Rejuvenating Prayer

Show open: invited guests decline, Sober Soldiers plug

The show opens live from the Pathway Studios in Johnston proper. A host notes he invited three people as guests and all of them said no, so nobody made it in. He plugs the Sober Soldiers recovery ministry (sobersoldierswithaz.com and a Facebook group spelled with a z): the people behind it are doing exactly what they said they would do, encouraging people and pointing them to Jesus, and he wants them back in the studio; he notes their earlier episode had a technical cut about an hour in.

Prayer-life funk: the hosts admit it, and a two-day solo prayer retreat

• How is your prayer life right now?

The hosts take up a Christian Post article, '21 things to pray for, tips for a better prayer life,' and start by asking each other whether anyone feels good about prayer right now. None of them do: one is in a rut with only a few stock phrases and no silence or listening; another describes watching God do great things while feeling like 'stubborn Israel' — unwilling to talk to him. A host recounts taking two and a half days in a hotel room alone, lights off, just reading Scripture and praying after an overseas trip was canceled; the agenda he brought in got flipped upside down. Nathaniel, addressed by name, is asked whether he has ever done extended intentional prayer — no, his prayers are 'subpar at best.' They play Family Feud guessing the list: seclusion, a consistent time, praying Scripture.

Walking the 21-item prayer list: praise, thanks, and the two boxes of rocks

The hosts walk through the article's list. On 'praise God for who he is,' they wrestle with repeating the same thankfulness without pandering: the generous-grandpa firetruck analogy, whether you need fresh daily evidence of God to be in awe (his mercies are new every morning), and the 'plain Jane doofus' problem of not being a poet — Nathaniel describes praying with his wife as 'I like donuts,' she prays the garden while he prays the back of the cereal box. A riff on Mike's video angle looking like a centaur interrupts. On repeating words, a host points to Revelation's elders crying 'holy, holy, holy' day and night and coins the word 'rewowed' — 'Lord, help me to be rewowed by you today.' On 'thank God for what he has done,' a host contrasts liturgy-as-reading with engaged prayer ('let's not read Psalm 23, let's pray Psalm 23'). On 'remember God's love and grace,' a host tells the two-boxes-of-rocks story: a woman brought two boxes of rocks to a youth group, each rock carrying a phrase retelling what God had done, and his family now writes rocks of their own so that on low days the physical pile proves God showed up. They then rattle through items 4–21 rapid-fire: love neighbors, someone in need, someone who doesn't know Jesus, love enemies, give time/money/energy, pray for church, city and nation, civic and national leaders, kindness, humility, teachability, forgiveness, obedience, a renewed mind, purity, responsibility, courage, hope.

What's missing from the prayer list: pray for your prayer life, the suffering church, open doors

• Should a struggling pray-er plow through all 21 prayer prompts at once or take them one at a time?
• What's missing from the 21-things-to-pray-for list?

On how to use the list, a host suggests one item a day rather than plowing through all 21. They name what the list is missing: praying directly for God to rejuvenate your prayer life — being honest with him like 'I believe, help my unbelief' instead of working a task list; praying for Christians who are suffering right now, with their friend Sarfraz in Pakistan named — money shortages, water coolers for brickyard families; and praying for open doors, boldness, and clarity in sharing the gospel, a theme a host picked up in a college missions class. The segment closes with pastoral counsel to men in the same funk: a weak prayer life does not mean your relationship with Jesus is bad — you are not in the negative, you are missing out on the positive — so drop the dude hesitances and be transparent with God.

'Put Satan in his place in three easy steps': rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks

• Is 'rejoice always' (1 Thessalonians 5:16) an imperative in the Greek?

The hosts dissect a second Christian Post article framing 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 as a 'spiritual triple threat' (after basketball's dribble/shoot/pass triple threat taught by Adrian Dantley). They read the passage live — 'Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances' — plus verse 15 ('see that no one repays anyone evil for evil') and verse 22 ('stay away from every kind of evil') as the bookends the article ignored. On 'be joyful,' a host asks whether 'rejoice always' is an imperative in the Greek; they verify it on Logos and Blue Letter Bible — active imperative, second person plural — then caution against weaponizing it (your kid in a motorcycle accident) and prefer joy as the lens of who you are in Christ over 'put on a fake smile.' On 'pray continually,' a host describes his wife's practice of never saying amen until bedtime — one amen a day. On 'give thanks,' the article cites Ephesians 4:29 (speak life); a locker-room detour follows with Nathaniel's story of the nude old man at the YMCA and Dan's take on high-school locker rooms, then Proverbs 12:18 ('reckless words pierce like a sword') with a 'secular or Solomon' riff. Their verdict: the title is a click problem — this is really 'how to live out 1 Thessalonians' — and the combative posture is wrong: 'Jesus already put Satan in his place,' so they'd rather ask 'how can I honor Jesus in three easy steps.' They reject 'not today, Satan' for pointing at you and prefer 'yesterday, Jesus' — funnel everything up to God, who owns the keys to hell. They note Scripture gives Satan only a handful of verses, the only recorded mano-a-mano battle being with Jesus himself (plus Job's heavenly conversation), and close with the FCA 'Satan shudders' propaganda meme joke and the resurrection 'He's awake' joke.

Jerry Jenkins's new book and the end-times arrogance of America-as-bellwether

The hosts cover a Christian Post piece on Left Behind author Jerry Jenkins, whose new novel is titled after his son's hit series The Chosen; they rib him for cashing in on his son's show and joke about his 'mono gifted' line (heard as 'mano gifted'). They note co-author Tim LaHaye's death and Jenkins's 72 million copies sold. On Jenkins's claim the end is near, they push back hard: it is the height of arrogance to treat America as the bellwether for whether the world is ending — the gospel is on fire in China and parts of Africa and in the Middle East. The one point they grant him: no more prophecy needs fulfilling before the end, which has been true for two thousand years (2 Peter 3:8, a thousand years as a day). Their close: the gospel is good news — 'go out and spread the gospel, not go out and scare people to death' — and end-times doctrine is not the bucket to start from.

Two prayer jokes and where the word 'devil' comes from

• Where does the word 'devil' come from?

Before advice, the hosts allow two prayer jokes, addressed to Mike. Johnny the five-year-old prays daily for a baby brother, quits after a month of skepticism — his mother comes home with twins: 'aren't you glad I quit when I did?' ('could have been seven kids, Mike'). Then the Christian lady whose atheist neighbor anonymously supplies her groceries: 'I knew the Lord would provide me with some groceries, but I didn't know he was gonna make the devil pay for them.' The joke sparks an etymology detour: 'devil' is a translation word — diabolos means accuser/slanderer, as does 'hosatan' — not a proper name; they cite 'your enemy of the devil' (1 Peter 5) and 'give no opportunity to the devil' (Ephesians 4:27).

Dear LFTP: engaging the stepdaughter's anxious, silent fiancé

• How do I get to know my stepdaughter's anxious, silent fiancé and make him feel welcome?

A listener's stepdaughter is engaged to a wonderful young man of over three years whose overwhelming anxiety leaves him nearly silent at family gatherings; he skips nearly every event and the one holiday meal was painful. The advice: stop pressing him into big family things; start small — a movie, watching a football game, something where he doesn't have to talk; go to his turf (credited as Dan's suggestion); you can't cure real anxiety with love, so try a different tack. A host riffs the Looney Tunes sheepdog who wants to 'love him and squeeze him and call him George.' They push back on the Secular answer (have a serious talk about whether his introversion is a red flag, ask if it's everyone or just the family, whether autism spectrum or intimidation): calling off the marriage over family-gathering anxiety is unfair — but if he can't manage even a one-on-one conversation, the marriage will have real stress and that does seem selfish.

Dear LFTP: the 72-versus-78-degree thermostat war

• How do I talk to my roommate about the thermostat without coming off as a control freak?

A listener wants 77–78 degrees in summer while the roommate drops the AC to 72–73 whenever he leaves; the hosts side with the roommate: 72 is normal — HVAC companies are literally named '72 Degrees' — and 78 is 'old folks home temperature.' They dismantle the money argument (fridge, freezer, and dehumidifying all work harder in a hot house; 'electricity hates heat'), and Nathaniel pitches evaporative cooling: hose the house down and let evaporation carry the heat away — it works with free well water (a host notes Ben has two wells), and they plan a test on the 'Abe Lincoln' shed with the kids and a thermometer, calling the local expert tomorrow. Tangents: smart thermostats and government suspicion, power-company 'nasty grams,' homeschool daytime use, Independence Day 'no peace' impressions, and a car-climate war with the wife (full fan at 60 vs windows down). The pastoral counsel: preference is fine, but don't assert an unreasonable preference on the whole household — shut your own vent and live uniquely if you're the odd one out. The Secular answer: have the adult conversation; whose name is on the lease — and if no compromise, the two are incompatible: 'it's you, 78 degree man.'

Outro: complaint line, house-temperature poll, iTunes milestone, benediction

The outro plugs the Bob Eisenlauer complaint line, (515) 517-0085, and asks listeners two things: what temperature they keep their house (summer and winter), and any prayer requests — 'prayer on prayer' included, which the hosts will pray through together. The 21-things prayer article is on christianpost.com. The hosts note the show finally appeared on iTunes with reviews — this will be about episode 200 on the platform — and thank listeners for reviewing; asked whether they reviewed it themselves, Mike, Dan, and Nathaniel each say no. The episode closes with the standard benediction: 'be faithful in the means; God will handle the ends.'