Langdon's Devotional

 "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." Ephesians 4:32 (ESV) Forgiveness is difficult by nature. But it isn't optional. Forgiveness isn’t something I’ve had the misfortune of struggling with for most of my life. There’s only a handful of people that have done anything to me that I really struggled to forgive, long term. The wounds that I’ve taken from those people are real though, no doubt. Some are more difficult to remember, but they're still proof of my humanity. They leave a scar to remind me how much I’ve changed over the years, like stretch marks that hold memories of the growing pains that God allowed me to feel. Some are more fresh, and I still wrestle with forgiveness to this day. They can be pretty haunting, like the enemy knows that they strike deep into my weakest points – because he does. There are a lot of different definitions of what forgiveness is, especially if you go from just a psychological pe...

 "For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day." 2 Corinthians 4:15-16 (ESV) I just wanted to use this post to be glad. I don't always feel it, but I'm so blessed to belong to Him. I know that a lot of what I write can be all about struggle, and it's true – there's a lot of sin in the world. God's grace is so much greater.  You'll notice that I actually started this blog back up in February. I had experienced feelings of rejection that, for whatever reason, were immediately followed by complete hope. I didn't understand it at the time, and I don't understand it still, but I felt so at peace – not necessarily peace with what I could see God doing, but peace in the confidence I had of who God was, is, and will continue to be. It's the closest I've eve...

 "For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead." James 2:26 (ESV) Accepting salvation is simple, but if we have no desire to grow in our faith, we might need to reevaluate whether we've really accepted it. I want to be careful with this one. Not just because it's taken out of context from people trying to undermine the authority of Scripture, but because I don't want to be hypocritical. So let me make it clear that the passage in James 2 that this comes from is not claiming that our salvation can come through works. We know that we're saved by grace alone, which reassures us that we're not capable of voiding our salvation either (Eph 2:8-9, and like everywhere else in the NT). I also want to make it clear that while this one has to be harsh, I'm not condemning anyone who's gotten stale in their faith. Regardless of whether my faith is alive or dead, sin gives me no right to pass unrighteous judgement on anyo...

"In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him." Ecclesiastes 7:14 (ESV) Preface This the conclusion of a series of posts on the nature of emotional pain, what it can reveal about our hearts and minds, and the purpose it has in our walk with Christ. If you want the full context, start from the  beginning . Conclusion and Personal Note I won't lie, when I started this series, I half-expected to suddenly have this new understanding of emotional pain that would allow me to never suffer it the same way again. I know how naive that sounds, but I think it's halfway true. What I've learned is that pain is simply the side effect that love gives us, because of sin. There is no love without pain. But that also means there's no pain, without love. When we hurt, it means that at some point, we were given the opportunity to love. When we'r...

   "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds." Psalm 147:3 (ESV) Preface This is part of a series of posts on the nature of emotional pain, what it can reveal about our hearts and minds, and the purpose it has in our walk with Christ. If you want the full context, start from the  beginning . Restoration It's taken me a while to finish up with this one, as you can tell. That's partly because I've been working on some other drafts that just don't look the way I want them to yet. But it's mainly because I've been struggling to find a way to conclude this in a way that feels satisfying, but genuine. I think what I'm struggling with is that I want to end it in a really positive light, but if I only did that, I think I'd be minimizing how impactful emotional wounds can be in our lives. In Jeremiah 30, the Lord promises to Jeremiah that He will restore Jerusalem, as it's in the process of being destroyed by the Babylonians. The same is...

 "For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too."  2 Corinthians 1:5 (ESV) Preface This is part of a series of posts on the nature of emotional pain, what it can reveal about our hearts and minds, and the purpose it has in our walk with Christ. If you want the full context, start from the beginning . Living with Pain Unfortunately, even though we can have a better understanding of what pain tells us, it doesn't necessarily make pain easy to deal with. Pain is, by definition, difficult to tolerate. I ignorantly wish that having Christian wisdom meant killing pain, but the unfortunate truth is that we can only learn how to divert pain to turn it into growth. We can't really prevent ourselves from feeling what's meant to be a reminder of sin. Could we eliminate it completely, we would have to be living in a world free from sin. Our flesh battles with our spirit – a lifelong battle that is the source of all...

"... but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope ..."  Romans 5:3-4 (ESV)   Preface This is part of a series of posts on the nature of emotional pain, what it can reveal about our hearts and minds, and the purpose it has in our walk with Christ. If you haven't read the first part , I'd suggest checking that one out first for the full context. Or don't. I won't stop you. Pain is an Indicator Think of emotional pain as the numbers on a meter that gauges the status or condition of our spirit. Emotional pain is not the problem itself. It's a symptom of the problem. When we get a physical wound, usually the first thing that comes to mind is the pain. That's how we know there's a problem and how bad it is. But oftentimes we misjudge what the actual issue is. Dr. Priolo gave two great examples . Let's say you wake up in the middle of the night, from the best...

 "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 'I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.' "   Jeremiah 17:9-10 (ESV) Introduction Going to start a series of posts that look a little different than my usual format. I recently listened to a sermon by Dr. Lou Priolo – a wise man to some of my friends, a Godly man in my church, and a friend of my grandad, who remembers him fondly. Though he went to be with the Lord recently, he's remembered by many as being very wise not only in Scripture, but in his understanding of our psychological habits from a Christian perspective. The sermon that I listened to was the first in a series about "thinking like a Christian," and how we can better understand some common thought patterns and habits. During his sermon, he talked about emotional wounds, and drew some parallels between them and physical ...