Isaiah 53:3

There is no way to hide from today. It’s Valentine’s Day. Between the pink and red that is consuming all the stores to the radio and television commercials touting the best thing to buy for your sweetheart this special day. Love is everywhere. What seems like such a simplistic and even at times silly holiday can stir up a lot of thoughts and emotions. Valentine’s Day can become a day of unnecessary pressure and unrealistic expectations.

Currently I am taking the bible study “Living Beyond Yourself” by Beth Moore. This study looks at the Fruit of the Spirit talked about in Galatians. The first quality or fruit is love. Beth Moore addresses the topic of love by talking about the possibility of rejection. When you love someone you take a chance that you might be rejected. I have thought about this topic for a few weeks now. Even the possibility of letting someone know you like them you take the risk that maybe they won’t feel the same way about you. I by nature am not a risk taker. I like to know the answer and know exactly where I am going. This attitude has sometimes hindered me in my spiritual life as well as in my relationships and career. I am by trade a bookkeeper. A very conservative job where there is normally a logical answer to every problem. I have in the past been wounded by rejection and still bear the scars from it. I got to thinking about how Christ knows what it is like to be rejected. Isaiah 53:3 says, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.” Can you imagine the King of kings and Lord of lords rejected? Christ Jesus bears some of the same scars as we do when it comes to rejection, yet He loved anyway. He loved all the way to the cross. Laying down His life so that we could be forgiven. The Bible says love covers a multitude of sins and in our case His love covers all of our sins.

So, in light of everything that God has done for us maybe this particular Valentine’s Day we can just bask in his unfailing love. Maybe we have someone special in our lives or maybe we don’t. How about letting Jesus be your Valentine and vice versa? Let the perfect, most satisfying and fulfilling love fill your heart and mind. Oswald Chambers said “No love of the natural heart is safe without being satisfied by God first.” Our heart is not safe unless God has satisfied us first. Letting God love us, and accepting His forgiveness, is the way to have a healthy heart and provides a foundation for us to love others. Loving like the Lord loves, with agape love. The Greek language has many words it uses to express love. When the Bible talks about God’s love for us, it is said to be agape. Which means to love with best interest in mind, an esteeming love. “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.” 1 John 4:16-17

When talking to a friend of mine recently about Valentine’s Day she made a great suggestion. How about finding a widow or senior adult and helping them celebrate the day. There are so many lonely and hurting people in the world that we can show the love of Christ to. I hope that God will help you find a way to celebrate His love on today. By either letting Him lavish His love on you or by you letting the love of Christ show to others. Happy Valentine’s Day! “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, 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.” Ephesians 3:17-19

Lori