Every February, love takes center stage. We celebrate romance, relationships, emotional connection, and so much more. February is an entire month created to all things love! As we know, love can represent a lot of things to a lot of different people. In fact, we know that the Greeks have at least 5 different words to describe the different types of love. So, when someone says, “I love chocolate” and “I love my baby”, each love carries an entirely different meaning with an affection for both.
The ultimate love is the love of God. Once we have experienced His love, everything else pales in comparison. We only understand the love of God based upon our own limited experiences. We have no idea how much we are supernaturally loved. When we achieve an understanding of the love of God, there is always a new depth and another level yet to experience. God’s love is the highest form of love. It is the most selfless, enduring, and benevolent type of love. God’s love reaches us at our worst, not our best. His love does not wait for us to clean ourselves up or prove our worth. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. (Romans 5:8). God’s love is not fragile or conditional. His love always remains constant. When you know this love, you find a security that nothing in the world can offer.
The wonderful experience of God’s love causes us to reshape our desires. The things we once chased – approval, success, control, recognition – lose their grip on. Us. They are no longer the source of our identity or worth. In the light of God’s love, they are revealed as temporary and insufficient.
God’s love also heals what nothing else can touch. It reaches into places of shame, fear, and regret. God’s love offers restoration. It not only covers our pain, but it transforms us. As we celebrate love this month, live in the awareness of God’s love – allow yourself to be anchored in the truth, free some striving. God’s love will never let us go.
1 John 4:10-12 (NIV)
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”
Happy LOVE month!
—Rhonda Smart, rhondalsmart@gmail.com
