Love

All of this? We (well, at least I) spend so much time waiting and stressing and thinking and thinking and thinking. But all of this is worthless. Jesus has a plan for it all. My life is to serve Him, to tell of this hope that I have found, to worship with my all because anything else I could do would be worthless. He is my Creator, my Redeemer, my Savior, my BEST friend. He is my all and He is all that matters. Hope, faith, love, peace and perseverance cannot come from anywhere else but in Him. He is the Creator of them all. So all this stress, thinking and planning and trying-to-distract-myself-so-I'll-forget is the flesh screaming out to me to take my eyes off of Him. It's goal is to keep me far away and convince myself that I know what's best and I can make it without Him. But that is just a big fat hairy lie that doesn't belong in the mind and heart of God's children, it doesn't belong to me. Love, faith, hope, peace, grace, mercy, and perseverance belong to me.
Not because I deserve it, but because Jesus paid the price, He made a way. It is by HIS grace that covers me that those are mine and for me to cling to and take hold of. HE is mine to cling to in ALL times of life because HE loved me, because He has plans for those He calls His own; plans to prosper and to give a hope and a future. HE made a way so that we can share His love and grace with others too.

Today we celebrate Valentine's Day, but how many people that celebrate it actually know the true, free PUREST of pure love that is given them?

There is a Savior who made us all just for His own pleasure so that we could constantly bring Him praise, but we failed Him from the beginning and have been failing Him all the time since. But because of LOVE, He came and was slaughtered on our behalf. He took our place so that we could have life-everlasting, a perfect life (that is yet to come) of worshipping Him all the time. He did it because of LOVE and not only does He give us life eternal, but He promises to walk with us through the steps of life. He carries us and gives us strength that is found nowhere but in Him because of LOVE. He guides, He speaks, He gives peace, He calms the storms, moves the mountains, and He breathes life into these dry bones of ours. And when we fall and mess up, He's there to pick us up again and dust us off because of LOVE. He gave the ULTIMATE gift, He made the ULTIMATE sacrifice for us because of LOVE.
So there is hope, there is love, there is a purpose for this life; to get to know Him by spending time with Him, waking up in the morning and being so excited and not being able to wait to hear from Him, to meet with Him, to fall in love with Him and to commit to Him for all the days of the rest of our lives through sickness and in health, through the good and the bad. There is a love that grows more everyday, that doesn't burn up or fizzle out. And that is the love of Jesus Christ.

How could there ever be a better valentine than that?