Be My Valentine
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!! I hope your holiday was wonderful! Today I want to talk about love. True love. Love so intimate and so beautiful, that there's nothing you can do but cherish the love you share with the one you share it with. What is love? Love is wonderful. Love is amazing. Love is patient. Love is kind (1 Cor. 13:4). True love brings people closer to each other in a wonderful way. True love requires self-sacrifice. True love is not all romance and wonderful feelings. True love requires self-denial. True love links a heart to another. Love is not a feeling. Our world has defined love as a feeling. Google defines love as, "An intense feeling of deep affection." And also, to "feel a deep romantic or sexual attachment to (someone)." At first I might read that and think, "Well yeah, that describes love pretty good." But when I think about love in a deeper way and from a godly perspective, I do not think that love can or should be defined as a wonderful feeling. Because after all, I love my family even though I don't always feel like I love them or that they love me. I know I do love them and that they love me but I don't constantly FEEL their love pouring into my heart and they don't feel my love in them all the time either. Jesus says in Matthew 5:46 that "If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much." Now here's a Man who knows what love is! We can love people who don't love us back. We don't have to feel love for them (it is very hard to feel love for someone who doesn't love you back). Love is many things but most importantly, God is love! God is perfect. So God and only God can show what perfect love is.
Anyway, I hope that you are not stuffing your face with ice cream and cuddling with your pillows today because you are depressed about your love life. I hope that today has been a day filled with love spent with family and friends! A lot of people think of Valentine's Day as a day that MUST be spent with their boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse. And many sit around depressed if they don't currently have "someone." But really, the day celebrates all love. Not just the love between two love birds, even though that kind of love is very special. Right now, I am in a season of waiting. Waiting for God to bring me the one He has had in mind for me since day 1. I do not want to date unless it is with a purpose of marriage and I definitely don't want to get married now at 17! But I am not waiting in discontentment. I am not praying for Him to bring me the one right now, hoping that a special someone will show up at my doorstep. I am praying that He will prepare me now for the mate I'll need to be. I am praying that when He says it's time for me to awake, that I will be ready. I am praying that He will help me be faithful until that time comes and that He will also help me be faithful to my spouse all throughout life. I know today is very difficult for some people because this day reminds them of their relationship status now and/or in the past. But I want to encourage you! Not only that, I want to tell you about my True Love, my ultimate Valentine.
"God is love and all who live in God live in love, and God lives in them. And as we live in love, our love grows more perfect." 1 John 4:16b. God sent His Son, Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Jesus stood in our place and took upon death on a cross so we could be saved. Heaven is ours to live in eternally if we choose to believe in Him and follow Him. God loves us. My love for Jesus has grown more and more over the years. I know He loves me, and I love Him. There is no one I want to love more. I want to come so much closer to Him and be intimate with Him. I want to be so content in who He is and who I am in Christ that I am not starving myself for attention from peers, family, or boys. I want to be so content in Jesus that I never will love anyone more than I love Him. God is amazing! God is holy and worthy to be praised (Psalms 96:4). He is the Lord, our Maker, and our God (Psalms 95:6). He is worthy to be feared (Psalms 96:4). He is full of holy splendor (Psalms 96:9). He is our friend (John 15:15). He is good (Psalms 118:1). He is King (Psalms 99:1). He is humble (Philippians 2:6-11). He is trustworthy (John 14:1). He is the Rock of our salvation (Psalms 95:1). He practices love and justice (Psalms 101:1). He is gracious (Psalms 145:8), (John 3:16), + (1 John 4:9). He is compassionate (Psalms 145:8). He has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west (Psalms 103:12). He performs many wonders for us, His plans are to numerous for us to list (Psalms 40:5). God is all of this and so much more!! He is truly amazing. I want to choose to treat Jesus as my Valentine from now until eternity. When we ask Jesus into our hearts, He replies, "Yes, with all that I am," to the question we are asking Him: "Will You be my valentine for forever?" He loves us SO much that in Romans 8, Paul says "not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love."
I hope this encourages you to trust God with your love life and to spend your time praising and falling in love with the One who is perfect, the One who is absolutely amazing, and the One who is the perfect picture of love.
Quotes:
"Walk closely with the Lord and He will let the perfect one step in." -Adam Cappa
"Don't mistake wanting to be married with ready to be married." -Adam Cappa
"Think about it. A woman who has truly denied herself, taken up her cross, and become entirely consumed with Jesus Christ is not going to be an insecure young woman, starving herself and obsessed with making herself look more attractive. Rather she's so enraptured with Jesus Christ that she has completely lost sight of herself." -Leslie Ludy
Verses:
"Do not awaken love before it's time." Songs of Solomon 8:4
Above all guard your heart, it is where your life comes from." Proverbs 4:23
Pictures:
Anyway, I hope that you are not stuffing your face with ice cream and cuddling with your pillows today because you are depressed about your love life. I hope that today has been a day filled with love spent with family and friends! A lot of people think of Valentine's Day as a day that MUST be spent with their boyfriend, girlfriend, or spouse. And many sit around depressed if they don't currently have "someone." But really, the day celebrates all love. Not just the love between two love birds, even though that kind of love is very special. Right now, I am in a season of waiting. Waiting for God to bring me the one He has had in mind for me since day 1. I do not want to date unless it is with a purpose of marriage and I definitely don't want to get married now at 17! But I am not waiting in discontentment. I am not praying for Him to bring me the one right now, hoping that a special someone will show up at my doorstep. I am praying that He will prepare me now for the mate I'll need to be. I am praying that when He says it's time for me to awake, that I will be ready. I am praying that He will help me be faithful until that time comes and that He will also help me be faithful to my spouse all throughout life. I know today is very difficult for some people because this day reminds them of their relationship status now and/or in the past. But I want to encourage you! Not only that, I want to tell you about my True Love, my ultimate Valentine.
"God is love and all who live in God live in love, and God lives in them. And as we live in love, our love grows more perfect." 1 John 4:16b. God sent His Son, Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Jesus stood in our place and took upon death on a cross so we could be saved. Heaven is ours to live in eternally if we choose to believe in Him and follow Him. God loves us. My love for Jesus has grown more and more over the years. I know He loves me, and I love Him. There is no one I want to love more. I want to come so much closer to Him and be intimate with Him. I want to be so content in who He is and who I am in Christ that I am not starving myself for attention from peers, family, or boys. I want to be so content in Jesus that I never will love anyone more than I love Him. God is amazing! God is holy and worthy to be praised (Psalms 96:4). He is the Lord, our Maker, and our God (Psalms 95:6). He is worthy to be feared (Psalms 96:4). He is full of holy splendor (Psalms 96:9). He is our friend (John 15:15). He is good (Psalms 118:1). He is King (Psalms 99:1). He is humble (Philippians 2:6-11). He is trustworthy (John 14:1). He is the Rock of our salvation (Psalms 95:1). He practices love and justice (Psalms 101:1). He is gracious (Psalms 145:8), (John 3:16), + (1 John 4:9). He is compassionate (Psalms 145:8). He has removed our sins as far as the east is from the west (Psalms 103:12). He performs many wonders for us, His plans are to numerous for us to list (Psalms 40:5). God is all of this and so much more!! He is truly amazing. I want to choose to treat Jesus as my Valentine from now until eternity. When we ask Jesus into our hearts, He replies, "Yes, with all that I am," to the question we are asking Him: "Will You be my valentine for forever?" He loves us SO much that in Romans 8, Paul says "not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love."
I hope this encourages you to trust God with your love life and to spend your time praising and falling in love with the One who is perfect, the One who is absolutely amazing, and the One who is the perfect picture of love.
Quotes:
"Walk closely with the Lord and He will let the perfect one step in." -Adam Cappa
"Don't mistake wanting to be married with ready to be married." -Adam Cappa
"Think about it. A woman who has truly denied herself, taken up her cross, and become entirely consumed with Jesus Christ is not going to be an insecure young woman, starving herself and obsessed with making herself look more attractive. Rather she's so enraptured with Jesus Christ that she has completely lost sight of herself." -Leslie Ludy
Verses:
"Do not awaken love before it's time." Songs of Solomon 8:4
Above all guard your heart, it is where your life comes from." Proverbs 4:23
Pictures:
My heart, a rose, saved just for you, only you.
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!
~Ash
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