Langdon's Devotional

 "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 ...

 "yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength." Habakkuk 3:18-19 (ESV) A saving faith comes with accepting God's answers, but it also comes with waiting for those answers. I wonder how long the time difference is between Habakkuk 2 and 3. I wanted to wait a bit to close this one out to emphasize the potential space between the two chapters – between answer and acceptance. That's why. Definitely not because I just didn't feel like finishing Habakkuk until now. Genuinely though, it's hard to tell just how long Habakkuk had sat with the Lord's answer, or how long he waited for it to happen. Waiting any longer than a few weeks sounds like ages to us now, but during these times, people waited years for things. The Babylonian invasion of Judah happened shortly after it was prophesied, but it could have taken years for Habakkuk to see the full plan for Judah – and even then, he knew that the answer was...

"If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways." James 1:5-8 (ESV) Faith in God requires trust in God – and that requires us to shift our focus from our pain and judgement. I included the word trust intentionally, instead of the word faith . I want to dissect the concept of faith a bit more, as it pertains to someone's relationship with the Lord. See, we all try hard to have faith that Jesus died for our sins, and that we've been saved from the consequences of them. That's step one, as far as being a Christian goes. But our faith in the Lord should go even deeper than that – we should have faith in who God is, which goes hand-in-hand wi...

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:4-7 (ESV) Anxiety is an incredibly heavy burden to bear, and giving up control is the first step to make it just a bit lighter. I deal with some amount of social anxiety, and I have for a long time. It’s not crippling, and I’d even say it’s nowhere close to what some people have to deal with. But it is there, and it surfaces so often that I’ve sort of accepted it as part of who I am. That might sound dramatic or defeatist, but I really don’t think it’s a “bad” thing. It’s a downside of the way that my mind functions on its own, but I think it’s forced me to become a lot more intentional with peop...

"Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9 (ESV) Reflecting on this passage, I want to share some more recent personal experiences, and how I've felt growth lately. I've been traveling a lot lately, to visit friends in Atlanta, friends in Athens, family in North Carolina, and for work in Florida. And normally when I'm busier, it's easier for me to stay in touch with and faithful to the Lord. But I'm realizing that when I get out of a routine, it makes it a lot more difficult to stay disciplined in general. That doesn't just apply to my walk with Christ, but in a more real sense, everything has to do with my walk with Christ. I like having plans (which is probably why I'm so impatient with God's timing), so I struggle to stay as firm with my values when I need to make up my plans as I go – i.e. traveling. When I was visiting family though, I had an exper...

 "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven" Ecclesiastes 3:1 (ESV) Patience may not be gritting our teeth through seasons when they're unwanted, but rather finding the value in them while we’re in them. Time to get personal - I have issues with being patient with God’s timing. And I think that’s only natural - we’re surrounded by reminders of how short life is, we get more connected each day with other people that are each in a different season of their lives, and we’re conditioned to be able to get virtually anything we could want in the least time possible. Delivery services, the internet, and even dating apps are all evidence that if we can find a way to get something faster, even at the expense of it being less rewarding, we will. That’s not at all to say that any of those things are inherently bad, and there are a lot of ways that they can be used to make lives better. But the existence of them shows you just how impatient we can be ...