My Valentine’s Writing for 2018

Love. Love. Right. Now. You can’t change the past. You can’t manipulate the future…not really.

 

Love is patient. Be patient. Love is kind. Be kind. God is love. Let God reign in your mortal bodies.

Love is like a woman standing at the hospital bedside of the man she adores while he lies in a coma. She’s told, “you’re wasting your time”, “he doesn’t even know you’re there”. But she remains, a faithful standby, trusting that he hears the words unspoken. Every now and then she ventures to gently touch him, lightly, as in a reverent caress. When the tears well up in her eyes she whispers, “I love you”, and trusts he somehow hears.

Love is like a father and a mother, standing at the door of their home, watching, through tears, their prodigal child become a distant blur on the horizon. Their grip was strong, but, when the child twisted free with a shout, they willingly released, trusting that theirs was not the hold that could conform the child to obedience and righteousness, praying that their lost lamb will run till they reach the end of the path and fall into the arms of Jesus.

Love is like the Good Shepherd Who drops everything He’s doing to seek after the one lamb that has gone astray. He will not rest till He has found and rescued this lamb. He shall then bring it back into fellowship with those from which it strayed. And then, oh, what a day of rejoicing that will be!

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” 1 John 4:7 NKJV

Trust. Trust the Spirit of God to be at work in your brothers and sisters in Christ. For it is written: “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as are the watercourses; He turns it whichever way He wills” (Proverbs 21:1 AMPC). How much more so can it be said of a child of God?

I encourage you to read this familiar passage and replace each reference to and use of the word “love” with your name:

“Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.

“It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].

“It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.

“Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].

“Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]….” 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 AMPC

Convicting, isn’t it? Now be comforted as you read it, again, this time, replacing every reference and use of the word “love” with “God”.

God is Love! Oh, what hope we have for a glorious future when we fully believe in the Lover of our souls, our First Love, Jesus Christ!

“For now we are looking in a mirror that gives only a dim (blurred) reflection [of reality as in a riddle or enigma], but then [when perfection comes] we shall see in reality and face to face! Now I know in part (imperfectly), but then I shall know and understand fully and clearly, even in the same manner as I have been fully and clearly known and understood [by God].” 1 Corinthians 13:12 AMPC

It’s hard not knowing how another person needs loved. Equally so, it’s hard knowing how they need loved when the way is foreign to you. But the good news is that God is multilingual. He can teach you the other languages if we let Him love through us. From Him we can each learn what it is to love rightly and to feel completely loved by Him through others who are loving us in the same way: His way! God loves you exactly the way you need loved!

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us…

“…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 them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us…

“…And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister (in Christ).” 1 John 4: 10-12, 16-19 & 21 NIV

Thus, also, we must sacrifice ourselves in order to let God’s love dwell within us and extend to others. If each of us focuses on sacrificing what we want in order to, instead, meet the needs of others, eventually we shall all meet in the middle, where God is there, at the center, shining His perfect love on all of us, casting out every fear!

“And so faith, hope, love abide [faith—conviction and belief respecting man’s relation to God and divine things; hope—joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love—true affection for God and man, growing out of God’s love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13 AMPC

May each of you fall desperately in love with Jesus, the Lover of our souls, this Valentine’s Day!