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“For God so loved the world that he gave...” John 3:16

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. 1 John 3:16

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:18

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world... 1 John 4:9-10

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us... 1 John 4:9

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. Galatians 5:6

    Love is an emotion. No doubt about that. That’s part of love’s power. It can leap over our thoughts and capture our hearts. The exhilaration that comes with being swept up in the rip tide of emotions is wonderfully terrifying!

    On the other hand, love runs deeper than mere emotions. Its current cuts deeply into our thoughts and captures our imagination. When love ebbs, eddies, or hides, we deeply yearn for that feeling of being in love.

    Love is bigger than emotions, thoughts, attitudes, and experiences. Love is a verb. The guts and grit of love are centered in our actions and deeds. We should not separate our understanding of love from the actions that must accompany it. Love is seen, demonstrated and expressed by what we do.

Love is bigger than emotions, thoughts, attitudes, and experiences.

    We routinely get swept up in the implicit demands of the holidays that dictate our formal expressions of love. That’s convenient and channels our love into appropriate and recognizable times and seasons. It may even be helpful to kick start our love out of lethargy. However, real love, the genuine and lasting love God calls us to share, knows no boundaries, dates or seasons. Sure, he wants the fire to be there in our love. He also wants the practical, compassionate, encouraging displays of love to be part of our everyday routine and not just saved for Hallmark captured moments or florist instigated holidays.

    Love is from God. It is the environment in which he lives and is the blessing he graciously shares. (See 1 John 4!) Incredibly, the Bible rarely if ever simply says that God loves us. Instead, it tells us that God showed us his love by giving, doing, sacrificing, and forgiving.

    In God’s world, love is no mere state of being. It is not simply a fleeting emotion based upon our performance or response to him. Instead, it is a consistent set of gracious actions designed to show us his love and leave us touched with his redemptive grace.

    So as we get swept up on both the seriousness and silliness of Valentine’s Day fever, let’s hear the call of God to do more than buy an overpriced card, snag a bouquet of flowers, or box of chocolates. Let’s make a commitment to make our love real with some very intentionally planned loving actions. In other words, pick up that PIM or daily planner and space out some very specific things to do between now and next February 14. Love is a verb, so let’s get busy doing and not just talking, thinking, and feeling.