Valentine’s Day
As Valentine’s Day is here it can fill us with joy as we spend time with that special someone. It can bring anxieties as we look for that right gift for that special someone. It can also bring depression and loneliness as we think to our failed relationships or maybe longing to find our own Valentine. Wherever you are at and however you are feeling about this Valentine’s Day I want you to know that you are God’s Valentine and He wants you to be His as well. We will be looking at Zephaniah 3:17 to show that this is true.
“The Lord your God is in your midst”.
If you ever feel like you are completely alone and that no one would care if you are gone or not, I want to tell you that that is just not true, because God does care. God is in your presence. He is right beside you and if you are a believer, than He is inside of you. This is the best news ever! For you see, the God of the universe knows you, loves you, and is always with you. You are never alone. Psalm 139 speaks beautifully regarding this. I would encourage you to read Psalm 139. We cannot escape God. No matter what you may have done or how many hearts you may have broken, God knows it all and loves you despite it all. He is still in your presence, and He wants you and us to be in His presence. His invitation is this, “Come, all who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy, and eat! Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” Isaiah 55:1. The Lord wants you to come. You don’t need to bring anything with you. You really couldn’t even if you could. He is the one who supplies everything and He doesn’t need anything from us. This Valentine’s Day the Lord is inviting you to come into His presence. He wants you to be His Valentine. Will you come to the Lord and accept His invitation?
“A mighty one who will save”
The Lord truly is a mighty one who does save! I like the translation that the NIV uses the best. The NIV says, “A mighty warrior”. God is truly a mighty warrior who does save those who come to Him. We can feel at times that no one has our backs. That no one is on our side fighting for us or with us. I know I have felt this way many times. That it is all up to me. This, however, is not true at all. We must remember that our greatest enemy isn’t an enemy that we can see. No, our greatest enemy is Satan, the world, and our own flesh. Paul says in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” Our own hearts and feelings are against us. When we say that we feel abandoned, forgotten, unloved, or that no one knows what I am going through or how I feel, well those are all lies. We are deceiving ourselves. For you see the Lord, the Mighty Warrior, is on your side, He has not forgotten you, left you, and He knows exactly what you have been through, who has wronged you, and knows exactly how you feel. He loves you more than you could ever imagine.
The Lord is truly a Mighty Warrior who has saved us through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and oly Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” John 3:16–18. We have a savior that wants us all to be saved by believing in Him and trusting in Him and loving Him as He has loved us. He did not come here to condemn us, but rather to give us life. God is not only with us, but He is a mighty warrior and savior. He has already defeated Satan and death in His resurrection.
This Valentine’s Day the Lord wants you to know that He came to save you. This is a question from Jesus to you and us all, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:25–26.
“He will take great delight in you”
This Valentine’s Day maybe you are feeling like a failure. That nothing you do is ever good enough. Maybe you feel like others are failing you. That you are the one that gives everything and nobody notices or cares. Well, the Lord wants you to know that He takes great delight in you. No matter what you have done, if you confessed your sin and repented then He forgives you and has made you clean once again. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9. Even if others do not delight in you, God takes delight in you. Not just some delight, but He takes great delight in you. He loves you. He loves spending time with you. He wants you to spend time with Him as well.
Before the fall He would walk with Adam and Eve in the garden. They had a very close relationship, but since sin entered in that relationship was severed and God no longer took walks with them as He once had. God still desires to walk with us like that. He took great delight in walking with Adam and Eve. So much so that He did walk with His people once again. This is why God came down to us in human form. He became one of us, born under the law as we were, so that He could walk with us as He walked with Adam and Eve. Only this time it was so He could fulfill the law and take the curse of the law upon Himself in our place. This was His great rescue plan. God takes such great delight in us that He left His heavenly throne, was born as a man, took on all our weaknesses, was crucified on a cross naked for our sins. He was separated from God the Father because of the penalty for our sins. All because He took great delight in you and me. He didn’t have to do any of it. It wasn’t for His benefit. It was all for us!
This Valentine’s Day God wants you to know that you are so very special and precious to Him. He loves you more than you could ever know. He gave Himself up for you. Who else would do what He did for you? He wants us to do the same for Him. Not to physically go through what He did, but to put our own desires aside and put His desires first. He wants us to fully love Him as He fully loves us, not that we can love Him as He loves us for He alone is perfect, but we can submit our lives to Him and obey His commandments which are to love Him with all our heart, mind, and soul and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. We are to put God first, other second, and ourselves last. Will you take great delight in God as He takes great delight in you this Valentine’s Day?
“He will quiet you by His love”
Are you feeling anxious, worried, or just plain weary? This Valentine’s Day the Lord wants to give you peace and to give you rest. He wants to put you at ease. This is what Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Matthew 11:28–29. Jesus guarantees us that if we will just come to Him He will give us rest. He promises it! This rest that Jesus promises is beyond all comprehension. We can rest in Him. He is the great comforter of our souls. Even if we are in the midst of a great storm, we can have peace. Maybe you are in a very turbulent storm right now and the waves are crashing upon your boat. Maybe your boat is rocking from side to side and the water is crashing inside of your boat. You feel completely at the mercy of the ocean. You feel powerless and hopeless of ever surviving this great storm. The storm could be a financial ruin where your house is about to go under along with everything you ever worked so hard to get. You are at the mercy of the bank and you feel that there is no hope. Maybe your marriage is the storm and your spouse wants out. You are now at the mercy of your beloved spouse. You are doing everything you can to hold onto the one thing that you just cannot lose.
Whatever storm you are facing, Jesus promises that He will go through the storm with you and will calm the storm that is raging around you. Jesus is your anchor. He has you and will not let you go. When Peter walked on the water towards Jesus Peter was walking on top of the storm. Peter was not bothered by the storm. Why? It was because Peter had his eyes on Jesus. It wasn’t until Peter looked around him at his surroundings that he then became afraid and started to sink. You can find this story in Matthew 14:22–32. In our storms of life we need to keep our eyes on Jesus Christ. He will give us the power to walk on top of our storms in life. This Valentine’s Day Jesus wants you to come to Him and find rest that only He can provide. Will you come to Jesus and put your trust in Him?
“He will exult over you with loud singing”
Do you like to be serenaded by someone? Would you like someone who will profess their love for you by singing to you in front of others? This Valentine’s Day the Lord wants you to know that He does sing to you in front of the whole heavenly host. He just doesn’t sing softly so only a few can hear either. No, He sings loudly so all of heaven knows who He is singing about. What an amazing thing! The creator of the whole universe sings over you! He serenades you!
Maybe there are some whom you would not rather be serenaded by because they are tone deaf or just don’t have a good voice. This is not so with the Lord. For you see, the Lord’s voice is the sweetest voice you could ever hear. The Lord has written you the most beautiful love song ever to be written. It isn’t just empty words either or with any other motives attached to His words. He means exactly what He sings. He loves you purely and fully. He laid His own life down for you. Who else has ever laid their life down fully for you? Jesus has and He claims you as His own. He wants you to be the only one who sings to you. Will you also sing to Him? He loves it when we sing praises to Him as well. We are to sing everyday to Him as He does to us.
Jesus wants to claim you this Valentine’s Day as His Valentine. Jesus invites us to come to Him. He promises that He will be with you, He will rescue you, He will love you and takes great delight in you, He promises to give you peace and rest, and He will rejoice and sing loudly to and for you. He wants you to know that He will be the best Valentine you ever had and ever will have. He is yours, not for a temporal time, but for all eternity. Many people say that they will love you forever and ever, but the truth is, they can’t. For even death will separate their love from you. Jesus, however, is the only one that can love you forever. For eternity! Will you love Him as well? Will you accept His invitation and be His Valentine?
