Philos with Crit Matthew Pettry is for seekers longing for formation into Christlikeness. It is for those who know there is more and that God is inviting them closer, into a friendship that reshapes how they pray, listen, discern, and walk out life.
Whether you’re rediscovering friendship with God, growing in contemplative prayer, or desiring to experience Jesus... this podcast offers room to be still, to listen, and to grow in experiential knowledge of God.
Come walk the ancient path. Discover the Friend who is already walking toward you.
From “Where Are You?” to “Where I Am”: The whole Bible as God’s journey to bring you back into Presence.
The first question God asks Adam after his fall is “Where are you?” (Genesis 3). And the final desire of Jesus is that we would be “with Him where He is” (John 17). In this episode, we trace the Bible’s “where” storyline, from hiding in Eden to dwelling with Christ. We also identify the wound many feel today: spiritual dislocation. Then we end with a simple “Where am I?” 7 Day prayer practice and a Rule for the year: stop hiding, return to Presence, and answer God with honesty, “Lord, I’m here.”
31 Dec 2025
Bread for a Hungry Generation: How to Pray Until Breakthrough
Bread is showing up at midnight again.
In this episode, we walk line upon line through Luke 11:5–13, the parable of the Friend at Midnight, and face a humbling truth: sometimes the people we love come hungry… and we have no bread to give.
But that’s not failure. It’s an invitation.
With help from St. Augustine and other Early Church voices, we learn why the prayer before “Fill me” is often “Empty me,” and why persistence isn’t a technique, it’s the fruit of friendship with God.
If you’re praying for Gen Z, for your family, for the wounded, the confused, or the abused, this episode is a call to become a midnight messenger: not the source, but the one who keeps knocking until there’s bread to set before the hungry.
28 Dec 2025
From Friend to Associate
What if the fear of God isn’t fear of lightning… but fear of losing the Friend? In this episode of Philos, we step into Gethsemane and explore the difference between proximity and communion—the kiss of betrayal versus the kiss of devotion. From Matthew 15:8 (“their heart is far from Me”) to Peter’s restoration under the look of Jesus, you’ll receive a simple closing practice: The Gethsemane Rule: Stay. Watch. Return.
22 Dec 2025
The Finished Work and the Unfinished Walk: Grace, Union, and the Theology of Excuses
The Finished Work and the Unfinished Walk: Grace, Union, and the Theology of Excuses
Jesus’ work is finished, but our walk with Him is not. In this episode, I talk about how a subtle “theology of excuses” can creep in… turning finished work and union into reasons to lay our armor on the side of the road. We’ll look at Philippians 2 and John 15, listen to the early Fathers on synergy, and explore why grace doesn’t erase our will, it awakens it and calls for our ongoing “yes” on the ancient path of friendship with God.
18 Dec 2025
Fasting: The Road Back to Eden
Fasting isn’t a religious add-on. It’s a road back to Eden.
In this episode, we begin where the story begins... Genesis 2:17, the first boundary, the first “no,” the first invitation to trained desire. The ancient church called this asceticism. It's not self-hatred, but soul-training: learning to want God more than comfort, more than control, more than constant consumption.
St. Basil the Great said, “It is because we did not fast that we were banished from paradise. So let us fast that we may return to it.” That’s the heartbeat of this episode: fasting as homecoming... healing the grasp, clearing the inner noise, and recovering the ability to walk with God again.
And we face the modern impulse to bypass this “trained way.” Eugene Peterson puts it bluntly: “Peter rejected the ascetic way by offering Jesus a better plan… and received the sternest rebuke in the Bible."
If Eden feels far, this one is for you.
6 Dec 2025
Hunger is the First Prayer
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.
28 Nov 2025
From the Tent of Meeting to the Last Supper: God's Friends
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.
25 Nov 2025
The One Word I’m Taking Home from My Friendship Sabbatical
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
21 Nov 2025
Friendship Sabbatical: How to Prepare for a Time of Solitude and Stillness with God
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.
25 Aug 2023
The Apostle’s Creed
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.
12 Aug 2023
Apostomonasticism
"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
12 Aug 2023
Moth’s Flirting With Flames
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.
5 Aug 2023
3 Ways We Follow Jesus into the Wild
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.
5 Aug 2023
Spirit and the Kingdom
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.
5 Aug 2023
Hugging the Air
In this episode, we explore how we can begin to develop our own practice of the Presence of God.
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