Devotional Journal for Women — When the Habits Still Hold but the Heart Has Gone Quiet

Cover of When the Habits Still Hold but the Heart Has Gone Quiet

You're still doing everything you used to do. You don't hear what you used to hear.

Devotional Journal for Women

When the Habits Still Hold but the Heart Has Gone Quiet

A daily rhythm built for the season when habits hold and the heart has gone quiet.

A 140-Day Reflective Devotional Journal

Book 13 of a 70-journal series · 140 daily reflections · 9,800 guided prompts across the series

  • 140 daily reflections
  • Scripture + guided journaling space
  • Written for women experiencing spiritual dryness
  • Five honest minutes a day
  • Instant eBook download

Paperback — printed on demand, ships free worldwide (typically 7–14 days). eBook — instant PDF + EPUB download, read on any device.

If a pin brought you here — the page you glimpsed is one of 140. Each day is the same quiet shape: a few honest lines, a verse, and space to write. The sample pages below show exactly how it works.

Look inside

These are actual pages from the printed book — click any page to enlarge

Interior page 1Interior page 2Interior page 3

Why this is different

Most devotionals

  • Inspiration to read
  • Reading only
  • Generic encouragement
  • Read once, then forgotten

This journal

  • A daily practice you actually do
  • Reflection + Scripture + writing space
  • Written specifically for women experiencing spiritual dryness
  • 140 steady days that build over time

Who it's for

This is for

  • The woman still showing up for faith, exactly as she is.
  • Anyone who wants structure without pressure
  • Small groups, church families & gift-givers

This is not for

  • Anyone wanting a quick, read-once motivational book
  • Readers who don't want to write anything down
  • Those after a study guide without daily reflection
Not ready today? Begin with our free seven-day devotional — slow, scripture-anchored, in your inbox. A quiet place to start before the 140 days. Get Day One →

An established series

70journals in the series
140days in each
9,800guided reflections
5–10minutes a day

Part of a growing library of guided devotional journals from Stilling Waves Press.

About this journal

The full story, in our own words

A 140-day devotional journal — a gentle daily place to reflect and pray for the woman whose habits are holding her steady while her heart figures out what to say.

For Women Experiencing Spiritual Dryness — Rekindling the Flame. Each day sits beside a quoted line from a Christian writer across the centuries — kept in their own voice, with a quiet word-gloss underneath so the older language opens rather than closes.

  • No pressure to feel fixed. Just a daily place to bring the quiet.
  • Five minutes a day, shaped around the season you are actually in.
  • For the woman who is still showing up for faith — and wants to be met here, exactly as she is.

Seven stages across 140 days: Stage 1 — A Gentle Arrival · Stage 2 — Softly Letting Go · Stage 3 — Choosing to Be Faithful · Stage 4 — Pressing On — The Middle · Stage 5 — Personally Known · Stage 6 — The Turn · Stage 7 — This Stretch.

Anchored by seven small images you will half-recognise from the start: a dawn, open hands, a lamp, a mountain, a vine, a stream, an open door. One quiet picture per stage, gently signposting the journey home.

Inside these pages you will also find:

  • A consistent daily rhythm, learned once — every page repeats the same gentle structure — an Opening, a Reflect question, a Rest cue for the body, a Today's Focus, a Touch line tied to the breath, a quoted Christian writer, and a closing Meditation. Same shape, 140 days.
  • Plain-English glosses under every older line — older Scripture and classic Christian prose come with their unfamiliar words quietly opened underneath — thee, thou, unto, communion — so the language never blocks the meaning.
  • Quoted writers, always named — every devotional line in the journal carries an attribution — chosen from a curated corpus of trusted Christian voices across the centuries. The journal does not borrow anonymously from the tradition; it credits where every line came from.
  • Section interludes that carry the rhythm forward — between each of the seven sections, a Commentary, a Poem, an A Prayer for This Season page, and a closing Reflection — the journal breathes between stages instead of just numbering them.
  • Prayer pages — borrowed and your own — the saints' prayers carry you when you have no words; A Prayer for This Season pages give your own words a place to land.
  • A poem inside each section — between days and decisions, a short unhurried passage holds the stage's feeling — small enough to remember, deep enough to return to.

Sample prompt: "What was the last moment you felt God clearly? Write it down. It still counts."

Not a devotional to read when inspired. A daily practice to return to regardless.

You know the Bible you have opened so many times it falls open to the same passage, and the way nothing in you stirs when it does? Underneath is a quieter question — about whether the warmth has left you, or you have left the warmth, or whether something is happening that is neither of those. This journal sits with that quieter question. Five honest minutes a day. It does not try to make you feel something. It sits with you in the not-feeling, and slowly the dryness reveals itself as part of the deepening.

A daily rhythm built for the season when habits hold and the heart has gone quiet. Written for the woman still showing up for faith, exactly as she is. Open to day one.

What’s inside every day

Seven steady elements per day for 140 days — opening, reflect, rest, focus, touch, attributed quote, closing meditation.
Thy becomes your; thee becomes you. Every older line opened underneath — never left to puzzle out.
Real names on every quoted line — Christian writers across the centuries, drawn from a curated corpus, attributed in full.
Each section ends with a liturgical interlude: Commentary, Poem, A Prayer for This Season, Reflection.

Every day follows the same steady rhythm: an Opening line, a Reflect question, a Rest cue for the body, a Today's Focus, a Touch line tied to the breath, a quoted Scripture or Christian writer with a plain-English gloss, and ruled lines for your own words.

How it will feel

Let the feet settle when reaching ends. You are allowed to not pray long prayers. A single sentence counts. You can skip the small group discussion about what God is teaching you. Honest is better than performed. Sleep tonight. The desert will still be there. So will He. Put down the pressure to have a moving prayer time. Sit. That is prayer.

Your hands open while you are reading. You open the Bible without bracing for what you might not feel. Your day has a shape you can move inside. Your back is straight when you walk in. Your feet move before you have to argue them into it. By that point, this can begin to feel like just who you are.

Built to form you — not just inspire you

Not Inspiration — Formation

This is not a devotional to read when inspired — it is a daily practice to return to regardless. Real faith is built through structured daily formation, not occasional motivation. Finishing this journal produces something that starting ten others cannot.

What This Journal Returns You To

  • Something of Christ's own Gethsemane is being shared with you
  • You are participating in the ancient practice of formed disciples through the faithful practice of first love for God
  • The faith that survives the desert is the faith that cannot be taken from you

Sample prompt: "What is forming in you through the faithful practice of first love for God is irreplaceable"

A thoughtful gift

Some gifts arrive loud. This one arrives steady. 140 days of quiet companionship, plain-English Scripture, and small honest pages — a present that keeps showing up after the wrapping is gone. You who keep showing up in the dry season are the woman God is most at work in. Close this knowing the silence was not absence — it was preparation.

More in the 140-Day series

About this journal’s author

Hayley Louisa Mark is the pen name under which Stilling Waves Press writes its reflective journals. The voice is quiet on purpose: these pages draw on Scripture and the older contemplative writers — Andrew Murray, François Fénelon, Thomas à Kempis — slowly read and set into a 140-day daily practice. Sixty-six journals share the same method: five honest minutes a day, one season at a time.

Published by Stilling Waves Press, creator of the 140-Day Reflective Devotional Series. Our journals are designed to be completed, not merely read — combining Scripture, reflection, and guided writing into a daily spiritual practice.

STILLING WAVES PRESS

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