Sacred Holidays: A Devotional Leading Up To Valentine's DaySample

DAY TWO: 

Over the next few days we will study all the things love is (we will skip over the things love is not for now). Remember, as you are studying this passage, that we aren’t reading this with hope to find true love on earth. Most of us have lived enough life to know that we will find love on earth, but perfect and true love from another human doesn’t exist (not in its purest form according to 1 Corinthians 13). However, our Father has always been perfect and true in His love towards us. 

One of the reasons so many of us have struggled in our pursuit to find love on earth is because we never knew it from the beginning. Call it Daddy Issues, Mommy Issues, Parent Issues, or whatever fits your story, but the people who were meant to love us well as children were imperfect at that attempt and wounds, even by the very best parents, were inflicted. 

These wounds affect our openness to God’s love. 

Read Ephesians 4:6 and note what God is called and His presence in that role. 

God is called our Father. He is referenced as this title hundreds of times in the Bible. We read here in Ephesians that He is over, through, and in all of us, which includes you. God’s fatherhood is over you—always protecting, watching over, and adoring. God’s fatherhood runs through you, like the DNA running through your blood. God’s love is in you, the two of you cannot be separated—you are family. 

Family. That can be the hardest part for many of us when it comes to true love, and especially seeing God as a true love, because we have been hurt by family. We have learned from experience that true love is hard to come by in human form. 

But your God is not like your family. Even if you come from the best of families, His love is better! And if you come from a family where Daddy wasn’t emotionally or physically present, God is not like him, either. Or maybe the arms that should’ve rubbed your back and twirled you around, instead did despicable things. I’m so sorry if this is you. So very sorry. But God is not like that. Never has been. 

Before we wrap up with today's attributes, confess your feelings to God as being your Father. If you have “Daddy Issues,” tell Him about that and ask Him to help you trust Him. 

Let’s transition and look at the first thing we learn about our Daddy, Father God. 

Read the first definition of love in 1 Corinthians 13:1a. 

Your Father is patient with you. He isn’t rushing you. He isn’t rolling His eyes at you. He is being patient. He is relentlessly patient with you, even though He has every right not to be.  

I have three little girls—ages 3, 5, and 7—and patience is just not something I’m awesome at. I used to think I was cool, calm, and collected. Few things could rattle me. I could take just about anything in stride. And then I had to get everyone’s shoes on while running late in the morning. What should just be a thing people do naturally, somehow becomes an all-out war in the mornings.  My sweet sing-songy words, “Girls, let’s go!” (which should naturally mean, come to the door with a smile and shoes on, ready to go) quickly turns into, “GIIIRRRLLLSS!!! WHERE ARE YOU? I SAID, IT. IS. TIME. TO. GO. NOOOOOOWWWW!!! WHY DO YOU STILL NOT HAVE SHOES ON??!!!!!!” 

Man’s patience is limited. God’s is not. He is patient with us. We see examples of this time and again throughout Scripture. 

Ask God to remind you of a few Bible passages you’ve read where He showed how patient He can be. What do you learn from those real accounts of God’s patience? 

Now, wrap up today and think of the last time, or the last few times, God was patient with you. Thank Him for His patience today. If there is something you feel like you’ve been dragging your feet on, or you know you need to do something about, ask God to help you and make a step towards that today. God is patient with us, but let’s not treat His patience lightly.