In this special short video, I share why the Faith Shame series is not just a topic I am exploring, but a journey that has become deeply personal.

Over recent times, I have come to realise that many believers carry struggles they find difficult to talk about openly. Questions. Doubts. Disappointments. Regrets. Unresolved pain. Not because they lack faith, but because they fear how they might be perceived if they were completely honest.

For me, this became even more real following the passing of my mother. Grief has a way of uncovering emotions and questions we may not expect. It can challenge our assumptions about faith, strength and what it means to trust God in difficult seasons. It can also reveal how easy it is to suffer silently while appearing to be coping on the outside.

This is not a conversation about losing faith. It is a conversation about bringing our whole selves before God, including the parts we often feel tempted to hide.

Because healing begins where honesty becomes safe to share.

Thank you for joining me in the Word & Prayer Room. If this study has encouraged you, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who may be seeking God's direction. Remember, God is not distant or silent. He is able to make His will known to those who sincerely seek Him. Until next time, keep listening for His voice, keep trusting His word, and keep walking by faith. 

What if the conversation we're avoiding isn't with other people, but with ourselves?

Here's something to think about. Why do we sometimes find it hardest to talk about the very things that affect us most?   Sometimes the hardest truths to face are the ones we carry within ourselves. 

Watch out for the new Faith Shame series, coming soon to The Word and Prayer Room Podcast.

We're Calling It Out... Faith Shame.

Because healing begins where honesty becomes safe to share.

Thank you for joining me in the Word & Prayer Room. If this study has encouraged you, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who may be seeking God's direction. Remember, God is not distant or silent. He is able to make His will known to those who sincerely seek Him. Until next time, keep listening for His voice, keep trusting His word, and keep walking by faith. 

Churches are often described as places of healing, hope and belonging. But where do people go when the struggle feels too personal, too complicated or too exposing to share?

Here's some food for thought. Are our churches truly safe places for honest conversations, or have some struggles become too risky to bring into the light?

Our new full series launches soon.

We're Calling It Out... Faith Shame. 

Because healing begins where honesty becomes safe to share.

Thank you for joining me in the Word & Prayer Room. If this study has encouraged you, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who may be seeking God's direction. Remember, God is not distant or silent. He is able to make His will known to those who sincerely seek Him. Until next time, keep listening for His voice, keep trusting His word, and keep walking by faith. 

We're excited to be launching our new study series, Faith Shame, on The Word and Prayer Room Podcast. Here's a soundbite of what's to come.

The full Faith Shame series launches soon.

We're Calling It Out... Faith Shame.

Because healing begins where honesty becomes safe to share.

Thank you for joining me in the Word & Prayer Room. If this study has encouraged you, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who may be seeking God's direction. Remember, God is not distant or silent. He is able to make His will known to those who sincerely seek Him. Until next time, keep listening for His voice, keep trusting His word, and keep walking by faith. 

Series Overview: When waiting has lasted longer than expected

This 7-part study invites you to explore what it means to respond when Jesus calls you to rise from places of limitation, delay and discouragement. Through honest reflection and Scripture, you'll discover how environments shape our thinking, how long seasons of waiting can affect our expectations, and why courage is often required before change becomes reality. 

The story of the man at the Pool of Bethesda reveals a Saviour who is not intimidated by how long you've been stuck, how many opportunities you've missed, or how difficult it feels to believe again. Each part offers a moment of reflection and challenge, reminding us that breakthrough often begins with a decision to trust God's word more than our past experiences. You'll discover that faith is not always about having all the answers, but about responding when Jesus says, "Get up." 

As you journey through this study, you'll see that God's invitation is not simply to survive where you are, but to walk forward into freedom, purpose and a future transformed by His power.

 Seek. Discern. Obey. 

Thank you for joining me in the Word & Prayer Room. If this study has encouraged you, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who may be seeking God's direction. Remember, God is not distant or silent. He is able to make His will known to those who sincerely seek Him. Until next time, keep listening for His voice, keep trusting His word, and keep walking by faith. 

The environments we live in shape us more than we often realise. They influence our thinking, affect our expectations and can determine what we come to accept as normal.

In Day 1 of The Courage to Get Up, we begin at the Pool of Bethesda, where a man had spent thirty-eight years surrounded by sickness, disappointment and limitation. What began as a place of hope had become a place of waiting. A place where people gathered in expectation of change, yet many remained trapped in the same circumstances year after year.

As we explore John 5:1–15, we'll examine how prolonged exposure to unhealthy environments can affect our mindset, our confidence and even our faith. Over time, we can become so accustomed to limitation that we stop expecting anything different. We adapt to what surrounds us and gradually lower our expectations of what God can do.

Yet when Jesus arrives, He sees beyond the environment, beyond the labels and beyond the years of disappointment. He challenges the man to see himself differently and opens the door to a future he may have stopped believing was possible.

This study invites us to reflect on the environments that influence our lives and asks whether they are drawing us closer to God's purpose or keeping us stuck in cycles of limitation.

Scripture Focus: John 5:1–15

Key Question: Have you become so shaped by your environment that you've started to accept limitations God wants to break?

Join us as we begin this journey from waiting to walking, from limitation to freedom, and from surviving to living with renewed purpose and hope.

The Courage to Get Up – From Waiting to Walking. From Limitation to Freedom.

Seek. Discern. Obey.

Thank you for joining me in the Word & Prayer Room. If this study has encouraged you, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who may be seeking God's direction. Remember, God is not distant or silent. He is able to make His will known to those who sincerely seek Him. Until next time, keep listening for His voice, keep trusting His word, and keep walking by faith. 

At first glance, it seems like a strange question. Why would Jesus ask a man who had been unable to walk for thirty-eight years whether he wanted to get well?

Yet beneath the surface lies a question that reaches far beyond physical healing. It is a question about desire, readiness and responsibility. Because sometimes we can become so familiar with our circumstances that the thought of change feels uncomfortable, uncertain or even frightening.

In Day 2 of The Courage to Get Up, we explore one of the most challenging questions Jesus ever asked. As we examine John 5:1–15, we'll consider how disappointment, delay and repeated setbacks can affect our willingness to embrace change. We'll also explore the difference between wanting relief from our situation and being ready to take the steps necessary for transformation.

The man at the Pool of Bethesda had spent years explaining why he could not move forward. But Jesus was not interested in his excuses. He was inviting him to consider a different future.

This study challenges us to look honestly at our own lives. Are there areas where we say we want change, yet continue to hold on to the habits, mindsets or fears that keep us where we are?

Scripture Focus: John 5:1–15

Key Question: If Jesus asked you today, "Do you really want to get well?" how would you answer?

Join us as we explore the courage required to move beyond excuses, embrace responsibility and step into the freedom God desires for our lives.

The Courage to Get Up – From Waiting to Walking. From Limitation to Freedom.

Seek. Discern. Obey.

Thank you for joining me in the Word & Prayer Room. If this study has encouraged you, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who may be seeking God's direction. Remember, God is not distant or silent. He is able to make His will known to those who sincerely seek Him. Until next time, keep listening for His voice, keep trusting His word, and keep walking by faith. 

What do you do when God says one thing, but your circumstances seem to say the complete opposite?

The man at the Pool of Bethesda had spent thirty-eight years living with a reality that appeared unchangeable. Everything around him reinforced the same message: this is how your life will always be. Yet when Jesus arrived, He spoke words that challenged everything the man had come to believe about himself and his future.

In Day 3 of The Courage to Get Up, we explore the tension that exists between God's promises and our present circumstances. We'll examine why faith is often tested when God's Word contradicts what we can see, how our experiences can shape our expectations, and why transformation often begins with believing God before we see the evidence.

Throughout Scripture, God repeatedly spoke realities that seemed impossible at the time. He called Abram the father of many nations before he had a child. He called Gideon a mighty warrior while he was hiding in a winepress. And at Bethesda, Jesus spoke possibility into a situation that had been defined by limitation for decades.

This study challenges us to consider which voice we are allowing to shape our thinking: the voice of our circumstances or the voice of God.

Scripture Focus: John 5:1–15

Key Question: Where in your life is God calling you to believe His Word, even when your current reality appears to say otherwise?

Join us as we discover how faith grows when we choose to trust God's perspective above our own and learn to see beyond what is visible today.

The Courage to Get Up – From Waiting to Walking. From Limitation to Freedom.

Thank you for joining me in the Word & Prayer Room. If this study has encouraged you, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who may be seeking God's direction. Remember, God is not distant or silent. He is able to make His will known to those who sincerely seek Him. Until next time, keep listening for His voice, keep trusting His word, and keep walking by faith. 

For thirty-eight years, the mat was part of the man's identity. It represented his condition, his limitations and the life he had always known. It was more than something he lay on. It was a symbol of who he had become.

Then Jesus healed him and gave an unexpected instruction: "Pick up your mat and walk." Why take the mat? Why not leave it behind?

In Day 4 of The Courage to Get Up, we explore the challenge of living beyond the identities that have been shaped by our pain, disappointment and past experiences. Sometimes God changes our circumstances before we have fully adjusted to seeing ourselves differently. The healing may have happened, but our thinking still needs to catch up.

We'll examine how easily we can become attached to labels, roles and stories that were never meant to define us permanently. Whether it is failure, rejection, fear, loss or limitation, there are times when God calls us to let go of an old identity and embrace who He says we are.

The man at Bethesda could no longer define himself by what had held him back. Jesus was inviting him into a new reality, one where his condition was no longer the most important thing about him.

This study challenges us to consider what we may still be carrying from a previous season and whether God is calling us to step into a new identity rooted in His truth rather than our past experiences.

Scripture Focus: John 5:1–15

Key Question: If God removed the thing that has defined you for years, who would you become?

Join us as we explore the courage required to leave behind old identities, embrace God's perspective and walk confidently into the future He has prepared.

The Courage to Get Up – From Waiting to Walking. From Limitation to Freedom.

Seek. Discern. Obey.

Thank you for joining me in the Word & Prayer Room. If this study has encouraged you, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who may be seeking God's direction. Remember, God is not distant or silent. He is able to make His will known to those who sincerely seek Him. Until next time, keep listening for His voice, keep trusting His word, and keep walking by faith. 

When Jesus healed the man at the Pool of Bethesda, He didn't simply tell him to walk. He gave a specific instruction: "Get up, pick up your mat and walk."

The healing was God's part. Picking up the mat was the man's.

In Day 5 of The Courage to Get Up, we explore the responsibility that comes after breakthrough. Too often, we pray for change, freedom and transformation, but overlook the practical steps required to walk in what God has already done.

The mat represented the man's past. It was a reminder of where he had been, what he had endured and what God had brought him through. By carrying the mat instead of lying on it, he was making a public declaration that his season of limitation was over.

We'll explore why obedience often requires action, how faith is demonstrated through movement, and why it is not enough to receive a blessing if we are unwilling to walk in it. God's power may open the door, but we must still choose to step through it.

This study challenges us to consider what God may be asking us to pick up. What responsibility, opportunity, assignment or act of obedience have we been avoiding while waiting for God to do more?

Scripture Focus: John 5:1–15

Key Question: What has God already done in your life that now requires a response from you?

Join us as we discover that true transformation is not just about receiving God's intervention, but partnering with Him through obedience and action.

The Courage to Get Up – From Waiting to Walking. From Limitation to Freedom.

Seek. Discern. Obey.

Thank you for joining me in the Word & Prayer Room. If this study has encouraged you, please follow the podcast and share it with someone who may be seeking God's direction. Remember, God is not distant or silent. He is able to make His will known to those who sincerely seek Him. Until next time, keep listening for His voice, keep trusting His word, and keep walking by faith.