Love...

With Valentines' Day being tomorrow... I'm sure we are all quite familiar with the "love" themed store displays, television ads, and magazine articles... but I'd like to refocus your attention- from the marketed "love" and "true love" definitions.. to God's definition... and his steadfast love towards us.

A lot of candy hearts have very superficial messages on them, such as these:
"MY BABY"
"WHATEVER"
"LET"S KISS"....
..... these don't really have anything to do with true love... What does? Let's see a couple of examples of true love, as God describes it...

1 Corinthians 13
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

So... we see that love is forever, and is greater than all knowlege, powers and understanding... It is patient kind, not envious, arrogant, or rude... it's selfless, not resentful, rejoices in truth and not wrongdoing, and believes, hopes, bears, and endures all things.

We can see some of God's love for us, displayed in the Psalms...

Psalms 36:5-10

Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
Your righteousness is like the mountains of God;
your judgments are like the great deep;
man and beast you save, O LORD.
How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light do we see light.
Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you,
and your righteousness to the upright of heart!

Here, the psalmist is declaring God's great love, and how vast it is... how often do we think of love like this?

Psalm 63:1-8

O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food,
and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips,
when I remember you upon my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.

Here, the psalmist, (David,) proclaims how precious God's love is... This psalm just makes me think about how we should be longing for God, desiring him, and delighting in His love. Rather than looking at PEOPLE that we love and focusing on THEM to bring us happiness... we should be seeking earnestly after God, and he should have the place of honor in our hearts and minds, to the extent that what we seek more than anything is His happiness with what we do, and that we desire to delight in Him, rather than in the things or people of this world.

Psalm 139:17-18
How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.

Look at how God thinks of you and I... "More in number than the sand"... God doesn't just think about us in a fleeting manner, the way we may be guilty of thinking of Him... (which is incredibly terrible, considering how much the Creator of the entire universe thinks and cares about us- a minute speck in the expanse of all of His creation)... but thinks of us in vast numbers of thoughts.. He knows and cares about everything that has happened, is happening now, and will ever happen to us in the future... and He longs to give us His best... and loved us so much that He gave us his BEST- His gift to us, of His Son on the cross, to take away our sin.. Think about it... would you want to give someone responsible for your Son's death a free ticket to spend eternity with you? .. Our God did. And He's amazing... and He provides for us... giving us far above all that we ask or think.... :)

Just some thoughts for you... :)