Read Time 5 Minutes
Valentine’s Day is an annual celebration of romantic love, friendship, and admiration. When the question, “What is love?” is asked, the answers take on many forms. Love is a word used frequently, much of the time overused and misused in ways that make it casual and lose its meaning. However, there are some very famous quotes about love bringing the word back up to a level of powerful importance once again.
” I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” ~ Mother Teresa
“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” ~Martin Luther King Jr.
“We shall not long have love to man if we do not first and chiefly cultivate love to God.” ~ Charles Spurgeon
Entertainers like to chime in on “love” as well. Here are a couple…
“You always gain, by giving love.” ~ Reese Witherspoon
“It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.” Agatha Christie
TRUE LOVE is more than a feeling! Love is more than an action! AND true love is not up for interpretation!
The real and full truth about love comes from knowing and experiencing that God Is Love! (1 John 4:8 and 1 John 4:16)
The question about love should not be, “What is love?”. The correct question about love is, “WHO IS LOVE?”.
“Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” 1 John 4:8
“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” 1 John 4:16
HOW CAN WE TAKE PART IN THIS TRUE LOVE? Abide in God and let Him abide in you. Ask Jesus to be your Lord and Savior and to live in your heart!
HOW CAN WE LOVE, AND THEN IN TURN LOVE OTHERS? Because He first loved us! (1 John 4:19)
HOW MUCH DOES GOD LOVE US? He loves us so much that He gave His Only Son for us!!
“For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
HOW DO WE SHOW THIS LOVE?
“This is the most important,” Jesus answered: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31
WHAT DOES LOVE LOOK LIKE WHEN WE LIVE IT OUT ACCORDING TO GOD’S PLAN?
“Love is patient, love is kind.
Love does not envy,
is not boastful, is not conceited,
does not act improperly,
is not selfish, is not provoked,
and does not keep a record of wrongs.
Love finds no joy in unrighteousness
but rejoices in the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things,
hopes all things, endures all things.” I Corinthians 13:4-7
“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13
Valentine’s Day is upon us. It is a manmade day to celebrate love, particularly a romantic love. However, whether romantically involved or not, people have found fun ways to celebrate Valentine’s Day. Having been a teacher for 28 years, this day meant Valentine’s Day parties where the kids exchanged cards, and I received a lot of gestures of love!
How amazing it is that no matter the day, we can always experience a True Love that is more powerful than we can comprehend, never failing, and never ending! If you are a Christ-follower, than you have this Valentine from God:
“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39
When we are a Christ-follower, we can claim on Valentine’s Day and everyday and into eternity that, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” (Song of Solomon 2:16).
In 1 John 4:19 we learn that “We love because He first loved us.” Thanks to God’s goodness, I have had the opportunity to show love and receive love in many ways during my life. I hope you have too. I put together a little photo gallery with captions that exemplify expressions of love that I have been blessed by God to experience or take part in throughout my life. There have been mountains and valleys, but God’s love for me and the way He also demonstrates His love through others in my life has been the prevailing force that spurs me on!
May you experience the fullness of God’s love today and everyday, and like me, reflect on how His love has touched your life!
