“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.

Why is gossip so hard to resist? In this episode, Blake opens Proverbs 18:8 — the words of a whisperer are like “delicious morsels” — to unmask gossip as a relational counterfeit: it feels like connection, but it's empty, always needing more to sustain itself, and it harms everyone it touches — the one who spreads it, the one who listens, and the one talked about.

Blake looks at what Scripture says (Proverbs 26:20 and a vivid word from James 3), gets honest about what our appetite for gossip reveals in our own hearts, and offers practical safeguards — including a simple three-filter test (is it true, is it kind, is it necessary?) that echoes Philippians 4:8 and Ephesians 4:29. The heart of it: gossip destroys everyone it touches, so starve it of oxygen and it dies.

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.

Timothy was a gifted young leader — and he was letting fear get the better of him. In this episode, Blake walks through 2 Timothy chapter 1, where Paul hands his fearful friend five encouragements to stop shrinking back and step forward in faith.

The five: a praying friend; a God-given gift (and that famous line — God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power, love, and self-discipline); a holy calling; a faithful Savior worth dying for; and godly examples in the loneliness of ministry and everyday life. Each comes with honest questions and a concrete next step. And the thread running through them all: when fear makes us hesitate, God has not left us powerless.

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.

Psalm 37 comes about as close to a formula as Scripture gets: trust, delight, commit — and He will act. In this episode, Blake opens Psalm 37:3-5 and walks through the three, while guarding against the trap of turning them into a lever we pull to make God move.

Along the way, Blake shares the strange grace of praying for something so long that one day you realize you're already standing in the middle of the answer; what it really means to “delight” (and how that reshapes the desires of your heart); and what “commit your way” actually pictures — rolling your path and burdens onto the Lord. The heart of it: this isn't a performance that earns God's action, but a posture that anchors us in Him, so that whether or not we notice, He is already at work.

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.

Who in their right mind rejoices in suffering? The Apostle Paul did — beaten, jailed, and driven from town after town, yet full of joy. In this episode, Blake opens Colossians 1:24 to ask what Paul saw that we so often miss.

First, a careful word on that puzzling phrase, “filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions” — Paul is not saying Jesus's work fell short. Then Blake walks through why Paul could rejoice: because in his suffering he was following his Savior — serving Him, blessing His church, and being shaped into His likeness. The heart of it: when our suffering comes because we belong to Christ, it isn't meaningless pain but a doorway to Christlikeness, and a place where joy is possible.

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 mean to be a “helper fit for him”? In this companion to the episode on masculinity, Blake opens Genesis 2:18 and reclaims a word we've made too small: ezer — the very term Scripture uses of God Himself when He comes to rescue His people. A helper isn't a lesser partner; she's a strong ally, placed alongside to strengthen the good God is doing in the men she loves.

Blake gets practical and tender — noticing and naming the good so it grows, and knowing what's yours and what isn't when a man withdraws or turns to anger. His response is his own before God; your part is to pray, speak truth in love, and keep pointing him to the Lord. There's an honest look inward at the ways we can make it easier for a man to stay passive, a word about not carrying the weight of his choices, and the hardest part of all — waiting on the Lord while keeping your own heart soft.

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.