James doesn’t pull punches: “Your gold and silver are corroded… this corroded treasure you have hoarded will testify against you.” In this episode, Blake looks at James 5:3 — first at its sharp warning to the hoarding rich, then at the principle underneath it that reaches every one of us: everything we have is a gift, and a gift kept to itself corrodes instead of blessing.

Blake widens “hoarding” beyond money to our time, talents, wisdom, and voice, points to the manna that “bred worms and stank” when Israel tried to store it, and names the fear underneath our gripping — that there won’t be enough. The answer is the economy of the Kingdom: what flows through you multiplies; what stays with you corrodes. God doesn’t bless us so we can hoard; He blesses us so we can be a blessing.

Follow Before the Lord on Facebook (@BeforeTheLord) and Instagram (@beforethelorddevo). Get devotionals delivered to your inbox at blakescrawford.com/sign-up, or listen anytime at blakescrawford.com/listen. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and iHeart.

Wisdom is one prayer away — but most of us save prayer for the big decisions and handle the rest on autopilot. In this episode, Blake sits with James 1:5: “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you.” God offers His wisdom generously, without a hint of reproach, for every circumstance, big and small.

Blake unpacks why asking doesn’t come naturally — we’re used to handling things ourselves — what it means to ask in faith of a God who is near rather than far off, and how His wisdom usually arrives: not as a voice from the sky, but through a fitting verse, a wise friend, a closed door, an unexpected peace. He calls it spiritual concentration: learning to see God’s hand in all things, and keeping a simple record of His answers that builds a trust you can look back on.

Follow Before the Lord on Facebook (@BeforeTheLord) and Instagram (@beforethelorddevo). Get devotionals delivered to your inbox at blakescrawford.com/sign-up, or listen anytime at blakescrawford.com/listen. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and iHeart.

We live in a culture that rewards action — fix it, resolve it, make it happen. But in 1 Corinthians 3, Paul offers a humbling correction: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” In this episode, Blake unpacks what it means to do your part faithfully and leave the results to God, instead of getting ahead of Him.

Blake looks at how trying to force our own growth is like tugging on a seedling to make it grow faster — you only tear up the roots — and offers a freeing reminder: sometimes your role is just one step in a much larger process. Someone else may water what you plant, and someone after them may see the harvest. Your job is to be faithful in your step and trust God with the rest.

Follow Before the Lord on Facebook (@BeforeTheLord) and Instagram (@beforethelorddevo). Get devotionals delivered to your inbox at blakescrawford.com/sign-up, or listen anytime at blakescrawford.com/listen. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and iHeart.

“Let not the foot of arrogance come upon me.” Years ago, the Lord used a painful experience to expose a pride Blake didn’t know he had. In this episode he tells the story — being ordained a deacon, feeling like he’d finally arrived, and then losing it all in a church conflict — and what God taught him through the collapse.

Blake gets honest about how spiritual achievement can quietly become a substitute for depending on God — spiritual cotton candy that looks substantial but dissolves the moment you need it most — and points to where our worth is actually settled: not in applause or recognition, but in Christ’s finished acceptance of us. He closes with a practical way to diagnose and repent of a performance-based faith.

Follow Before the Lord on Facebook (@BeforeTheLord) and Instagram (@beforethelorddevo). Get devotionals delivered to your inbox at blakescrawford.com/sign-up, or listen anytime at blakescrawford.com/listen. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and iHeart.

For years, I read Proverbs 22:3 — “the prudent sees danger and hides himself” — as a warning about temptation. But recently he came to see it from a harder, more personal angle: what if the danger also includes harm done to you? This episode is about the courage to step back from a relationship that’s slowly wearing you down.

Today we walk through how to tell a hard-but-healthy relationship from a truly toxic one (which way is it moving?), why the enemy loves to isolate us and why we’re never meant to make this call alone, and how David models a God-honoring way to withdraw — deliberately, prayerfully, without vengeance. Stepping back, he reminds us, is not the same as failing to forgive.

Follow Before the Lord on Facebook (@BeforeTheLord) and Instagram (@beforethelorddevo). Get devotionals delivered to your inbox at blakescrawford.com/sign-up, or listen anytime at blakescrawford.com/listen. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and iHeart.

"Be still, and know that I am God." We usually reach for Psalm 46:10 as comfort in a storm — and it is that. But in this episode, Blake shares how putting his phone down for a few days opened up a fresh reading of the verse: as I set aside the technology, I picked up the Lord.

Blake digs into the Hebrew word behind "be still" (raphah — to let go, to cease striving), shows how this is the opposite of emptying your mind (it's the rhythm Jesus Himself kept, withdrawing to be with the Father), and gets honest about why stillness is so hard: silence exposes us. The beautiful irony? The very things the quiet surfaces are often exactly what God wants to use to draw us to Himself.

Follow Before the Lord on Facebook (@BeforeTheLord) and Instagram (@beforethelorddevo). Get devotionals delivered to your inbox at blakescrawford.com/sign-up, or listen anytime at blakescrawford.com/listen. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and iHeart.

Have you ever weighed in on something — sure you were right — only to learn later you didn't have the full story? In this episode, Blake opens Proverbs 18:13 and James 1:19 on a habit that trips up even the most mature believers: forming opinions, taking sides, and passing judgment before we've heard the whole thing.

Using Potiphar in Genesis 39 — who threw Joseph in prison without ever hearing his side — Blake shows what it looks like to get James 1:19 exactly backward, and turns to Proverbs 18:17 for why we fall for it: the first version we hear almost always sounds convincing, until the other side speaks. He closes with honest self-examination of what really drives the rush to judge, plus practical guardrails you can put to use today.

Follow Before the Lord on Facebook (@BeforeTheLord) and Instagram (@beforethelorddevo). Get devotionals delivered to your inbox at blakescrawford.com/sign-up, or listen anytime at blakescrawford.com/listen. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and iHeart.

What does it actually mean to “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord”? In this episode, Blake opens Colossians 1:10 — a verse he once marked with a question mark in the margin — and unpacks the rich biblical picture of the Christian “walk”: a whole life, shaped by the Lord from the inside out, that reflects His conduct and character.

Blake traces the many walks of Scripture — by faith, humbly, in the light, by the Spirit, in love — and brings each down to the ordinary moments of a Tuesday. Then the key turn: we don't walk worthy by trying harder. These walks are produced in us, not manufactured by us — the way a branch bears fruit by staying connected to the Vine. He closes with practical ways to stay connected, daily and in the moment, and a simple exercise for the one walk God may be putting His finger on.

Follow Before the Lord on Facebook (@BeforeTheLord) and Instagram (@beforethelorddevo). Get devotionals delivered to your inbox at blakescrawford.com/sign-up, or listen anytime at blakescrawford.com/listen. Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and iHeart.