Day 1: The Love That Doesn’t Hide
1 John 4:9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
Have you ever felt like finding God’s love is an ordeal? It can feel like searching through a chaotic storage unit. You are looking for one specific thing, but it feels like a treasure hunt– hidden under boxes labeled “misc” and buried behind clutter you haven’t touched in years.
When life is hard, when the diagnosis comes, or when the relationship fractures, you might feel like you are digging through the dark corners of your life just trying to track down a single scrap of evidence that God cares. You wonder if His affection is concealed behind your suffering. You wonder if He is hiding His love from you.
But here is the reality of the Gospel: God does not hide His love in a storage unit. He does not make you hunt for it in the dark. 1 John 4:9 tells us that God’s love was revealed. He brought it out into the open. He didn’t send a generic angel or a long-distance care package from heaven. He didn’t send a policy manual to help you organize your life. He sent His Son.
God answered the question “Is God loving?” once and for all by sending Jesus explicitly for you. The evidence isn’t buried; it is breathing. It is the person of Jesus Christ, sent so that you might live through Him. God’s love is not a secret to be discovered; it is a Savior to be embraced.
So, stop digging through the debris of your circumstances to determine if you are loved. Look at the Son. The Father sent His very best into the world to find you.
Prayer: Holy Father, thank You that I don’t have to search in the dark to find your love. You haven’t hidden Your heart from me; You’ve revealed it in Jesus. When I feel like Your love is distant, help me to look at Your Son and see the undeniable proof that You are for me. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Day 2: He Sent Him Into The Mess
1 John 4:9 God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
If you are a parent, an aunt, or a grandparent, you know that your deepest instinct is protection. You want to bubble-wrap the people you love. You tell them not to play in the street and not to hang out with the bad crowd. If you knew there was a place filled with rebellion, death, and spiritual sickness, the last thing you would do is send your child there. You would build a wall. You would lock the door. You would say, “You stay in here where it’s safe, clean, and holy.”
But that is not what God did.
Think about the phrase “one and only Son.” This wasn’t a leftover gift. This wasn’t something God could afford to lose. This was His most precious, priceless, irreplaceable treasure. And yet, because He is loving, He didn’t insulate His Son from the infection of your sin. He sent Him right into the middle of the hospital ward to save the patients.
He sent His perfection into your mess. He sent the Light of the World into your darkness.
Why does this matter for you this morning? Because it proves that God’s love is not passive. It is an active, pursuing love that crosses enemy lines. He didn’t wait for you to find your way up to Him; He came down to you. He risked everything to rescue you from a spiritual death you could never escape on your own.
You deserve death because of sin, but God is so loving that He sent His Son so that you might live. Do not doubt the intensity of a love that would pay such a high price. He gave His best so you could have life.
Prayer: Father, I am overwhelmed by the cost of Your love! You didn’t keep Jesus safe in heaven; You sent Him into the mess of this world to save a sinner like me. Forgive me for thinking Your love is small or cautious. Thank You for pursuing me when I was dead in my sin and for giving me life through Your Son. In the name of Jesus, amen.
Day 3: The God Who Moves First
1 John 4:10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
You didn’t fall in love with God and then He decided to love you back. You didn’t clean up your act and then catch His attention. You didn’t pray the right prayer or have the right experience or believe the right things, and then God thought, “Okay, now this person is worth loving.”
No. He loved you first.
This wrecks our entire way of thinking about relationships, doesn’t it? We’re so used to the transaction. You do something for me, I do something for you. You’re kind to me, I’m kind to you. You earn my affection, and I’ll give it. But God’s love doesn’t work that way. It can’t. Because if it did, none of us would qualify.
Here’s the stunning reality: while you were running from Him, He was running toward you. While you were building your life around everything but Him, He was planning your rescue. While you were dead in your sins, He sent Jesus to die in your place.
The Gospel isn’t the story of how you finally got your life together enough to deserve God’s attention. It’s the story of how God loved you when you deserved nothing but His judgment. It’s about His movement toward you before you even knew you needed Him.
This matters more than you realize. Because when you mess up today (and you will), when you fail again in that same area, when you look at your heart and see all the junk still there, you won’t spiral into shame wondering if God still loves you. You’ll remember that His love never depended on your performance in the first place.
God sent Jesus as the atoning sacrifice. That means your sin was dealt with not by your effort but by His grace. The debt was paid not by your goodness but by Christ’s blood. God made the move. He initiated. He loved first.
And He’s still loving you now, and it’s not because of what you bring to the table. It’s because of who He is.
Prayer: Loving Father, thank You for loving me first. I know that if You didn’t, I never would have loved You. Let me praise You today for it! In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.
Day 4: When God Doesn’t Feel Loving
1 John 4:9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
You might be dealing with something hard right now. Maybe it’s a chronic sickness that won’t go away. Maybe it’s a tragedy that shattered your family. Maybe it’s anxiety that grips you in the middle of the night. Maybe it’s a dream that died, and you can’t figure out why God let it happen.
And in those moments, you’re wondering: is God really loving?
Here’s what we do. We look at our circumstances and use them as a measurement of God’s love. Life feels good? God must love me. Life feels terrible? Maybe He doesn’t.
But, God’s love isn’t measured by whether your life feels easy or your prayers get answered the way you want. God’s love can’t be measured, but it can be seen in Jesus.
God walked toward you in Jesus. He picked up the cross. He took your sin, your judgment, your death upon Himself. That’s love made visible.
The same God who allowed your suffering is the God who sent His Son to suffer for you. The same God who hasn’t removed your pain is the God who entered into it Himself. The same God who hasn’t answered your prayer the way you hoped is the God who gave you Jesus when you didn’t even know to ask.
You don’t have to pretend your struggles aren’t real. You don’t have to fake feeling okay when you’re not. But don’t let your circumstances rewrite what God has already declared through the cross. Jesus is proof that God loves you.
Prayer: Holy God, there are definitely times where I let my circumstances affect what I know about Your love. No matter what happens to me, I know You love me. I know this because You sent Jesus to die in my place. Thank you for Your love! In the name of my Savior, amen.
Day 5: Love That Gives Life
1 John 4:9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
You weren’t sent Jesus so you could have a better Tuesday. You weren’t sent Jesus so your circumstances would improve or your stress would decrease or your bank account would grow. You were sent Jesus so you could live.
Not just survive. Not just get by. Not just make it through another week. Live.
There’s a massive difference. You can survive in a broken world with a broken heart, going through the motions, keeping up appearances, trying to manage your sin and numb your pain. Lots of people do. But that’s not life. That’s just existence with a religious veneer.
Real life, the kind God sent Jesus to give you, is about being brought from death to life. You were dead in your sins. Not struggling, or sick, or having a bad day. Dead. Separated from God. Cut off from the source of all life. And no amount of self-improvement or positive thinking or religious activity could change that.
So God did what you couldn’t do. He sent His Son into the world to give you life. Jesus didn’t come to make your current life a little better. He came to give you a completely new one. Forgiveness instead of guilt. Reconciliation instead of separation. Adoption instead of alienation. Hope instead of despair.
This is what love looks like when it comes from God. It doesn’t just feel sorry for you. It doesn’t just sympathize with your struggles. It acts. It moves. It gives. And what it gives is nothing less than life itself.
So when you’re tempted to measure God’s love by whether He’s making your life easier, remember what He actually gave you. He gave you Jesus. And in Jesus, He gave you life. Not the life you think you need, but the life you actually do– eternal, abundant, secure.
That’s the kind of love that changes everything.
Prayer: Gracious Father, thank You for giving me life! I once was dead and now I’m alive, all because of You. This love is greater than anything I can imagine. Let me live in Your love today. I ask this in the name of Jesus, amen.
Day 6: Love That Reaches Down
Romans 5:8 But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
You weren’t waiting at the altar when Jesus came. You weren’t standing with arms wide open, ready to receive Him. You were facing the other direction, building your life on everything but Him.
And He died for you anyway.
That’s the scandal of the Gospel. God didn’t wait for you to turn around. He didn’t wait for you to realize your need or clean up your act or get yourself together. While you were still a sinner, while you were still running, while you were still dead in your rebellion, Christ died for you.
This destroys every religious instinct you have. You want to believe that God helps those who help themselves. That He meets you halfway. That you have to show some effort, some progress, some worthiness before He’ll really commit to you. But that’s not what the Bible says here.
God proves His love not by responding to your goodness but by dying in the middle of your sin. He reaches down when you’re at your worst, not when you’re at your best. He moves toward you when you’re facing away, not when you’re looking for Him.
This matters more than you think. Because today you’re going to mess up. You’re going to fall back into that pattern you thought you’d overcome. You’re going to think the thoughts you promised you wouldn’t think. And in that moment, you need to know that God’s love isn’t shocked or diminished or withdrawn.
He proved His love while you were still a sinner. If He loved you then, He certainly loves you now.
Prayer: Loving Father, I know that Jesus died for me when I was at my worst. I know that You loved me when I didn’t love You. So remind me of this love when I doubt. Help me to see that this is a love that will be with me through everything. I ask this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Day 7: The Love You Can’t Earn
1 John 4:10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
There’s something in you that wants to earn it. You know that, right? You wake up and think, “Today I’ll pray more, read more, serve more, sin less.” And maybe, just maybe, you’ll finally feel like you deserve God’s love.
But here’s the problem: you’re trying to earn something that’s already been given.
Love that has to be earned isn’t really love. It’s a transaction. It’s a business deal. You perform well enough, and God gives you what you’ve worked for. But that’s not what John is describing here. He’s not saying, “Love consists in this: that you finally got your act together and God rewarded you.” He’s saying the exact opposite.
God loved you when you had nothing to offer. When you were running in the opposite direction. When your heart was cold and your hands were dirty and your motives were mixed at best. That’s when He sent Jesus. Not after you cleaned up. Not after you proved yourself worthy. Before any of that.
You’re going to spend a lot of energy today trying to be good enough. Trying to pray the right prayers, think the right thoughts, feel the right feelings. And when you fail, you’re going to wonder if God’s affection is running out. If maybe this time you’ve finally gone too far.
But God didn’t send Jesus because you were lovable. He sent Jesus to make you His own. The atoning sacrifice wasn’t contingent on your performance. It was the gift that secured your standing before you even knew you needed it.
Stop trying to earn what’s already yours. God’s love isn’t a prize at the end of your effort. It’s the foundation underneath all of it.
Prayer: My Father, You have given me Your love freely. Help me to stop trying to earn. Help me to just enjoy it. In Jesus’ name, amen.