Faith Radio On Demand

When we walk with God, we naturally make a difference in the world simply by being who we are in Him.

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It’s fascinating to see your own heart. Recently, I did. Chest pain led me to see a doctor, who ordered tests that allowed me to see that my heart has calcium buildup. More than I should have. Atherosclerosis, the doctors call it: hardening of the arteries.

I’ve made big diet and exercise changes. But I’ve also realized that my cardiac concerns didn’t emerge overnight. In my case, they were the fruit of unhealthy choices. In time, those habits couldn’t help but impact my heart’s health.

Scripture uses similar language to describe being spiritually unhealthy. Our hearts can gradually grow hardened toward God—one day and one choice at a time. Hebrews 3:7–8 (referencing Psalm 95:7–8) says, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.” After God delivered His people from Egypt, they “tested and tried [Him]” (v. 9) during their time in the wilderness.  

God had faithfully provided for His people, but they refused to see it (vv. 9–10). What about us? What habits nudge us away from God—day by day hardening our hearts against Him? We all make some of those choices. So I’m thankful that today, right now, God offers to exchange our hearts of stone for those softened by His love (see Ezekiel 36:26).

Barbara Zahn shares with us her true story.
Visit our podcast website to learn more about this ministry, unshackledpodcast.org.

As Douglas Kent, a landscape architect, toured a charred Los Angeles neighborhood after the city’s raging 2025 wildfires, he encountered a shocking surprise—trees, alive and green right next to melted cars and burned buildings. Many of them bore lush palms and leaves, abundant fruit, and strong trunks and branches. How?

After two consecutive rainy winters, the trees’ roots reached deep into the soil to draw moisture, carrying it to branches and leaves. In a fire, they proved resistant. “What I saw,” said Kent, “was that if you were deep-rooted, you survived.”

Our faith during the fiery trials of life can be like that. As we set our spiritual roots deep in Christ and His love, we become “like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit” (Jeremiah 17:8).

Jeremiah, who never minced words, warned that those who trust in “mere flesh” are “cursed” (v. 5). “That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes.” Instead, “they will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives” (vv. 5-6). How much better to trust in God! Well-watered by His sustaining love, we thrive even in raging times, bearing spiritual fruit in Him.

He ran away from home at age five and again at 25. But the second time Floyd Plumb found what he was searching for. Don’t miss the insight of this unusual, true testimony coming soon—another dramatization from Unshackled!

Stephen McPherson shares with us his true story.
Visit our podcast website to learn more about this ministry, unshackledpodcast.org.