How did Jesus love? He laid down His life. In this episode, Blake gets honest about the quiet ledger most of us run when we love — the subtle expectation of getting something back — and holds it up against the way Jesus loved: with nothing held back and nothing owed.

Featuring John 15:12–13 and Philippians 2:9–11, this devotional traces what sacrificial love actually costs, why the Father honors the downward path, and how remembering the cross gives us the strength to keep loving when it hurts. There’s a love that keeps score — and a love that lays itself down.

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When life presses in, we all go looking for something to steady us. In this episode, Blake opens an old journal entry — “Lord, I am struggling” — and traces the choice every struggle sets before us: reach for a quick substitute, or reach for the nourishment of God’s Word.

Featuring Matthew 4:4, where Jesus meets the tempter in the wilderness at His weakest and takes hold of the Word instead. Blake also shares how, in a season of deep loneliness, Isaiah 40:11 and the promise of a tending Shepherd kept him from sinking. There’s bread that leaves you empty — and a Word that holds you.

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Have you ever felt God nudging you toward something you feel completely unqualified to do? In this episode, Blake gets honest about his own version of that fear — sensing God asking him to publish his writing while feeling utterly inadequate — and finds unexpected company in Moses at the burning bush.

When Moses asks “Who am I?”, God doesn’t argue that he’s capable. He gives a better answer: “I will be with you.” Featuring Exodus 3:11–12, this devotional shows why our adequacy was never the point — and why the assignment always rested on His presence, not our credentials.

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It’s easy to feel overwhelmed — one hard phone call, one bad report, and our stability cracks. In this episode, we sit with Psalm 62:2 and find that God is not just a rock to stand on but a fortress to hide in — and that His promise isn’t the absence of shaking, but the assurance that we won’t be toppled.

Blake shares the season his business came under attack and anxiety took over, and the simple prayer — adapted from Larry Crabb’s The PAPA Prayer — that steadied him and moved him back onto the Rock. If anxiety has the ground shifting under you, this one’s for you.

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. 

Have you lost your joy? Not your happiness — your joy. In this episode, we look at why joy goes missing, the difference between joy that’s pressed thin by hard seasons and joy that’s stolen by sin, and how King David found his way back after sin cost him everything.

Featuring Psalm 51:12, this devotional traces the pattern of sin, silence, and confession — and the honest step that opens the door to restoration. Whether your joy has been drained by grief or forfeited through sin, there’s a way home.

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Solomon compares a wise reprover to gold — not silver, not bronze, but gold. The most precious material in the ancient world. In this episode, we unpack why that comparison matters, what it means to be someone who speaks disruptive truth into the lives of those they love, and why the cost of doing so is part of what makes it valuable.

Featuring Proverbs 25:12, this devotional explores both sides of the verse — having a listening ear for correction and having the courage to be the one who corrects. Because sometimes the most loving thing you can do is disrupt someone’s trajectory.

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The night before the cross, Jesus prayed one of the most powerful words in Scripture: nevertheless. In the deepest agony imaginable — sweating drops of blood, facing the weight of all humanity’s sin — He pivoted from what He wanted to what the Father willed. And immediately, an angel appeared to strengthen Him.

In this episode, we explore what that pivot looks like in our own lives — how “nevertheless” becomes a posture of surrender that moves us from self-interest to God-interest, and why the Father who strengthened Jesus in the garden meets us in our moments, too.

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What do you do when life beats you down and it feels like you have nothing? In this episode, we sit in the paradox of 2 Corinthians 6:10 — where Paul, from the middle of beatings, imprisonments, and hunger, writes: “We own nothing, and yet we have everything.” We explore what that paradox looks like in real life, what Matthew Henry meant when he called joy in tribulation a “duty and calling,” and why the Source of everything we need has never moved.

Featuring 2 Corinthians 6:10 alongside Romans 5:3, this devotional is for anyone in a season where life feels heavy and the lies feel louder than the truth.

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Abraham was called a friend of God — not because he earned it, but because he believed. In this episode, we explore what it means to create room in our hearts for a deep friendship with God, and what Abraham’s faith teaches us about the kind of trust that moves our feet.

Featuring James 2:23 alongside Genesis 12:1-4 and Genesis 22, we unpack how friendship with God begins with faith and deepens through the daily rhythms of a heart turned toward Him.

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Jesus gave His disciples the power to heal — and they still couldn’t do it. Why? Because they’d been careless in their spiritual walk. In this episode, we unpack what it means to cultivate our faith through spiritual disciplines and devotion — and why even seasons of peace can quietly erode our connection to the Source of our power.

Featuring Mark 9:14-29 alongside 1 Timothy 4:7, we explore the difference between checking the quiet-time box and actually communing with the Father — and what Paul meant when he told Timothy to “train yourself for godliness.”

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