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

DAY FOUR: 

Today we are going to talk about all the things. That phrase is one of my favorite phrases when I need to be dramatic. I frequent hashtag it, along with #AllTheFeels because I am nothing if not dramatic in my expressions. But God’s love isn’t dramatic is all. We can rarely use extreme works like always, never, all or none, but God totally can. 

Read 1 Corinthians 13:7, and note everything God’s love does.  

God’s love bears all things. 

There is nothing, absolutely nothing that will knock down your Father’s love. It can hold and handle anything. He is both a vault to hide in and a fortress to hold back anything that would attack his love for you. If you are afraid to come to God with something because you just aren’t sure He can bear it, know He can. Others might not have been able to handle your past, your struggles, or your issues, but your Father can handle those things. Let Him. 

God’s love believes all things.

I’ve never understood this more than I do as a parent. Before that, believing was the hardest thing to do when it comes to love. I have spent many hours on a counselors couch working through my trust issues. But God’s love is like that of a true Father—He simply believes in it, He believes in you. I look at my girls and I could just burst I love them so much. Even when they do bad things, I can’t help but to believe they want to live differently and I fight hard to help them come back. I believe in their potential and all they could do with the love they have in their heart, and it has nothing to do with accolades or potential status they might achieve—I simply believe in them because I love them. The same goes for God and you. 

Read Matthew 7:11 and note the difference between an early father’s love and God’s. 

So if I can love my girls that much, and if you can love the people in your life as much as you do, how much more does the Father love you? 

God’s love hopes all things.

Hope is a deep desire for something that is coupled with an expectation that it will come about. God’s love deeply desires and expects all things to come about. This is not to say that just because you want a yacht, it will magically materialize. When it comes to hoping with an expectation for that hope to come true, our hopes must be in line with God’s ways and desires.  

Ask God to refine your hopes and align them with His. Thank Him for hoping those things too! 

God’s love endures all things. 

This is one of my very favorite things about God—He never gives up. Just as we started today with knowing that God bears all things, His love also endures all things. 

I’m not a sports girl, but I can’t shake this analogy: Bearing to me looks a lot like those huge football players on the front line. They stand as a united front, keeping the players behind them safe, holding back their opponents from getting through. Enduring is when you see that massive line of men pushing through—that’s endurance. No matter the obstacle or the opponent, they keep on. 

Reflect for a moment and think of when God’s love has endured like that for you. Thank Him for that! 

This is your God’s true love for you—He “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” 

Tomorrow we will find out if this true love has a “happily ever after” as well.