Langdon's Devotional

Matthew 6:34 – “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” Especially within today’s generation, young men and women often experience problems in twos. And while the use of the word “anxiety” has taken off in recent years, it’s truly nothing new to the sinner. Anytime we are able to premeditate any undesirable situations that we expect ourselves to be in, we burden ourselves by creating a new problem alongside it and worrying about those situations. We allow fear to sneak into our hearts and minds by masking it as if it’s some sort of safety mechanism that prevents us from being disappointed or unprepared. What we disguise as a safety mechanism, though, is actually one of the enemy’s choice weapons to push us from God. How ironic would it be if that weapon were to be used against the enemy? We’re told in this verse not to worry about what’s to come, but more specifically, we’re first told in Matthew 6...

Galatians 5:18 – “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” One of my favorite parts of the Bible is how it can teach us the same concept effectively, through different ways. Just like the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13 and Mark 4, the verse leading up to the fruit of the spirit is what puts the entire fruit-bearing process into context. This verse more or less shows us how we can be fruitful, before the fruit of the spirit is even explained. In a sinful world, it’s not uncommon to subconsciously assume that our responsibility is to plant the seed of love, joy, peace, etc., within ourselves in order to be good people (or even to be good Christians). The Bible never tells us that, though; God ultimately tells that to be “good people”, we reflect Him. Can you think of a better person? So instead of trying to plant that seed within ourselves, we should allow the Spirit to dwell in us and take control of our lives. We call it the Fruit of the Spirit , not the fruit...

Psalm 94:12 – “Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law” Some of the hardest jobs are the ones that are best learned through experience instead of through traditional teaching. Those jobs come with the burden of learning through hardship. When we learn mostly through experience, we are almost guaranteed to make mistakes. Those mistakes and difficult experiences are precisely what we learn from. Being a Christian is hardly any different. Obviously, there are things that we learn through traditional methods (i.e., reading God’s Word), but we also learn through watching what God is doing in our lives and how we follow His word while He does it. Discipline is tough, but it leads straight to growth. And growth is pretty important, wouldn’t you say? Blessed is he who reads Your law, absolutely – but even more blessed is he who is taught and disciplined through it.

Psalm 84:5 – “Blessed are those whose strength is in you” I think people tend to confuse courage with strength. At least in my mind, courage is the ability to go head-first into the things that we fear the most, because our love for something else overpowers that fear. Strength on the other hand, is reflected by how we receive things, even when fear overwhelms us. It takes strength to build up courage, and sometimes it takes courage to build up strength. Obviously, that strength needs to come from somewhere, whether it be from our natural inclination, situational circumstances, a loved one, etc.  So, it’s important to be careful about where we take our strength from. In a previous post that I wrote on Colossians 3, I talked about how susceptible the flesh is to disappoint those that rely heavily on it. For that same reason, it’s dangerous to rely on anything or anyone other than God and His Word. They aren’t reliable; they were made to be unreliable. But God is the only person out...

Psalm 84:12 – “O Lord of hosts, blessed is the one who trusts in you!” Around when I was in middle school, my family went to the Dialog in the Dark exhibit in Atlanta, which is a simulation of sorts that puts people in the shoes of the blind. It’s one of those experiences that might seem simple at first, but quickly becomes extremely difficult to navigate. One thing I noticed while doing it was that I depended on those around me a tremendous amount. We had impairment canes with us to prevent from walking into things or people but navigating the exhibit itself would have been nearly impossible without the voices of the people around me. The same can be said for how we walk through our lives. Some things are in our control, but ultimately, we depend on God to guide us through it. Sometimes He guides us through things that we find happiness in. Other times, through challenging experiences and uncomfortable feelings. God closes doors, God opens doors, God closes doors . Often times we will...

1 Corinthians 9:27 – “But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” We should all hope to surround ourselves with those that hold us accountable for what we say and do, to make sure that we are growing as Christians. Those people are the final judges of our character – the people that see how our personality is reflected in our words and actions. Our first judge is God, who knows what we will do before it’s premeditated (even if only in the heat of the moment). Our second judge, however, is ourselves. After God, we should be our greatest critic. Discipline is what keeps us in line and allows us to grow. In this regard, surrounding ourselves with the right people is only our plan B. We should hold ourselves accountable before anyone needs to. It’s worth noting that my ESV translation of this verse is pretty tame compared to most other versions of the Bible, including the Greek translation which reads more along the l...

James 4:7-8 – “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” A harsh truth that I face daily (as I’m sure many Christians do) is that most of the time, my relationship with God feels one-sided. Of course, this is the devil trying to make me believe that God is absent in my life, simply because I can’t see Him standing in front of me. But during times of hardships, it can be very easy to turn away from God in search of temporary fixes. Temporary fixes are temporary, so the devil has his way and life goes on. In ironic fashion, our problems make us feel inclined to turn away from our only solution. We feel too sick to take our medicine. Drawing near to God during our lowest moments is the most challenging thing we could do in those times, but it’s also the most rewarding. We get close to God; He gets closer to us. When we find ourselves in situations that seem hopeless, it’s often because they seem hopele...

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 – “your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you . . . So glorify God in your body.” Growing up in a house with two older brothers, “don’t touch my stuff” was rule number one. Even when something wasn’t being used, they hated when I touched anything that belonged to them. I tend to think that people don’t really grow out of that. We can get so caught up on the things that we own that we neglect to maximize their potential use.  You can probably see where I’m going with this, because the entire idea is silly when you really think about it. Our own bodies aren’t even our own – they belong to our Savior who lives in Heaven. Who are we to judge what we should be doing with them? These verses in 1 Corinthians come from a section on sexual immorality, hence the proper use of our bodies being mentioned. Sexual immorality is ultimately a result of using our own judgement to determine what we do with our bodies. By default, we seek to gain worldly pleasure throug...

 John 15:12 – “Love one another as I have loved you.” “The opposite of love isn’t hate. It’s selfishness.” – Billy Graham We encounter the concept of loving one another a whole lot in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, and rightfully so. A non-loving Christian is not really a Christian at all, are they? In any case, I truly believe that every verse that talks about love has its own inherent value. This verse in particular out of John comes from an iconic chapter, where we read about our fruitfulness, and how we can cultivate ourselves and nurture our faith in order to be a resource for others. This makes sense, too; reading this verse on its own is powerful but reading the entire chapter emphasizes what we’re meant to take away from the verse. We are selfish lovers by nature – we seek to please ourselves. Many times, we’ll find ourselves being loving to others only because we want to feel good about ourselves. And that works . . . to a point. Notice how Jesus (through John...

Galatians 6:17 – “From now on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.” Essentially the equivalent of texting someone, “don’t bother replying, I said what I said.” Paul is ending this letter to the Galatians with a strong command.  “Leave me alone – I belong to Christ.”  I think that even as someone that has a hard time memorizing verses, this one is a big one to be able to repeat. When I repeat this verse out loud, I feel as though it’s protecting me, or more so that I’m allowing God to protect me without trying to satisfy my own pride and justify myself to others. Whatever or whoever attacks my heart or mind in a state of vulnerability stands no chance –  “Leave me alone – I belong to Christ.” Though be careful that it’s not taken in an arrogant direction, like “don’t you know who I am?” as that defeats the whole purpose. We are not superior to people because we are followers of Christ, but rather we are protected from the true malignity of...