When You’re Not Able, He Is: Surrender, God-Opened Doors & Finding Freedom with Stephanie Parker!When You’re Not Able, He Is: Surrender, God-Opened Doors & Finding Freedom with Stephanie Parker!
Anchored by the Sword
Gina Fox talks with actor and producer Stephanie Parker about surrendering to God, walking through deep loss, and finding unexpected freedom and purpose. The conversation touches on faith, family, creativity and how God opens doors when life feels far beyond personal strength.
34:33•22 Sept 2026
When You’re Not Able, He Is: Stephanie Parker on Surrender, Grief and God-Opened Doors
Episode Overview
- Surrendering to God when life is beyond personal strength can lead to genuine freedom rather than burnout.
- Consistent time in Scripture, even just an hour a day with an honest prayer, can radically reshape beliefs and perspective.
- Recognising that God is able even when you feel completely unable opens space for unexpected opportunities and growth.
- Grief over losing a child or a parent can sit alongside faith, as honest questions and trust in God’s sovereignty coexist.
- Creative work and storytelling can become a way God uses personal pain and history to reach and comfort others.
“When you get to that place of surrender… in my weakness, be my strength. And that is where the freedom is.”
What drives someone to seek a life that’s fully handed over to God? This conversation between host Gina Fox and guest Stephanie Parker centres on that very shift from self-reliance to surrender, and how it reshapes grief, purpose and everyday faith. Stephanie shares how her dad went from alcoholism to a radically changed life with Christ, and how his legacy shaped her own journey.
Yet her faith didn’t really become personal until a painful season that included the loss of a child. Out of that heartbreak came a bold commitment: an hour a day in the Bible for a year, with the simple prayer, “God, change me.” As she puts it, “What I discovered in the word of God is just, it’s not about me… God is sovereign,” and that realisation changed everything.
You’ll hear Stephanie talk about reaching the end of her own strength, choosing surrender, and finding unexpected freedom when she recognised, “Well, I’m not able… but God, you say you’re able.” That trust opened some surprising doors, including a baby sleep product that eventually led her onto Shark Tank, and later a growing career in faith-based film.
The episode also touches on walking through her father’s death from Covid, a dream that prepared her for that loss, and how acting in projects like *Disciples in the Moonlight* became part of her healing. There’s plenty of light-hearted chat too—about teens learning to drive, terrifying DIY headshots, and the joy of creative work that helps people feel seen.
If you’re worn out from trying to hold everything together in your own strength, or you’re wondering whether God can do anything with your pain, this story might be the gentle nudge you need. What could change in your life if you trusted that, even when you’re not able, He still is?
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