Episode Details...
Let's Pray
The Road Back From Fool's Hill
Pastor Shawn Boonstra joins the Let's Pray program to share his personal journey from a rebellious youth to a television evangelist, tracing how prayer shaped every turning point in his life. He discusses the importance of building a genuine relationship with God rather than treating prayer as a wish list, drawing on Matthew 6 and his own experiences in public evangelism. The episode closes with a heartfelt prayer for anyone hesitant to take a step of faith toward Jesus.
In this episode of Let's Pray, Season welcomes Pastor Shawn Boonstra, a veteran of It Is Written, Voice of Prophecy, and the Adventist Review, for a candid conversation about prayer, faith, and the long road home to God.
Shawn recounts growing up in a Dutch Calvinist immigrant home, walking away from faith in his teens, and spending years pursuing a hedonistic lifestyle before a series of providential moments, including a stranger's prophetic word at a Baptist church, a grandmother's Bible appearing on his bed, and a late-night reading of Revelation, drew him back. His grandfather's lifelong prayers for him, revealed only after ordination, serve as a powerful testimony to the enduring impact of intercession across generations.
The conversation turns to the theology and practice of prayer. Shawn argues, drawing on Matthew 6:31-33, that the foundational key to answered prayer is prioritizing relationship with God over requests. He describes his personal discipline of journaling prayers and praying through Scripture in the early morning hours, treating the Bible as "evergreen content" that speaks across time and culture. He also shares a striking account from his evangelism ministry in which praying for a resistant man, whom he calls Frank, led to that man waking at 2:30 a.m. under conviction and coming to faith, illustrating that God desires people's salvation even more than we do.
The episode concludes with Shawn addressing the cultural erosion of fatherhood as a barrier to understanding God's love, offering gentle reassurance to those with painful family histories. He closes in prayer, inviting viewers who are uncertain, doubting, or afraid to trust God one step at a time, anchored in the promise of Hebrews 1 that angels minister to the heirs of salvation.
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Pastor Shawn Boonstra joins the Let's Pray program to share his personal journey from a rebellious youth to a television evangelist, tracing how prayer shaped every turning point in his life. He discusses the importance of building a genuine relationship with God rather than treating prayer as a wish list, drawing on Matthew 6 and his own experiences in public evangelism. The episode closes with a heartfelt prayer for anyone hesitant to take a step of faith toward Jesus.
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