The Word and Prayer Room

What Season Is Your Soil? | Study 2: The Shallow Heart When Following God's Word Costs You Something Study Scriptures: Mark 4:5–6, 16–17; Luke 8:13; Mark 10:17–22; Colossians 2:6–7 (NIV) What happens when the Word we were so happy to receive becomes the very Word that costs us something to follow? In Study 2 of What Season Is Your Soil? , we explore The Shallow Heart , drawing on Jesus'...

So, What's Stopping You from Having the Courage to Get Up? The Courage to Get Up | Final Reflection We've explored what it means to have the courage to get up, but what happens when we genuinely want to move forward and still find ourselves standing still? In this final reflection from The Courage to Get Up , we move from hearing the Word to living it, exploring three common barriers tha...

The Word hasn't changed. So what's changed in you? God's Word was not given simply to inform us. It was given to transform us. But can we spend years hearing sermons, reading Scripture and knowing the stories Jesus told, yet remain unchanged by what we've heard? In this introductory episode of What Season Is Your Soil,  we explore the purpose of God's Word, the religious a...

Study 1: The Hardened Heart — When Protection Becomes a Prison Study Scripture: Mark 4:1–20 (NIV) What happens when the very things we use to protect ourselves begin preventing God's Word from changing us? We often associate a hardened heart with someone who has rejected God or turned away from faith. But what if resistance to God's Word is not always as obvious as we think? We can love...

Study 1: The Hardened Heart — When Protection Becomes a Prison Study Scripture: Mark 4:1–20 (NIV) What happens when the very things we use to protect ourselves begin preventing God's Word from changing us? We often associate a hardened heart with someone who has rejected God or turned away from faith. But what if resistance to God's Word is not always as obvious as we think? We can love...

The Word hasn't changed. So what's changed in you? God's Word was not given simply to inform us. It was given to transform us. But can we spend years hearing sermons, reading Scripture and knowing the stories Jesus told, yet remain unchanged by what we've heard? In this introductory episode of What Season Is Your Soil,  we explore the purpose of God's Word, the religious a...

So, What's Stopping You from Having the Courage to Get Up? The Courage to Get Up | Final Reflection We've explored what it means to have the courage to get up, but what happens when we genuinely want to move forward and still find ourselves standing still? In this final reflection from The Courage to Get Up , we move from hearing the Word to living it, exploring three common barriers tha...

Who are you when you strip away your title, your responsibilities, your achievements, your mistakes and the opinions of other people? In this devotion, we journey through Romans 8 and consider what God says about our identity in Christ. The chapter begins with an extraordinary assurance: there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus . It ends with another: nothing can separate us from...

Every journey reaches a point where looking back is no longer enough. There comes a moment when we must decide whether we will continue carrying what Christ has already carried for us, or step into the freedom He has already secured. In this final episode of the Faith Shame series, we reflect on what it means to stop allowing shame to define our identity and to begin living from the truth of God&a...

When you hear the word idol, what comes to mind? For many of us, it's carved images, statues or false gods. But what if the Bible presents a much deeper understanding of idolatry than we often realise? In this episode, we explore a challenging question: Can Faith Shame become so influential that it occupies a place in our hearts and minds that Scripture reserves for Christ alone? Together, we...

Who's teaching you how to talk to yourself? We spend years learning how to pray, study the Bible and share our faith. But how many of us have ever been taught how to speak to our own soul? In this episode, we explore one of the most honest passages in Scripture, Psalm 42, and discover that the greatest conversation we may ever hear isn't preached from a pulpit—it's the one we have w...

Can a Christian experience depression and still have genuine faith? It's a question many believers never ask out loud. For some, depression isn't just an emotional struggle. It becomes a spiritual one. Prayer feels different. Reading the Bible becomes difficult. Worship no longer comes as easily. Before long, Faith Shame begins whispering that something must be wrong with our relationshi...

What happens when guilt over a behaviour becomes shame about who we are? In this episode of the Faith Shame series, we explore one of the most hidden struggles facing many believers today - the shame surrounding sexual sin, particularly lust and pornography. Using the powerful account of the woman caught in adultery in John 8:1-11, this teaching examines the difference between guilt and shame, and...

What happens when a sincere believer begins to feel they no longer belong? For many people, Faith Shame doesn't begin because they stop loving God. It begins when life takes an unexpected turn. A season of grief, disappointment, unanswered prayer, failure or loss can quietly shake our confidence and leave us questioning ourselves.  In this episode, we reflect on why some of life's greate...

We all have a story. Some parts of that story bring joy and gratitude. Other parts leave us with questions, regrets, disappointments or experiences we would rather forget. The challenge is not always what happened to us. The challenge is often the meaning we attach to what happened. In this opening episode of the Faith Shame series, we explore how shame can quietly influence the way we interpret o...

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 pe...

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'r...

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... F...

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 fo...

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...

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 p...

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 feel...

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 hi...

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 ,...

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, bu...