If God's Going to Do What He Wants Anyway, Why Pray? (A Pastor's Honest Answer with Matt Smallbone)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
Release Date: 10/23/2026
We Gave Away Almost Everything. Then God Took Us to $0.
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
Our friends Matt and Nichole Ellstrom were sitting on Black Friday with full shopping carts for their new house when they both sensed God asking them to give it all to Him. It was about 75% of what was in their bank account. Then, a year later, Matt felt God tell him to resign from his role as head of strategy at a large ministry, in three days, with nothing lined up. Linda and I have heard pieces of this story for a while, and I've wanted to get it on the podcast ever since. We talk about the year of refining that followed, why God told Matt (a budgeter since eighth grade) to stop looking at...
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Do Christians Have to Tithe? Here's Where I Landed After 20 Years
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
Do Christians have to tithe? If you've searched for an answer, you've probably found people yelling at you from both sides: one camp says you're cursed if you don't give 10%, and the other says tithing was Old Testament law and you don't owe anything. I've spent 20 years studying this, and I want to walk you through where I've landed and why. We get into the day I watched a guest preacher call two men to the altar for not tithing, the guilt Linda carried for ten years over a gift she felt God led her to give, what Abram, the Law of Moses, and the cross each tell us about the tithe, why I think...
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If God's Going to Do What He Wants Anyway, Why Pray? (A Pastor's Honest Answer with Matt Smallbone)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
If God is going to do what He wants anyway, why pray? My guest today, Matt Smallbone, is a pastor in downtown Nashville, and for most of his thirty years as a Christian that question kept him from praying much at all. He'd read every book on prayer. He'd handed the whole thing back to God and called it theology. Then he ran an experiment. The Lord's Prayer, all six parts, every day, for a year. In this conversation we get into what that year taught him about God's sovereignty and unanswered prayer, why he believes most unanswered prayers go unanswered for one reason (and why he also believes...
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AUM: The One Number That Tells You If You're Actually Getting Ahead Financially
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
Most of us measure our money by how the month feels, and that's a lot like trying to lose 20 pounds by checking how tight your sweatpants are. In this live workshop, Linda and I walk you through the one number that actually tells you whether you're getting ahead, why we stopped calling it net worth, and what Proverbs 27:23 has to do with it. We get into why so many of us avoid looking at our finances, the two scoreboards that keep people anxious no matter how they're doing, our own first number (-$13,843) and where it was one year later, a 10-minute exercise to find your number, the four...
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Colby Jenkins… whats your personal vision for money
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
"I'll give more when I make more." Most of us have prayed some version of that. My guest today is a business owner who realized he had been living it. Colby Jenkins can easily afford to give. And one day he noticed he hadn't heard God prompt him to give in a very long time. What God told him about why almost made him cry. In this conversation we get into the two money tests almost every Christian faces (the vision test when you have less, and the obedience test when you finally have more), why "one more layer of security first" is the prayer that keeps us stuck, what your bank statement...
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Praying for the Same Thing for Years? What the Waiting Is Really For (Annie F. Downs)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
You can be totally at peace with God, doing everything right, and still not get the thing you've been praying for. That one hit me hard. Annie F. Downs sat down with me and Linda to talk about her new book, Don't Let That Hold You Back. She's the host of the That Sounds Fun podcast, and she just got engaged after decades of being single. We talked about the idea that if you just get content enough, God will finally hand you what you want. She says that's not how it works, not even close. We got into what the Bible actually means by abundant life, and why the enemy's real target isn't your bank...
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How to Know If Money Has Become Your Idol (Jesus is King with Bryan Harris - Part 2)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
Most of us pray about money. Very few of us ask God what to do with it and then sit still long enough to hear an answer. This is Part 2 of our conversation with our friend Bryan, a business owner and honestly a spiritual mentor in a lot of ways. In Part 1 he showed us how a money idol hides in a phrase you say every day. This time he shows us the other side: what it actually looks like to hear God about a money decision, and what God tends to deal with before He builds anything. In this conversation we get into the exact ten-minute practice Bryan's whole team uses to ask God what to do (a...
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How to Know If Money Has Become Your Idol (Jesus is King with Bryan Harris - Part 1)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
You can do everything right with money and still not feel free. Budget in place. Debt gone. Emergency fund full. And underneath it, the same low hum of anxiety and comparison that was there before. Our friend Bryan built his entire financial life on three words he'd heard a thousand times: cash is king. He's a Dave Ramsey superfan. He did the debt-free scream. Then one day in the shower it hit him. Cash isn't king. Jesus is. That one shift exposed a money idol he never knew he had, and it changed how he makes every financial decision since. In this conversation we get into how to tell whether...
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The Biblical formula for paying off debt miraculously fast
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
What if you don't need more money to pay off your debt? What if you just need to see what's already in your house? That's the pattern hiding inside a story in 2 Kings 4. A widow. A dead husband. A creditor at the door. And one small flask of olive oil that God multiplied until her debt was gone. This episode was recorded live from one of our workshops. Linda and I walk through the whole story, verse by verse. Then we pull five simple steps out of it for paying off debt fast: Name your need. Take inventory of your house. Gather your jars. Shut your door. And pour your flask. We also tell our...
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Does Financial Struggle Mean God Is Displeased? (The Honest Answer)
SeedTime with Bob and Linda Lotich
When money is tight, a sneaky thought creeps in. If God was really pleased with me, wouldn't this be easier? I have wrestled with that question myself more times than I can count. So in this episode, Linda and I get honest about whether financial struggle means God is displeased with you. We talk about what blessed actually means, and why comparing your finances to everyone's highlight reel is a trap. We share seasons where we did everything right and money was still hard. And we look at why adversity might actually mean you're on the right path. This is for anyone quietly asking, am I doing...
info_outlineIf God is going to do what He wants anyway, why pray?
My guest today, Matt Smallbone, is a pastor in downtown Nashville, and for most of his thirty years as a Christian that question kept him from praying much at all. He'd read every book on prayer. He'd handed the whole thing back to God and called it theology.
Then he ran an experiment. The Lord's Prayer, all six parts, every day, for a year.
In this conversation we get into what that year taught him about God's sovereignty and unanswered prayer, why he believes most unanswered prayers go unanswered for one reason (and why he also believes God says yes to every prayer we would pray if we knew what He knows), what "give us this day our daily bread" meant when his family lived on $150 a week, why he says forgiveness has actually become easy, and how he and Linda kept praying through the loss of a baby.
If prayer has ever felt boring, awkward, or like it just isn't working, this conversation is for you.
If you enjoyed this conversation, definitely check out Matt's new book, The Prayer Experiment. The whole year-long experiment is in there: https://www.amazon.com/Prayer-Experiment-Realigns-Everything-Thoughts/dp/0310372739
Here's a little of what we cover in this episode:
- Why Matt believes almost nobody actually feels good at prayer, even pastors
- The one line in the Lord's Prayer Matt had been praying wrong his whole life
- Why forgiveness has actually gotten easy for Matt (yes, actually easy)
- What it was like praying for "daily bread" on $150 a week as a brand new immigrant
- The day Matt believes God told him to triple what he was giving
- How Matt and Linda kept praying through the pain of losing a baby
- Why Matt still struggles to spend money, even after a financial windfall
Bible Verses Mentioned:
- Matthew 6:9-13
- Matthew 6:26
- Matthew 6:34
- Matthew 18:21-22
- Luke 12:16-21
- Luke 16:10
Resources Mentioned:
Disclaimer
Obligatory legal disclaimer: I'm a financial educator, not your financial advisor, investment advisor, tax pro, or lawyer. This channel is for general education, not personalized advice, and nothing here should be taken as a recommendation to buy, sell, or use any specific investment, account, or financial product. I'm just sharing what I'm doing, what I'm learning, and what I find interesting.
Markets can be humbling. Investing involves risk, including the risk of losing money, and my results are personal, may not be typical, and are not guaranteed. Do your own research, use wisdom, and talk with a qualified professional before making financial decisions.
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