Latest / UNMASKED with Wesley Farnsworth / EP 71 - What If God Doesn't Fix It?

Transcript

EP 71 - What If God Doesn't Fix It? · UNMASKED with Wesley Farnsworth

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  What happens when you pray and God doesn't fix it, Not
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  immediately and not the way you hoped or not the way you
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  expected? What happens when the marriage
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  doesn't heal? When grief stays?
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  When the anxiety doesn't disappear?
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  When the diagnosis remains? When the addiction battle takes
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  longer than you thought, when the prayer becomes weeks, then
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  months, then years, I think this is one of the hardest
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  conversations in faith because we love stories where God shows
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  up dramatically, the breakthrough, the miracle, the
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  restoration. And those stories matter.
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  But what about the stories where the healing takes longer?
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  What about the seasons where God feels quiet?
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  What about when the thing that you begged him to remove stays?
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  What do you do then? Because I think there are people
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  listening right now, and that's exactly where they are.
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  They're still faithful, still praying, still showing up, and
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  yet quietly wondering, God, why haven't you fixed this tonight,
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  Today, wherever you are listening, I want to sit there
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  for a little while. Welcome to Unmast, where we take
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  off the filters and get real about faith, failure, and
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  finding freedom. I'm your host, Wesley
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  Farnsworth, a dad, veteran, author, and a man who's learned
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  that God does His best work in the middle of our mess.
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  Each episode we have honest conversations with people who
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  have walked through addiction, pain, doubt, loss, and
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  redemption, and with pastors, leaders, and everyday believers
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  who are learning what it means to live authentically and follow
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  God through real life. If these conversations encourage
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  you, challenge you, or help you feel less alone, then make sure
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  you subscribe, follow, and share the podcast with somebody else.
• 2:17
  That simple step really helps Unmasked reach more people who
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  need hope. Now take a breath, pull up a
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  chair, and let's get real. This is unmasked.
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  I think there's a lot of us that grow up with an unspoken
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  expectation. If we trust God, things should
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  get better. Not perfect, but better.
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  We don't always say it out loud, but it's there.
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  If I pray enough, God will fix it.
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  If I stay faithful, God will remove it.
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  If I obey, God will resolve it. And then life happens, and
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  suddenly you find yourself praying prayers that don't get
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  immediate answers. You find yourself carrying
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  things longer than expected, and the faith that felt simple
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  starts becoming complicated. I think one of the loneliest
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  experiences in faith is watching God answer somebody else's
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  prayer while yours still feels unanswered.
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  You hear testimonies and breakthrough stories, healing
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  stories, restoration stories, and you're really happy for
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  them. You really are.
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  But quietly you're wondering, what about mine?
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  That's a hard place to be in because now you're not only
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  carrying pain, but you're carrying confusion.
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  I think a lot of people, a lot of believers have questions that
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  they don't say out loud because they're afraid that it sounds
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  unspiritual. Questions like, did I do
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  something wrong? Did I miss God?
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  Am I not praying enough? Does he hear me?
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  Does he care? And if you have ever been there,
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  I want to say something very clearly.
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  Questions are not failure. In fact, questions are human.
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  Faith has always contained questions.
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  The Psalms are full of them. David asks them.
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  Job asked them. Even Jesus cried out from the
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  suffering. God is not intimidated by honest
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  wrestling. Paul talks about a thorn in the
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  flesh. 3 times he asked God to remove it.
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  Three times God didn't do it. Instead, God answered
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  differently. God said, My grace is sufficient
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  for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.
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  I don't know about you, but that answer feels uncomfortable
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  sometimes. Because if we're honest, we want
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  removal, we want that thorn removed.
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  God sometimes offers presents, and we want rescue.
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  God offers endurance, but we want change.
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  Sometimes God offers himself. And those are not always the
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  same thing. And there's a part of faith that
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  we don't celebrate. See, we celebrate deliverance,
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  but we don't always celebrate endurance.
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  But Scripture does, over and over.
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  People walking through wilderness, waiting, grieving,
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  trusting. Not because everything got fixed
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  quickly, but because God stayed. I think modern faith sometimes
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  accidentally teaches people that God's goodness equals immediate
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  outcomes. Scripture paints something
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  deeper. Sometimes God's goodness looks
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  like sustaining, not removing. I think the prolonged pain
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  creates a unique temptation. Not just current discouragement.
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  Not just discouragement, but abandonment.
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  You start wondering, maybe God moved on, maybe he forgot, maybe
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  I'm alone in this. And that's where things start to
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  get dangerous. Because now suffering is not
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  only emotional, it becomes relational.
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  You don't just hurt, you feel unseen.
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  And honestly, I think a lot of people carrying long term pain
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  secretly feel abandoned by God, even if they'll never say it.
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  So I want to ask something to you very, very gently.
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  What if God isn't absent? What if he's working differently
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  than you expected him to? Because sometimes we assume that
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  God's activity equals resolution.
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  But maybe sometimes his work is formation, sometimes it's
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  refinement or transformation. Not because suffering is good,
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  and not because pain is desirable, but because.
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  But because God refuses to waste it.
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  And that's different. See, long seasons tend to reveal
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  things. Identity, fear, control,
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  expectations. They reveal where our hope
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  actually lives. Because when one thing doesn't
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  change, you discover what your faith is attached to.
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  And that's hard. Really hard because sometimes we
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  realize that we trusted God for outcomes more than we trusted
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  God himself. Let that sit for a second.
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  I think many people start praying God remove this and
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  eventually after enough time, the prayer becomes God, meet me
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  in this. That shift is painful, but it's
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  holy because now the relationship becomes deeper than
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  the outcome. Not because the pain
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  disappeared, but because God stayed.
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  See, Jesus understands unresolved pain.
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  He understands waiting. He understands grief, loss,
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  betrayal, suffering. He wept, He eliminated, He
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  eliminated. He carried sorrow.
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  He wept, He lamented, He carried sorrow.
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  He wept, He lamented, he carried sorrow.
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  And that matters because faith is not following a distant God
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  untouched by suffering, it's following a Saviour who entered
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  it. Sometimes the miracle is
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  healing, sometimes it's survival.
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  Sometimes it's peace. Sometimes it's not losing faith.
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  Sometimes the miracle is you're still here, you're still
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  praying, you're still standing, still trusting, and that matters
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  more than you realize. I think some people listening
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  feel disappointed with God. And honestly, I think you're
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  allowed to say that. It's not disrespectful, it's
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  honest because disappointment brought into the light can heal.
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  Hidden disappointment becomes distance, and God already knows,
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  so tell him anyway. One thing that I keep coming
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  back to is this. God's present doesn't disappear
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  because circumstances don't change.
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  He is not absent because healing takes time.
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  He is not gone because answers are delayed.
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  He is not less good because a life stayed hard.
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  That doesn't make pain easier, but it changes loneliness.
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  Faith sometimes looks dramatic, sometimes it looks like
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  miracles, sometimes it looks like crossing the Red Sea, and
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  sometimes faith looks like getting up again tomorrow,
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  praying again, trusting again, walking again.
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  Not because everything got fixed, but because God was still
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  there. I experienced this last year in
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  2025 when I found myself on the unemployment line for 9 months
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  and I prayed at time after time again.
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  God give me a job and jobs would appear and I would pray.
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  God I believe this is the right one.
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  Please give it to me if it be your will.
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  And time and time again the door closed and I sat with confusion
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  and I told God this and eventually I just went along for
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  the ride. And as a God you, you can
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  provide and you will. And he did, and he used that
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  season of nine months for transformation slowly over time.
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  And now I'm in a season of life that I never thought I would be
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  in. The answer I wanted wasn't yes
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  when I wanted it. Sometimes it was no.
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  But God was always there. I didn't always have everything
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  fixed, but God was still there. So here's your action step this
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  week. I want you to ask yourself this
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  honestly, what thing am I disappointed that God hasn't
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  fixed? And I want you to name it.
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  Don't spiritualize it and don't minimize it.
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  Just name it and then bring that disappointment before God.
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  Not polished or edited. Just be honest because
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  relationship often deepens where honesty finally begins.
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  Thanks for joining me today on Unmasked.
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  If something in this episode spoke to you, don't let us stop
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  with you. Share with the one person that
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  got put on your heart while you were listening.
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  You never know whose breakthrough might start with
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  just a simple conversation or shared episode.
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  If you've been encouraged by The Unmasked, make sure you
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  subscribe, leave a review, and share the podcast on social
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  media. Every share helps the stories
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  reach people who are struggling silently and looking for hope.
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  For more encouragement, information on me and my
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  speaking books, and for free resources, visit
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  wesleyfarnsworth.com and make sure you join the Unmasked
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  community by connecting with me on social media so that we can
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  keep walking this journey together.
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  Until next time, remember that grace is greater than your past
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  and real freedom, true freedom, begins the moment that you
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  choose to live unmasked. God bless you.