Those of you in my age group remember the days of taking a shoe box to school, covering it with construction paper, cutting out hearts and pasting them to the box and then, fingers crossed, hoping that your classmates would put nice Valentines in it.
For the past number of years, I feel like I have done that in the month of February. I’ve shared Valentines from God’s word to brighten your day. So here we go again.
“ I pray that Christ will live in your hearts because of your faith. I pray that your life will be strong in love and be built on love. 18 And I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide, how long, how high, and how deep that love is. 19 Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with everything God has for you.” Ephesians 3:17-19 ERV
Our hearts, our lives, will be strong when we are filled with an understanding of God’s deep and amazing love.
The Apostle Paul, who wrote this letter to the Ephesian Christians, understood the depth of God’s love.
He had been a zealot. Arresting, persecuting and even responsible for the deaths of many Christians in the early days of the church. He thought the message of Christ, being the Son of God and raising from the dead was heresy and it needed to be stopped.
Then one day, with arrest warrants in his pocket, he had an encounter with the Lord. God spoke to him in a bright light from heaven.
“ So Saul went to Damascus. When he came near the city, a very bright light from heaven suddenly shined around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting me?”
5 Saul said, “Who are you, Lord?”
The voice answered, “I am Jesus, the one you are persecuting. 6 Get up now and go into the city. Someone there will tell you what you must do.” Acts 9:3-6 ERV
In that one moment, Paul (formerly known as Saul), was changed. He went into the town and a godly man cared for him and taught him about Christ. God used him to be a missionary to the Gentile nations.
He spent the rest of his life traveling all across the Mediterranean preaching the gospel, telling of the risen Savior and the love that God has for everyone.
In these verses he says that he wants us to understand the depth of the love of God but then he goes on to say its greater than anyone can know but still he wants us to know it.
Seems like a contradiction but what I think he’s saying is that we are to be focused on the loving and forgiving nature of God and when we think we fully understand the amazing depth, length, height and width of God’s love for us we will realize that we are just beginning to comprehend it. It is so much greater; we will spend the rest of our lives going deeper and deeper into the love of God.
“ Yes, I am sure that nothing can separate us from God’s love—not death, life, angels, or ruling spirits. I am sure that nothing now, nothing in the future, no powers, nothing above us or nothing below us—nothing in the whole created world—will ever be able to separate us from the love God has shown us in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39 ERV
Join me in this annual February tradition of exploring the depths of God’s love. He alone will fill that Valentine box to full and overflowing!
