Valentine’s Day is a day designated for people to communicate their love to others. Children share homemade valentine boxes with little card tokens of friendship, we may send cards to parents and friends, but it is known for a day to share how we feel to the person we most love and prize.
God has given us the ability to love others, and it comes from His love for us. Love was not a human idea. God is love, and His love is unique, unmatched. A relationship with God is like no other relationship you may have experienced. God has a unique kind of love for you. It is unconditional (not based on meeting certain conditions). God loves you because He loves you.
God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 1 John 4:9-10 NLT
He loves us so much that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
He does not love you based upon your performance. There is nothing you can do to cause God to love you any more than He already does – and there is nothing that will cause God to love you any less. He loves you even more than you love yourself. He loves you differently and more than anyone else who could ever love you.
This Valentine’s Day, I want to show you just a few of the many gifts God has for you in 2024 because He loves you:
- He will guide you, satisfy your needs, and strengthen you (Isaiah 58:11)
- He will call you, take hold of your hand, and keep you (Isaiah 42:6)
- He will be with you, be your God, strengthen you, help you, and uphold you (Isaiah 41:10)
- He will never leave you (Deuteronomy 31:6)
- He will bless you with peace (Psalm 29:11)
That’s just a very small list … as you read the Bible this year, make a list of the verses that describe how much God loves you. Keep these “valentines” stored in your heart. Let His love be the foundation of every day.
Here’s a start:
Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35, 37-39 NLT