Langdon's Devotional

Romans 5:3-4 – “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope” One of my personal favorite verses takes a very bold view on how to handle suffering. Of course, we’re not being told to wish for suffering or to be masochistic, but rather we’re being explained the ultimate “upside” of the collection of trials we face in our lives. Much like the message in the book of Job, here we find more encouragement that not only is suffering a normal side effect of the sin that our first ancestors brought into the world, but it’s necessary for building character. Don’t you love that word? Character. I will underline it anytime I see it used that way in the Gospel, because it’s one of my favorite parts of having a relationship with God. He makes me better. When we know God and properly follow His instructions, even through hardship we become better people, plain and simple. Kindness, patience, compassion, persever...

Job 1:21 – “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” One of the most iconic tragedies in the Bible can put a lot of things into perspective for us. As sinners, we often make the mistake of thinking that the men and women of the Bible are in some way superhuman, or superior to us in some way. We tend to think that for some reason they were holier than we are by default, or that they were born with more patience. While I’m sure their lifestyles brought them different struggles than what we combat day-to-day, this still couldn’t be farther from the truth. Job was just an ordinary man – he was no different than you and I. In fact, he likely had more to lose than what most people do today. He was extremely wealthy in his time and had a large family to comfort him. Up until his great trial, anyway. It’s not often that someone loses as much as Job did within such a short amount of time. His livestock, his health, even his own children were taken from him i...

  Colossians 3:2-15 – “Set your mind on things that are above . . . And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.” I’ve noticed that during the lowest points of my lifetime, I’ve been seeking worldly things that are bound to disappoint me. Relationships, career goals, grades – all things that, in the moment seem like they are healthy things to be at the front of my mind – inevitably turn into obsessions. Likewise, during the highest points in my life, I’ve been connected with God, and I nurtured my relationship with Him. Through Christ is the only way we can truly grow – we are otherwise grasping at straws. These verses in Colossians 3 often remind me of something my dad said to me and my brothers years ago, on our way to church one morning. He told us: “Many things will disappoint you in your lives. School will disappoint you. Your friends will disappoint you. Even your family will disappoint you. But the one person that will never disappoint you is the Lord. Don’t ever forget ...

2 Corinthians 5:20 – “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us." We are God’s representatives. “Unbelievers will not listen to what we say unless we back it up with the way we live.” – Billy Graham Being a Christian is not a job that we clock out of at the end of our shift. It’s a relationship, most importantly, but it’s also meant to be a lifestyle. Something that makes the Word of God so wonderful is that it doesn’t just show us how to strengthen our relationship with Christ, but it provides us with the very foundation that our lifestyles should be built upon. This foundation doesn’t just make us “good people”, but it represents God as He’s meant to be represented. We are His ambassadors, after all.  As human beings with sinful nature, we often believe that whatever we can do that is not technically sinful is fair game. We shouldn’t turn to our worldly judgement when we make decisions, but rather we should first think about whether it would be a...