With more than a month before Valentine’s Day, the stores are already loaded with red hearts, chocolate candy and huge stuffed animals with a high level of cuteness, to tempt your wallet. I feel bombarded when I visit a store for necessities and what I want is moved back in the store, to make room for Valentine presents the store hopes I will buy. They are selling the idea of love. They are banking on the fact that we all want to celebrate love.
Love is more than emotion. It is action. God loved us and sent Himself and His love to us in the form of Jesus. He also sent the Holy Spirit of love to live in us after Jesus went to heaven. God is all about love. In a way, Jesus was, and is, God’s ‘valentine’ to us. From the day we ‘buy into’ that love until the day we die, we are bound in love with Him. Wait…that’s not quite right. He is in us and we are in Him until the day we die and beyond! Can you fathom how much love He has, that He cannot stand to be separated from us, EVER?
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:7-8
Love is stronger than hate. God proved that by sending His only Son to people that would hate Him. Love is stronger than hate. Jesus proved that. Jesus died on the cross for all, even those who hated Him. Love is stronger than hate. The Holy Spirit proves that every day in us. We have a supernatural love in us that loves others despite how they feel about us. Love is stronger than hate. Now, more than ever, the world needs to know what we know…these greatest actions of love. Like me, you might be thinking, “But there’s SO much hate and anger and divisiveness in the world. Can we really make a difference?” Yes. The Bible tells us that what we have in us, the Spirit of God, is greater than any spirit in the world!
You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 1John 4:4-5 NIV
There are so many major differences between our viewpoint and the world’s. Here are a few:
The world’s viewpoint is based on self. Our viewpoint is from heaven. It is higher. It is denial of self.
The world’s viewpoint is what they feel like saying at the time. Our viewpoint is what God says! It is obedience to what God says, not ourselves.
The world exalts itself. We, as children of God exalt Him. He is higher, better, more, fuller, perfect (and we, ourselves, are not.)
We can only keep our God-focus when we are deeply rooted in Him and His love. In Ephesians 3:16-19, Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians describes the extent and treasure of God’s love:
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. 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.
One for the Journal- Today write down 10 things or people you love a lot. Next write down ten things God loves. Make sure to put your name on that list! Then, consider how you can show God He is number one on your list today. An idea…what if we wrote on a card… “God what can I do today to show You I love You?” What if we read that card the minute our feet hit the floor in the morning? I just wrote my card and will ask that each day.
Dear Father in Heaven,
We are so humbled to even say Your name because of who You are. You are God! You are also the definition of love. May all we do and say and think and plan relate to You and Your love. Thank You for Your love that sustains us in a world of hurt and anger that confuses us. We want Your love and Spirit to fill us with what we need to accomplish Your will of loving others with actions, despite theirs. You loved us even they we are imperfect. The way we interact with the world needs to be all about You and Your love, not about what we do, but why we do it. We love You so much! Amen
Love and prayers as always,
Just me. Just His.
Glory in the Morning 