With Valentine’s Day right around the corner, there is a lot of talk about love in the air. While there are some that just love this holiday, for many people, Valentine’s Day is not really something they look forward to. Instead, it is a reminder that they are alone and feel unlovable.
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Perhaps the day brings back memories of a too empty Valentine’s Day box in elementary school, or it brings up a person’s single status or it shines on a glaring light on a loss. Whatever the reasons, Valentine’s Day can be a loaded holiday.
We can say all we want that it is just a Hallmark holiday, and it really doesn’t mean anything, but one of the very basic of human needs is to feel loved. When we don’t, for whatever reason, it leaves a kind of empty longing that we fill up with busyness or food or shopping or even success.
Here’s the thing – God created you with this hole that needed to be filled because He wants to fill it. To sound really cliche, He wants you to be His Valentine. (I know – cheesy right?)
God loves you – it’s a phrase we’ve all heard. In fact, we may have heard it so many times, the wonder of it has kind of worn off.
But I want you to take just a minute to really sink into those words – God LOVES you. The God who spoke the universe into existence, truly, deeply, madly LOVES you. We can sometimes think of God’s love as a collective thing – for the whole world and then we have to earn our bit. But that isn’t what the Bible tells us. It speaks of a love that is overwhelmingly personal and offers us purpose and meaning if we will only embrace it and believe it.
This is what He says about you:
God created you as a masterpiece.
God delights in you.
God is FOR you.
God sacrificed His only Son – for you.
God didn’t just offer you salvation, but He wants a relationship with you.
God lavishes you with His grace.
God created you for good works.
God won’t ever leave you.
God’s love is constant and faithful.
God keeps all your tears in a bottle.
God’s love can’t be earned, but it is freely given.
God’s love can’t be taken away from you by anything in heaven or earth.
God claims you as His child.
God’s love is life-giving.
God’s love drives out fear and shame.
God’s love is perfect and personal.
I remember the first time I truly glimpsed God’s great love for me. It reduced me to a puddle of tears, and yet, I had never felt so safe and secure.
There is this verse in Ephesians 3:17-19 that says, “So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you maybe filled up to all the fullness of God.”
I pray this verse as a prayer a lot – for myself and for my children – because I’m convinced that we are less likely to fill those empty spaces with things that hurt us if we are already filled up with the fullness of God. And to do that, we have to grasp His great love for each one of us.
So how about you? Have you grasped that knowledge – do you really believe God’s love is for you, too?
Blessings, Rosanne