
Speaker A:And I'm sure you like me as well.
Speaker A:Don't think about that, or not even aware of how to approach God sometimes.
Speaker A:And our techniques with approaching him or our manner for approaching Him.
Speaker A:What shifted for me was reflecting on this and taking this simple concept that I learned and started applying it now.
Speaker A:This is something I encourage you to start doing today.
Speaker A:So as you listen and reflect on this podcast, what is the one thing that stuck out or stirred in your heart?
Speaker A:Then ask yourself, how can I start applying it now?
Speaker A:We just need to ask God to uncover what the next step is he wants you to take.
Speaker A:Now.
Speaker A:I know as humans it's hard because we want to know the whole picture.
Speaker A:We want to know the future and we need to leave it up to God and His timing because he has been in the future and he knows what is best for us and the plans that he has made for us individually.
Speaker A:We are not God, so we cannot go into the future, nor should we dabble in seeking out others to help us in know the future, because that is against the Catholic belief, one of the ten commandments of the false gods.
Speaker A:So as a reminder, God will not reveal the whole plan even if you ask Him.
Speaker A:And I know you want to know what's going on in the future and you want to know where this is and where is my purpose going to take me.
Speaker A:But just as we see in the Bible With Mary and the angel Gabriel.
Speaker A:He did not tell Mary the whole plan of what was going to happen with him and Joseph and Jesus.
Speaker A:She was just asked the first step that she must take, which was if she would allow this to come her fiat her yes to becoming the mother of God, the mother of you and I and the mother of our Savior.
Speaker A:She was not given the chance to ask Gabriel what will happen if she says yes, like in the future.
Speaker A:She just gave her yes willingly.
Speaker A:So similar you can also look in the Bible as well with Joseph when he was awoke during the sleep, when he was to take Mary and Jesus and to leave quickly to a different country.
Speaker A:Joseph again was not given the opportunity to ask, nor did he ask, what is the whole picture?
Speaker A:What do you've got for me, God?
Speaker A:I need the whole picture before I can take that step, before I can say yes.
Speaker A:So we can look to Mary and Joseph as our role models and you can build this into your prayer routine.
Speaker A:It can be in the morning, it can be in the afternoon.
Speaker A:It could be during your lunchtime, right before you eat.
Speaker A:And it could be in the evening before you wind down or before you fall asleep.
Speaker A:Just speaking to God honestly and you're asking him to to provide you with some clarity.
Speaker A:What is the next step that you'd like for me to take?
Speaker A:And a simple prayer this can be is, lord, what is the next faithful step you're asking me to take today?
Speaker A:God gives us the next steps, not the future maps.
Speaker A:To recap on the three things to help you move forward with God today.
Speaker A:Number one is surrendering, especially the timing and the outcome.
Speaker A:It can be by saying the surrender novena like I did, or you may say a surrender prayer.
Speaker A:Number two, journal with God and reflect on your passions, asking him to help you.
Speaker A:Call to mind your passions that he created you with so that you could fulfill your mission.
Speaker A:And number three, ask him daily for the next step, not the whole picture.
Speaker A:Ask him for clarity for today, not next year, not five years from now, not 10 or 20.
Speaker A:Just what does he want you to do today?
Speaker A:What is the next step that he's asking you to take today?
Speaker A:Let us pray.
Speaker A:In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
Speaker A:Amen.
Speaker A:Father, you see this daughter of yours who's tired of feeling stuck.
Speaker A:She wants to move forward, but she's not sure how.
Speaker A:Help her to surrender what she's holding tightly.
Speaker A:Speak to her in the stillness.
Speaker A:Give her peace where she craves clarity and faith, where she feels fear.
Speaker A:Give her courage to take one step with you today.
Speaker A:And trust that you are guiding her in every step of the way.
Speaker A:In Jesus name, Amen.
Speaker A:In the name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
Speaker A:Amen.
Speaker A:Knowledge is power, but true change happens when it's paired with consistent daily action.
Speaker A:We cannot gain clarity if we're not taking daily action to help us move forward.
Speaker A:And you can get started today by asking yourself and reflecting.
Speaker A:Pull out that journal.
Speaker A:Where are you feeling the stirring in the heart that God is calling you to take in the next step with Him?
Speaker A:Is it surrendering?
Speaker A:Letting go of control?
Speaker A:Is it asking for clarity for what your next step should be?
Speaker A:Or perhaps is it just starting to sit down and journal to uncover the clues to your unique purpose?
Speaker A:And as you reflect on what do you feel stirring in your heart that God is calling you to do?
Speaker A:What's the step that you'll be taking today, this week to work towards uncovering your purpose?
Speaker A:Come on over and tell us inside the Facebook Community Finding youg Discernment Strategy for Catholic Moms.
Speaker A:We'd love to know and support you there and continue this conversation.
Speaker A:Remember, my beautiful sister in Christ that God uniquely created you for a unique purpose.
Speaker A:You were made to do great things.
Speaker A:God is within you and you will not fail.
Speaker A:Go out and ignite your purpose.
Speaker A:God's not done writing your story.
Speaker A:I look forward to continuing this journey with you.
Speaker A:I'll meet you next Tuesday for another conversation.
Speaker A:Until then, may God bless you.
Speaker A:Thank you so much for joining me today.
Speaker A:I pray that today's episode blesses and encourages you.
Speaker A:If so, would you please share it with someone you know that would be blessed by it.
Speaker A:If you felt inspired or you learned something Today, please take 30 seconds to leave a written review on Apple Podcasts.
Speaker A:This is the number one way to let me know that you are liking the show and for me to reach other Catholic women like yourself.
Speaker A:If you're feeling uncertain or you're lost on your discernment journey, you're not alone.
Speaker A:Join us over in the free Facebook community Finding youg Purpose, Discernment and Strategy for Catholic Moms, where Catholic women just like you are sharing some supporting and growing together in faith.
Speaker A:I look forward to continuing this journey with you.
Speaker A:I'll meet you next Tuesday for another conversation.
Speaker A:God bless you.
