God’s Valentine

This week we celebrated Valentine’s Day, a day when many celebrate love and those special to them.  So often we think of Valentine’s Day as a day reserved for couples and “people in love.”   Some jokingly refer to it as Singles Awareness Day.   But did it ever occur to you that we are God’s valentines?  You may never have thought about it in that way before, but we are.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  John 3:16

“For Your faithful love is before my eyes, and I live by Your truth.”  Psalm 26:3

Jesus told his disciples, “for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.”  John 16:27  “Your love, LORD, reaches to the heavens,  your faithfulness to the skies.” Psalm 36:5

“God our Father loved us and by his kindness gave us everlasting encouragement and good hope…”  1 Thess. 2:16a

And speaking about Jesus Christ, John writes, “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood”

So what is love anyway?  “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never ends…”  1 Corinthians 13:4-8a

With a love like this, why is it that so many people try to find their source of happiness and peace in earthly relationships and not in their relationship with God?  Clearly His is the best love imaginable!   A love where we never have to worry about rejection, lies, cheating, envy, arguments, or arrogance.  This is Perfect Love.  A kind of love that’s impossible for fallen human beings to attain here on earth.  Yet so often in relationships today we place our value in the “other person.”   We find our source of life in that individual, and if something ever happens (and it will) to disrupt the relationship, our world turns to chaos.   We put our hope for a future in them, and not our Savior.  No wonder so many relationships end in tragedy today.  We enter the relationship hoping that the other fallen human being will satisfy our deepest heart’s desires, only to be let down by them (because we are all fallen), and we feel that they no longer satisfy our emptiness, so the relationship ends.  If only we would place our source of life on Who we are supposed to… Jesus Christ.

God desires to be our source of life.  He created all people with that inner desire for a deeply satisfying love that has no limits.  When we try to find another person to fit the bill, they will  always fall short.  No one can fill that God-sized whole in your heart.   People fail us.  God never will.  Period.

Maybe your reading this and you realize, “you know… I’m doing that with my relationships…”  If that’s you, let me tell you it’s never too late to have that soul-filling love you’ve been running after.  God is standing with arms wide open, waiting for you to run into His all-encompassing love.    Perhaps you’ve been a Christian for years, but never gave this over to God… He’s calling you to change, and look to Him as your strength.  But maybe you’ve never heard about Jesus; you’re wondering what this all means…  ask Him to fill your heart.  I would also love to talk with you, my email is below.

Always remember that you are God’s special valentine, created for a purpose, and loved beyond anything you can imagine.  Never let the world or society convince you otherwise.

Andrea MacBean –  listener and contributor

acmb.galatians220@gmail.com