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

DAY THREE: 

Today we are going to look at two more attributes of God’s love for us. Remember, He is your good Father, and His love is unlike anything you’ve experienced. We have to fight hard to remove our human experiences of love from tainting how we perceive and experience the love of our Father God. 

Begin by reading 1 Corinthians 13:4 and note the second attribute of God’s love. 

First we learned that God love shows itself by him being patient with us. But second, we learn that God shows us his love by being kind. 

Whether I’m speaking in women’s prisons, churches all over America, or in the slums of Africa One of the questions I get asked most is “If God is good, then why X?” 

My heart always sinks when I hear this question. Not because I think God is unkind, or not good to His people. But because I hate that life has hard things in it for so many people. The older I get, the more I see the meaning in the trials, and also the more I throw my hands up too and ask God why He would allow X. 

The truth is I don’t know. None of us really do. We can plaster motivational things on coffee mugs all day long, but the truth is we don’t know why God allows all the hard. He’s God. We are man. We know he works even the bad things for our good, and that is a place of hope we can run to during dark times. But still, suffering is hard. There’s no getting around that.

But the hard things don’t change the fact that God is kind. And He wanted us to know that. True love is always kind. His love towards us is always kind. 

Reflect for a moment and recall times when God’s love for you was obviously kind. Thank Him for those times. 

Now reflect for a moment on times when you haven’t understand how a certain situation was God being kind to you. Ask Him to show you His kindness even in the pain. 

Next we are going to skip a few verses because, for now, we are focusing on the definitions of what love is instead of what it is not. 

Read the second part of 1 Corinthians 13:6 and note what God’s love celebrates. 

Love celebrates what is true. 

Our world is full of facades. We’ve erect these images and stories of our lives that we want to be true, so we put them up for all to see. Many families, and even many churches, have an exterior pose, while on the inside, they are crumbling. 

When the façade fades, we don’t know what to trust any longer. Which is why God says that love celebrates what is true. That’s it. We focus on what is real and true and nothing else. And we celebrate that truth like crazy.

My husband and I were struggling in our marriage for years, and the biggest game change for us was when we started putting post-its on the mirror for one another each day. We choose one thing we really love about that person or saw them do the day before, and we celebrate it. This one act of rejoicing in what is true helps all the things that were accidents or mistakes fade away. The facade crumbles, and truth is lifted up. 

What are some truths in your life that you can celebrate today? Pause and do just that!