Happy Valentine’s Day! This day reminds me of the fun Valentine’s parties we had in school. I always loved picking out Valentines and filling them out for my friends. It has been fun watching on Facebook all the creative Valentine’s boxes families are making together. Remember when we just decorated an old Kleenex box?
Eventually, Valentine’s Day became less about candy, cards & class parties and more about the celebration of my love for Scott. I am so blessed to have him in my life! He is so generous and wonderful. I hope and pray He is as blessed by my love for him as I am blessed by his love for me.
This morning my mind also goes to my love relationship with God. Once again, He was readily available to spend time with me this morning. I woke up with a love song on my mind and I’ve been singing it since.
Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made; were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade. To write the love of God above, would drain the ocean dry; nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. Oh, love of God, how rich and pure! How measureless and strong! It shall forevermore endure – the saints’ and angels’ song. [The Love of God by Fredrick Lehman, 1917]
God’s love does not disappoint. He is so incredible! But what about my side of the love relationship? How am I doing? I remember back to a book I read three years ago and would like to share a portion of what Francis Chan had to say in Crazy Love.
Most Christians have been taught in church or by their parents to set aside a daily time for prayer and Scripture reading. It’s what we are supposed to do, and so for a long time it’s what I valiantly attempted. When I didn’t, I felt guilty.
Over time I realized that when we love God, we naturally run to Him – frequently and zealously. Jesus didn’t command that we have a regular time with Him each day. Rather, He tells us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” He called this the “first and greatest commandment” (Matt 22:37-38). The results are intimate prayer and study of His Word. Our motivation changes from guilt to love.
This is how God longs for us to respond to His extravagant, unending love: not with a cursory “quiet time” plagued by guilt, but with true love expressed through our lives…Fear is no longer the word I use to describe how I feel about God. Now I use words like reverent intimacy…
The irony is that while God doesn’t need us but still wants us, we desperately need God but don’t really want Him most of the time. He treasures us and anticipates our departure from this earth to be with Him – and we wonder, indifferently, how much we have to do for Him to get by. [Crazy Love, Francis Chan]
Jesus, may my quiet time with you never be something to check off my to do list but rather something I desire more than anything else, something I need more than my next breath. Forgive me for the many times I have been “too busy” to spend time alone with you. Forgive me for the times when my time with you is spent rushing through my devotions instead of quietly listening to your Spirit. Lord, I want to be crazy in love with you – wholeheartedly surrendered, genuinely intimate with You – actively running toward Christ, having the kind of faith that others see as crazy.
I want to be SO crazy in love with Jesus that I do whatever it takes to draw close enough to Him to respond to His every request, His every command, His every nudge. I want to express His love to others as if every day was Valentine’s Day.
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. – 1 John 3:16-20
For God so loved the world that he gave… – John 3:16a