Day 1: The Foundation of Everything
Devotional
Have you ever wondered what makes the difference between going through the motions of faith and experiencing genuine spiritual growth? Many of us think spiritual maturity comes from checking off religious boxes—reading our Bibles more, praying longer, or managing our sin better. But what if we've been looking at it all wrong? True spiritual maturity isn't about doing more for God; it's about becoming increasingly aware of how much God loves you. This awareness becomes the foundation for everything else in our faith journey. When we truly understand that we are beloved children of God, our entire perspective shifts. Think about how this changes your prayers. Instead of begging God to help you love Him more, you begin asking Him to help you understand His love for you more deeply. This isn't selfish—it's actually the key to authentic spiritual growth. When we know we are loved, we naturally respond with love. Every sunrise you see is God saying 'I love you.' Every sunset whispers 'I am well pleased with you.' These aren't just poetic thoughts—they're reminders of a love that surrounds you constantly. God's love isn't something you have to earn or maintain through perfect behavior. It's already yours, freely given, waiting to be received. This foundational truth will transform how you see yourself, how you relate to others, and how you approach your faith journey. You don't have to strive to be worthy of God's love—you already are.
Bible Verse
'See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!' - 1 John 3:1
Reflection Question
How might your daily prayers and relationship with God change if you truly believed that His primary desire is for you to know how deeply you are loved?
Quote
Spiritual maturity is about an ever increasing awareness of God's love for you.
Prayer
Father, help me to shift my focus from trying to love You more to understanding how much You already love me. Open my heart to receive the truth that I am Your beloved child. Let this awareness become the foundation of my faith journey. Amen.
Day 2: Dimensions of Crazy Love
Devotional
Have you ever tried to measure something that seems immeasurable? Paul prayed for believers to grasp the width, length, height, and depth of Christ's love—dimensions that reveal just how extraordinary God's love truly is. The width of God's love speaks to its inclusiveness. No matter who you are, where you've been, or what you've done, God's love extends to you. There's no person too far gone, no sin too great, no mistake too devastating to be outside the reach of His love. The length reveals God's perseverance. His love isn't temporary or conditional based on your performance. It doesn't have an expiration date or come with fine print. God's love for you is as enduring as He is eternal. The height shows us love that's incomprehensibly vast. We can't fully grasp how high God's love reaches because it surpasses human understanding. It's higher than our greatest achievements and higher than our worst failures. The depth reminds us of Jesus's great descent to the cross. God didn't love us from a distance—He came down to our level, experienced our pain, and died our death. This isn't just love; it's crazy love that defies logic and reason. We're not just loved—we're loved to an unreasonable degree. It's crazy how much God loves you and me. This isn't hyperbole; it's the stunning reality of divine love that should leave us amazed every single day.
Bible Verse
'And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.' - Ephesians 3:17-19
Reflection Question
Which dimension of God's love (width, length, height, or depth) do you find most difficult to believe applies to your life, and why?
Quote
We're not just loved, we're loved to like, an unreasonable degree. It's crazy how much God loves you and me, that we're loved to a degree that's beyond what makes sense.
Prayer
Lord, expand my understanding of Your love. Help me to grasp that Your love is wider than my failures, longer than my struggles, higher than my understanding, and deeper than my pain. Fill me with the fullness of this crazy love. Amen.
Day 3: Beauty in the Mess
Devotional
What's your first instinct when you look at the messy parts of your life? Most of us feel shame, disappointment, or the urge to hide. We think these broken places disqualify us from God's love or make us less worthy of His attention. But what if the opposite were true? Even the darkest, most messed up parts of your life can become catalysts for knowing God's love more deeply. When you look at your life and think about the mistakes you've made, the relationships you've damaged, or the dreams you've shattered, remember this: the most potent experience you can have with God's love might happen when you sit with Him in that very mess. God doesn't love you despite your brokenness—He loves you through it, in it, and because of how it reveals His grace. Your mess doesn't repel God; it attracts His compassion. Your failures don't diminish His love; they showcase His mercy. When God thinks of you, He doesn't see your mistakes first. He sees His beloved child. He's not disappointed in you, shaking His head, or scowling. He loves you and delights in you, mess and all. This doesn't mean God approves of sin or that our choices don't matter. It means His love is bigger than our failures and His grace is sufficient for our weaknesses. In your mess, you can discover that God's love isn't fragile or conditional—it's robust enough to handle your worst days and tender enough to heal your deepest wounds.
Bible Verse
'But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.' - Romans 5:8
Reflection Question
What 'messy' area of your life have you been hiding from God, and how might inviting Him into that space actually deepen your experience of His love?
Quote
Even the darkest, most messed up parts of my life, even those things, can be catalysts to knowing God's love.
Prayer
God, I bring my mess to You—my failures, my shame, my broken places. Help me believe that You love me not despite these things, but through them. Teach me to find You in my mess and discover Your love there. Amen.
Day 4: Never Graduate from Love
Devotional
In our achievement-oriented culture, we're used to graduating from one level to the next, checking boxes and moving on to more advanced concepts. But there's one thing we were never meant to graduate from: the love of God. God's love isn't a beginner's course in Christianity that you master and then move beyond. It's not a checkbox you mark and forget. The love of God is both the starting point and the destination of our faith journey. It's the foundation we build on and the roof that covers everything we do. Many churches and Christians fall into the trap of the Ephesian church, which had good works and sound doctrine but had abandoned their first love. Despite their religious activity and theological correctness, God threatened to remove their lampstand. Historically, that church ceased to exist. This sobering reality reminds us that works without love will not last. The most important discovery you will ever make is the love the Father has for you. This isn't just a nice sentiment—it's the source of your power in prayer, your confidence in service, and your hope in difficult times. Your effectiveness in ministry and relationships will flow from the certainty that the One who made you actually likes you. Every day, we have the opportunity to dive deeper into this love, to taste and savor it more fully. The more we experience God's reckless love, the more we become people of love ourselves. This is a lifelong journey of discovery, not a one-time realization.
Bible Verse
'Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first.' - Revelation 2:4
Reflection Question
In what ways have you treated God's love as something to 'graduate from' rather than something to continually grow in, and how can you return to making His love your first priority?
Quote
We were never meant to move on from this. This is not a checkbox. You can say, great check, move on. We were never meant to graduate from the love of God.
Prayer
Father, forgive me for times when I've moved beyond Your love to focus on other things. Help me return to my first love and never graduate from the wonder of being loved by You. Keep Your love as the center of my faith. Amen.
Day 5: Loved to Love
Devotional
Have you ever wondered how some people seem to love others so effortlessly and extravagantly? The secret isn't trying harder to be loving—it's resting deeper in the love you've already received. Before we can extend crazy love to others, we must first rest, swim, and grasp the knowledge that we are crazy loved. This isn't selfish; it's essential. You can't give what you don't have, and you can't love from an empty tank. When you truly know you are beloved, love naturally overflows to others. This is how God loved us first—He took strangers and loved them into His family. That's exactly what He did for you and me. We were outsiders, but His love brought us in. Now, as recipients of this extravagant love, we become conduits of it to others. When you and I come to know the love of God, what develops in us is a reckless confidence—not in ourselves, but in His love working through us. We begin to love sacrificially because we've been loved sacrificially. We extend grace because we've received grace. We show up for others because God showed up for us. Families, churches, and communities are transformed when people who know they are extravagantly loved begin to love extravagantly. This creates a beautiful cycle: the more we taste God's love, the more we become people of love, which draws others to experience that same love. You are ready to receive the wide, long, deep, high love of Jesus. And as you receive it, you'll find yourself naturally sharing it with a world that desperately needs to know they too are crazy loved.
Bible Verse
'Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!' - Philippians 2:6-8
Reflection Question
How has experiencing God's love in your own life equipped you to love someone specific in your world who needs to know they are valued and cherished?
Quote
Before we go and extend crazy love, we must rest and swim and grasp the knowledge that we are crazy loved.
Prayer
Lord, fill me so completely with Your love that it naturally overflows to others. Help me rest in being loved so I can love from that place of security. Use me to show someone today that they are crazy loved by You. Amen.
