Valentine’s Day & Love

Ahhh, Valentine’s Day.

There are so many thoughts that I could share with you – especially because so much of our walk revolves around love – love for our spouse, love for each other, love for our neighbor, love for our enemies – what love looks like and how God defines it and commands it – there is a LOT I could write. In fact, I could probably post one entry a day for an entire year (or more) on love alone. (Don’t worry, I won’t).

But what I grasped today was that before ANY of that love can even begin to be addressed  we must first love God.

In the movie Fireproof there is a great scene – it is called “The Cross” http://youtu.be/GUNGW-KyKFk. (Side Note if you have not seen Fireproof – SEE IT. It is a great option for a Valentine’s Day/Night movie and not just for married couples – singles can get an important message from the movie too). Anyway – the particular scene I am thinking of begins at the 3:00 minute mark in the link above. And to paraphrase, it says this: we cannot love – truly love – anyone until we know God, who IS love. 

If we want to experience love, if we want to love others the way we ought to, the way God tells us  commands us to – then we need to KNOW HIM first and foremost. And I don’t mean check the box that says, “Yep I’m saved, I know Him.” I mean really KNOW Him, intimately – as in,  if He was a human you could know Him well enough to call Him your best friend.

Do you know Him that well? Did you? Have you grown apart? Perhaps fallen out-of-love with Him?

When I think of love – I think of 1 Corinthians 13 –  you know the one, it gets to the part that says “love is patient, love is kind…” love is a lot of the things that I am not. And because of that, these verses are also usually a point of much conviction.  When I read it I realize how short I fall in how I love – and as hard as I work at it – I know that I can’t and won’t get better at it without Jesus Christ. It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit within me that I have received by knowing Jesus Christ that I will ever be able to love the way He loves – which is what He calls me to do.

So this Valentine’s Day – there are a lot of thoughts I have about love – but they are all superfluous without the most important thought – which is of the love of Jesus Christ.

So today – I share that with you. And challenge us to use this Valentine’s Day as a reminder to remember who our first love is, and to actively love Him through our obedience and submissiveness which will ultimately manifest itself (at least in part) as love.