Hunger is the first prayer because hunger is the memory of Eden.

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart…” That means God planted something eternal inside us—a trace of where we came from and where we’re headed.

The early Church often saw that “eternity” as a kind of deep memory of union with God, an inner knowing that we were made for Him. Augustine put it this way: “You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in You.” It’s as if eternity in our hearts is the homesickness of the soul.

Deep in every human is a faint memory: we were made to walk with God in the cool of the day. Sin fractured that, but it didn’t erase the echo. That’s why even people far from God feel an ache they can’t name.

When you feel that ache, “There has to be more than this," you are remembering, in some mysterious way, what you were made for: friendship with God.

The enemy wants to twist that hunger into addiction, distraction, and self-medication. Jesus wants to answer it with His Holy Presence.

You were not created for distance. You were created to walk with God in the Garden.

In this episode, I share my invitation to know Jesus as friend and begin laying the Biblical foundation for this colossal claim: God has always wanted friends.“From Moses to Abraham to Jesus...There is Friendship Thread that holds the Bible together.

Following the last episode, "How to Prepare for a Friendship Sabbatical," we explain what happened on this sabbatical journey, the challenges, the takeaways; Including the one word I'm taking home with me from the mountains.

Thanks,

Matt Pettry

He calls us friends

Before heading into the mountains for a few days alone with the Lord, I wanted to share how I prepare my heart for what I call a “Friendship Sabbatical.” It’s not a retreat where we're running from something. It’s not an event where something has to happen. It’s setting apart time and speech so I can hear the sound of God’s friendship again.

In this episode, I walk you through how to enter solitude without pressure, how to start climbing the mountain of friendship before you even arrive, and how to meet God in stillness once you’re there with tons of grace. You're gonna need it.

Before heading into the mountains for a few days alone with the Lord, I wanted to share how I prepare my heart for what I call a “Friendship Sabbatical.” It’s not a retreat where we're running from something. It’s not an event where something has to happen. It’s setting apart time and speech so I can hear the sound of God’s friendship again.

In this episode, I walk you through how to enter solitude without pressure, how to start climbing the mountain of friendship before you even arrive, and how to meet God in stillness once you’re there with tons of grace. You're gonna need it.

If your heart is hungry for some room, for silence, for Presence... I think this episode will help guide your own time of being set apart with the Friend who is already waiting. Wow, I love sharing this stuff. Enjoy the Path of Friendship with God. Don't hold back.

Baptists, Wesleyans, Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox disagree on many things, but we unanimously agree on the creeds. We need to have our hearts and minds continually renewed in the truths highlighted in the New Testament. The Apostle's Creed highlights those truths. 

"The renewal of the Church will come from a new type of monasticism which only has in common with the old an uncompromising allegiance to the Sermon on the Mount. It is high time people banded together to do this." Dietrich Bonhoeffer

In this episode, we give a call to "Go Again" in devotion, even if we only see "the cloud the size of man's hand" over our lives. Also, we call our listeners to a clean break with over-romanticized language associated with prayer.

3 ways in which we follow Jesus into the Wilderness: 1. We take seriously getting alone with God. 2. We receive grace to overcome temptation to sin. 3. We come out of the Wilderness in the Power of the Spirit ready to do Luke 4:18.

Luke the Apostle seeks to remove our unbelief about prayer. In this episode, we look at how the Kingdom of God is "prayed" here. We look at the prayer pattern that runs right through Luke-Acts. This episode is focused on stiring you to believe for an outpouring of God's Spirit with faith.